Im studying grade 5 theory at the moment but the problem is, i never used to do any theory in music lessons so there are things in grade 3 - 4 i dont know! I have recently bought grade 3 and 4 workbooks but they dont really go into enough detail about the things they are teaching you. My music teacher said he would go through anything i wasnt sure on but he thinks there are only a few things! Does anyone know of any websites that would help me work through the theory grades?

Rachael x

What i think you should do is ask your teacher to go through grades 3 and 4 before he does any more work with you for grade 5.

May even be worth your while to go from grade 1... you may find there are things in there which are worth making sure of.
I know that I found it useful, even though I really knew the theory quite well it is things like the official way to group notes, which way sticks go (and you can lose marks at higher grades for forgetting something that basic ) which are worth working through.
If you read the syllabus it does say that each grade is as for all previous grades PLUS....

check out www.musictheory.net its a good wee website

Buy the Associated Board Guide to Music Theory part 1.... it will tell you all you need to know... very dull to read, but the workbooks cross reference to it.
Good luck to everybody taking thier Grade 5 Theory tomorrow... including myself!!!

Lov Char xxx

good luck everyone- don't worry it's not that hard

QUOTE (charlottethemuppet @ Jun 11 2004, 05:25 PM)

Good luck to everybody taking thier Grade 5 Theory tomorrow... including myself!!!

meeeeeeee i just done it!!lol

Rach-just work through the grade 3 and 4 stuff and just make sure you know the meaning of words and that from grade 1 and 2, then move on to grade 5. make sure you understand grade 4 intervals before looking at the grade 5 ones! etc....

i dont think you need to do grades 1 and 2 in too much detail coz your doing gcse music and play instruments to a good standard so you should be ok!

i like theory so i did all of the books just for fun, and when i got stuck, i just went to my teacher and we did work on that bit for about an hour, and then i continued

QUOTE

i dont think you need to do grades 1 and 2 in too much detail coz your doing gcse music

Don't be too sure.... I have seen some GCSE composition... sticks wrong way, different number of beats in each bar...

Seems sometimes(not everywhere I know) they are getting people to do stuff for which they have not got the basic tools
I have seen people doing composition for instruments they know nothing about. Also (thanks to sibelius in school ) writing things they are not capable of writing. I mean someone who can't do very basic rhythm dictation (nothing shorter than a quaver and no dotted notes) writing very complicated rhythms

I would recommend you buy 'First Steps in Music Theory' Grades 1-5 by Eric Taylor. I just did my Grade 5 theory exam in March and got 91% and this book helped immensely. I did about one page of the Grade 1 workbook when I first started playing the flute, but then in around a year, I got a really good theory teacher and did an hour lesson a week and worked through the end of Grade 3 till 5 workbook. Try and get your hands on some practice papers to see what you need to learn. Good luck.

Is that the little red book?
If it is I think it doesn't quite cover the syllabus now.

QUOTE (charlottethemuppet @ Jun 11 2004, 05:25 PM)

Buy the Associated Board Guide to Music Theory part 1.... it will tell you all you need to know... very dull to read

I read the whole book before my grade 2 theory exam and I got 95%

Hi, don't worry about the theory because I only did grade 5 as well and passed with 95, even without my glasses which broke on the day!

To prepare, I was made to do practice papers that you can buy from music shops. But, I think your teacher should go through some of the earlier theory like rhythms and things like that.

Hope this helps

Hi,

I did Grades 1 - 4 between the ages of 12 and 15. After I left School and found a job I had to cancel my music lessons. 4 years ago I got in contact with my old Music Teacher (best thing I ever did) and we met up once more. I started to study Grade 5 Theory and I thought the leap between Grade 4 and 5 was quite big. Grade 5 is a great exam to do, I found it really enjoyable and rewarding. I found Grade 6 and 7 to be easier than Grade 5 though, don't know why perhaps i'm just weird!!

Keep Smiling and enjoy your music !

Cheers,
Craig

im suppose to do grade 5 theory next year.

but i only started theory at the end of May...

im doing grade 3 now

i hope i can get a good grade by the time i complete learning grade 5!