My Alto Saxophone Candidate who sat grade 3 a week past on saturday has just told me in her lesson that the examiner asked for the scales not by name but by asking "play me a a major scale with the key signature F#". This totally freaked her out as I always ask for them by title. Is this acceptable practise in the exam and has anyone else come across this?

I've not heard of that before but i don't think it's a bad idea as long as you know that it's a possibility.

That would have freaked me out as well. I have never had that in any of my exams.

I do ask students for scales like this sometime, mainly so that they understand which keys their pieces are in. I presumed that examiners would always ask for scales as they appear in the syallabus.

I would totaly fail most scales if I was asked by key signature! It would take me 10~20 seconds to get the key signarure of Ab major etc.

I don't think it's the standard way to ask for them in an exam, but it seems valid enough. It's fair to expect a candidate to be aware of their key signatures.

xxx

For a definitive answer phone or email. (then let us all know.... ).

I'll call the board tomorrow.

I too don't think its unreasonable for candidates to know key signatures. It's just in my experience as a student doing ABRSM exams, many moons ago!, and as a teacher I've never come across this. I've always known candidates being asked to play named scales and i prepare my students to respond to the scale asked. Never mind, I'm sure she'll have passed well anyway, her pieces were excellent and her sight reading and aural test are normally very secure. It just put her off a little.

Please do get back to us on this one - I'm intrigued and will have to start asking my pupils to do their scales by key signatures as it would seem to be useful. I agree that I too would be freaked out if I'd be asked scales by key signature in my exams. They were scary enough as they were without that sort of unexpected hurdle.

I would hope that if the pupil really stumbled on which note to start on the examiner might help them out.

It is bad enough when they tell you to play the scale without having to work out what scale you have to play by them giving you the key signature as a clue. I suppose of us can do that normally but we probably do not need the extra thing to worry about under examination conditions.

I've never heard of that before and I think I might be a bit miffed as the candidate's teacher. Yes, I know they ought to know their key signatures, but the fact is they don't! Some people play scales by following patterns, rather than thinking in terms of key signatures - that's a requirement for theory exams rather than practical. Obviously, if the syllabus stated that they could be asked this way, then we'd prepare them this way, but I don't think it does.

i don't think the examiner can do that. If the board wants to test the knowledge of theory of candidates, they would do so in Theory exams instead of Practical exams.

The rules of the exam games are: Anything not in the exam syllabi are considered as non-examinable. Otherwise the examiners can ask anything really.

I understand that the candidates should be aware of this, but as Dulciana said, they don't in fact. Plus the examiners should put the candidate at ease. In this case, im not sure if he/she is. This is not fair to the candidate especially if he/she does not have much exam experience.

Good luck!

Yes - I agree with this. I've not seen anywhere that says this. It's probably a useful thing to practise doing in lessons to reinforce the theory angle, but it's not something I'd expect tested this way in a practical exam. As Melody Amour and others have said, it's not something you want thrown at you under exam conditions.

Many of my younger early-grades candidates play their scales more or less by rote - it's not ideal : we try to nurture theory understanding alongside, but it doesn't always take root, and often needs a theory exam or two before the key-sign thing starts to become anything like secure.

In an ideal world the examiner would be able to ask in various ways - but they are testing to an existing syllabus, not to what they would like the syllabus to be.

I'm sure one of mine would delight in this, although whether he could work out the start note is another matter. Typical conversation is:

"Play me a scale of F major".
Pause, then "Is that the one with one flat?"

Might have to try asking for a scale with a given number of sharps and/or flats and see what happens

I temporarily wrong-footed last weeks Grade 7 candidate by asking for some scales in their enharmonic equivalent. Once she'd worked out that Gb and F# are one and the same she was fine.

I keep forgetting about that possibilty! It's all too easy just to ask them as they are described on the syllabus!

I was once asked for scales like this too - a mixture of named scales ("play me Ab major") and key signatures ("play the harmonic minor with three flats") and I thought it was perfectly reasonable. However, it was a higher grade (either 6 or 7 saxophone, can't remember which) and I'd entered myself.