From the examples in the ABRSM Specimen Aural Tests book it seems that in the test 1B the 3 notes for the singing back echoes are all variations on doh, re & mi, & the 1st echo always starts on doh. Is that invariably the case from other material people have used to practise this part? My youngest is OK if she knows that the "walks" are doh to re or re to mi, & the jumps are doh-mi but I don't know whether its always going to be the case

This is what the regs say:

To sing, as an echo, three short phrases limited to a range of three notes in a major key played by the
examiner. The echoes should follow each phrase in strict time without an intervening pause. The keychord
and tonic will first be sounded and the pulse indicated.

As all the examples are doh-re-mi I think that those are the three notes she will get. Despite having taken a Grade 1 Aural test in the last two years I can't remember if that was the case from my experience.

Thanks for that - I think if it's always going to start on the tonic & the range is 3 notes it's inevitably going to be doh, re, mi but wasn't sure whether there was a flaw in my reasoning.


...that would be great.. I'm running out of examples to play for her....

I've always understood this test to be very simple in its use of range of notes. If you're running out of printed examples, why not make your own up? I find there are never enough tests in the books that ABRSM (or others) print. At Grades 1-3 I can just about invent things (and, of course, use bits of "proper" music for the questions on pieces) but it does get harder by Grade 7/8!

Hope your pupils do ok in their exams.

Slightly off-topic, but I have a student who is doing Gr.2 this time round, having skipped Gr.1 because her playing was quickly beyond it.

Her aural is not bad, but she does have trouble with the singing back. She gets the shape of the melody right, but has trouble pitching the first note - so just grumbles along a fifth (ish) lower. She's generally not very confident which probably doesn't help.

Presumably she'll get some points for this anyway, but how can I help her pitch the notes better?

Start with single notes and build up.
I might also help to begin with her matching the pitch of your voice first.
Another thing I've found that helps with pitch matching is to suggest they listen, think (imagine the sound in the head), THEN sing.

You can make a sort of game of how many notes can be remembered.

Start by singing to the child soh mi lah soh mi (crotchet dotted quaver semiquaver crotchet crotchet) but just singing the melody to "ner ner" (no, I haven't lost it - this works!). Get the child to do it back to you - if it is not at the same pitch as you sang you will have found the child's "natural pitch".

Then SING single notes to start with, starting at this pitch. Children find it far easier to pitch to the human voice rather than from an instrument. Gradually you increase the range and number of notes and eventually progress to pitching from the piano.

I have never had this method fail even with children (or indeed adults!) who claim they "can't sing" or are "tone deaf". Also, from an exam point of view, remember credit is given for the correct melodic shape and rhythm even if the pitching is wayward. It's merely a "singing game" to assess how the musical memory is developing.

Good luck.

Baggy x