Hello,

I've just got back from my grade 6 theory exam, and just wondered how everyone elses exam's went?

Mine went ok, i checked and rechecked everything, and only got majorly stuck on the meaning of Molto Vivo, and put down quite lively, and when i got home and checked, it means very lively, so i wasnt far off!

How did everyone else find it???

Jacob.

I did grade 5 today... I got scherzando mixed up with sforzando and didn't know some of the performance directions... I came out thinking I'd done quite well, but now I'm second guessing myself - it's not something I'm naturally talented at, so I had to work really hard and found it very difficult... But the exam paper itself didn't seem too bad.

for me and everyone else who had an exam!

I did grade 3. went ok, think I got most question right - but I had the rests questions (fill in the missing rests) and I always get them wrong. I checked and doubled checked and triple checked. I hope I didn't make any really silly mistakes

I took a range of people to do grades 2 & 3. They report that G2 was harder then expected and Cantabile wasn't on the list of words they learned in their workbook - It was on the grade 1 list .

Just got back from Grade 5. As with Grade 4, I discovered a really stupid error in the last couple of minutes - fortunately I just had time to change it, otherwise I think I would have lost 4 marks - I just hope I changed it to right answer because I didn't have much time to think about it

I thought the paper could have been worse but it all depends on whether I've made any other stupid mistakes that I didn't spot

Look forward to hearing how everyone else has got on

Just got back from grade 6 - it was a nice paper I thought Except for the fact that I composed some rubbish, it went well!

I just did my Grade 3 . It went quite well I think although I always get the rests questions wrong too!
Got my words right tho which I'm rather pleased about because I can never remember them!

I hate the wait for the theory results tho, it takes far too long!!!

Well done to you all. Thank goodness it's all over and you have a few panic-free weeks before the results arrive. Hope you've all passed with flying colours.

I enjoyed the exam thoroughly, in fact I couldn't believe it that the things that I were dreading weren't there. I did make a silly mistake though with one of the performance directions relating to ^ and I am cross with myself as I originally got it right and when I checked my paper I changed my answer. I was so pleased when I saw Scherzando as straight away I knew what that was as I quite often get that mixed up with sfz. Other than that I think I have done well, hope that isn't a bad sign though thinking I have done well. I think my melody was ok too.

Trish

Back from Grade 6 - I'm worried as it seemed easy and I finished well before time, allowing for triple checking of everything!

Just got back in. The grade 8 paper seemed ok. Now the long wait.

It seemed OKish. Forgot what Scherzando was and put lively. Oh dear, it's playfully Oh well, it's 98 or less Nothing awful struck me, but as Skylark says, I may have made some silly mistakes?? Time will tell.
Beverley.

how did you find question 2 real
ising the figured bass I found that the most difficult

Feedback from my daughter (10) seems to have made 2 silly mistakes. First she couldn't remember how to write a breve so she got as near as she could by double dotting a semibreve. Then in the bit when you had to say what instrument might be able to play the bass part in the extract, she was going to say cello but then thought it might be too high as it went up to E above middle C and she wasn't sure that the person playing would have learned to change position. She then had a complete mental block and put oboe!

one thing i've learnt is to always go with your instincts but cello would have been correct. I got confused with an italian term in grade 6.

Grade 8 was OK. The paper was pretty straightforward. I thought and definitely not as tricky as some of the past papers I have tried. I probably made loads of stupid mistakes on the completing parts and composition, but just relieved it is over. Rather strange feeling to think I won't be sitting another theory exam...ever...(hopefully).

Noticed a couple of parent and child sets doing grade 1 together which I thought was really sweet. There is a teacher locally who does preschool music and continues until they get to grade 1 and a lot of her pupils were in today. I think some of the Mums and Dads who had sat in on the sessions obviously decided to have a go too!

Well done everyone, we survived! Now for the long wait...

All the grade 8's finished before the grade 6's in the venue where I was. i would be intrested in seeing the results...

Did you do it for SATB or keyboard? Andante_in_C gave me a good tip about this one - do some practical keyboard harmony and then do the keyboard version. This gives you a "feel" for it, and you get to know where the hands want to move to. I found this much easier than doing the SATB, and also used the method given in the Big 6 book for putting it down on paper - putting dots on the stave for each of the notes available for each chord, from which you can work out a suitable melody, rubbing out any notes you don't want to use. Big 6 shows it done using bass clef, but I found it better to put the dots on the treble clef as that is where the action is for the keyboard version.

The only question I wasn't sure about was the one in the piano extract where they asked for an accented chromatic passing note above a tonic chord. I would have thought that it would have been above a chord of A major, which was the prevailing key, but the only one I could find was above a tonic E major chord i.e. a dominant chord of the original key.

I did G4 and I enjoyed it. I got home and realised I hadn't done any interval questions and had a brief bit of confusion - so I hiked out the past papers I'd done and saw sometimes you get intervals, sometimes beaming, and so on. So that was all OK then - I hadn't noticed that they changed what goes on in different papers!
I ended up doing to rhythm-to-words option and used compound time That's the bit I'm sure will lose marks if anything. The 'factual' stuff should be OK, I did check everything but you can think something is right, check it and still think it is right, but actually be wrong.

I left after about an hour, about half the people had left by then. Interestingly, in previous years they had split us in to room by grade (e.g. G1-3 in one room, 4-5 in another, etc), but this time we had four rooms and we were all mixed up. My room contained G2-5 people. But they used enough rooms that we could have a two-seater desk/table each, rather than before when we have had to share. So I think that worked well.
The room I was in - and had to wait outside for a while - that was right by the invigilator's table where they were checking everyone in on arrival. And I was first to arrive So I know that nobody at my centre last night was doing G6 or above.

When I got home I just wanted to get out the G5 stuff (I now know I will be around in June so I can do it then if I want)

Glad to hear your G4 seems to have gone well! I'm sure you'll be fine for doing G5 in June - I found studying for G5 quite a lot easier than G4, or even G3. A lot of it seemed to me to be more of the same, and even the new things I found easier to grasp than some of the things at G3/G4. It took me forever to understand intervals at G3/G4, not to mention beaming and rests, but now I find intervals really easy and I even get the beaming/rests questions right now I don't think there's anything at Grade 5 which compares to learning the concepts of intervals and beaming/rests at the earlier grades! I would recommend to start learning the composition element as soon as you can because that carries the most marks, and in my case it was the element which showed the most improvement the more I did it.

I'm really envious of you, having another exam to work for - sorry if that sounds but I've really loved doing the 1-5 grades and it will be a long time before I do Grade 6

Compared to last November when I came out of the exam on the verge of tears I came out smiling last night. I was the only person at the centre so had 2 lovely inviligators all to myself. The one word which had stood out to me when I was looking over the performance directions on Tuesday night was one of the ones they asked for , the composition wasn't in the bass clef as I had feared it would be and the transposition wasn't too bad. Time will tell I guess.

Well done Flossy, it sounds like you've done really well, will keep my fingers crossed for a good result for you

Well, did the G5 yesterday. By the look of the paper it should have been a gift for me but once I'd finished, I checked it through and had made at least one silly mistake in each question. As I continued to check, I found more and more silly mistakes!

It appears that during the exam I forgot the alphabet and how to count!

So, no idea how it went - I'm sure there will be more silly mistakes that I didn't pick up on.

Bit gutted really because it should have been a gift of a paper

Ah well, nothing I can do now - just need to wait for the results and fingers crossed that I've passed!

I did it for SATB as if I was harmonizing a Bach Chorale but not many of the chord progressions Bach would have used. except for the Ic V I cadence at the end. There was no cadences early on to help which was unusual because in the past papers there was always two cadences.

I am sure that you will find that you have done much better than you think. I checked my paper back and I couldn't believe the silly mistakes that I had made and was just so pleased that I had gone back and checked.For example the A minor question where you had to name tonic etc, I calculated it on Cmajor, thank God I realised, or what a waste, and the chord questions I worked out on the wrong key signature, don't know where my brain was! Thank goodness I was able to correct these things, as it is bad enough getting something wrong if you don't know it, but worse when you do!

Speaking of silly mistakes...the first thing I did was write down key signatures in order. So I had four little lists, which were meant to be, e.g.: CGDAEBF#C# for major sharps (yes, I know that it doesn't go up to 7 sharps at G4, but for completeness I carry on...I know I'm at the 'end' when I reach C#, Cb [majors] or A#, Ab [minors]) Major sharps, minor sharps, major flat, minor flats. All there, ready to refer to.

When I came to refer to one of them, something didn't look right. Oh, it was right up to where I needed it, but with a bit of thought I noticed I'd missed one out (in the example above, I had missed out F# ) Then I had a question that made me look at the minor flats and I knew the answer - but I double checked it against my 'aide memoire' and got a different answer. Frowned, looked again, and I'd made the same mistake, but further down the list so it had got me the wrong answer!

So, if you write things down to be 'helpful' at the start of an exam, do so carefully so that you actually have something reliable to refer against later on!!

I've realised that I've made a silly mistake that I didn't correct, but I'm hoping that I'll only lose one mark for it. I can't even remember an A Minor (or C Major) question - perhaps I missed it out altogether

Hope you've done well enough to pass, jumper

I use

FCGDAEB

Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle

for Sharps

turn it around

Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father

for Flats

That is how I remember the order of sharps and flats, a little tip that my teacher gave me.






What was your silly misktake Skylark?

The A Minor question was to do with tonics mediant etc -

I have lost at least 2 marks with that silly "v" performance direction, and frustrated because I had it right in the first place, should have trusted my own initial instincts.

I was in the middle of replying to your earlier email when you made this post - you should have got my email by now! I still don't remember the A Minor question

There was an implied cadence earlier on.

Yes, that's the bit I'm least familiar with (the lack of time to practice that was the main reason I didn't do G5 this time around). I will be making a start there, along with trying to find a way of remembering German words (why do all the other words go in fine, but the German ones refuse to stick? ) Most of the other stuff is more-of-the-same and/or re-remembering things I've already done (just years ago)

was that the Ic-V at the beginning?

(Feeble pianist but can remember a bit of stuff) A brill little thing to remember sharp/flat orders if you cant be doing with battles etc:

Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket = sharps
Blanket Exploded And Dad Got Cold Feet = flats
any use?

I'm afraid I tell most of my pupils not to bother spending time learning all the obscure terms - if their time is limited (which it almost invariably is) they are better off concentrating on the stuff like key signatures, scales, chords etc that will score them the most marks. The terms are worth 2 - 4 marks in any exam, maximum - it just isn't worth the effort. Common ones will sink in eventually because they crop up in pieces etc.

Seriously though, it's not true to say that the terms are "worth 2 - 4 marks in any exam, maximum". In the Grade 5 Nov 07 exam, they were worth 9 marks. The paper had the following terms:

Lebhaft aber zart (5 marks)
leggiero (2 marks)
subito (2 marks)

That's a lot of marks to throw away - it's virtually the equivalent of a whole question

Yikes, that's a lot more than usual. My students would only have scored 91% then...

No - it was further in, something to V, but I can't remember exactly what.




I think it's because the German words mostly bear no relationship to any other word which means the same, which means that you have no peg to hang them on. Who would connect "zart" with tender or delicate, for instance - the sound of the word is anything but! I have exactly the same problem with the German terms. When I was learning the terms for grade 5 I made a two sets of cards with the foreign words on one set and the English equivalent on the other, shuffled them up and then matched them. This worked well for the exam, but I got them out just before my grade 6 and was shocked at how few I could remember! They tend to be words that don't come up very much in practical music making.

I just did grade 2

Does anyone know when the next date is that I can do grade 3 ?

14th June is next, then 6th November.

You can find all the dates (e.g. entry closing dates) here.
Online entry for Period B (i.e. 14th June theory exam) opens at the end of March

Well, they seem to be going in a bit better already - I think knowing I was doing G4, and that I didn't need to know those nasty German terms, they didn't go in. But I'm continuing to test myself regularly on all terms (G1-5) and some of them are going in. Work is v.quiet again so I can sit here with my spreadsheet and test myself more than once a day at the moment!
But yes, I've been around non-German musical terms for so long that I don't need to think about them. Or, e.g. the French term is so close to the Italian term I already know that there's nothing new to learn. I don't ever think I've come across a real-life German instruction!
I don't get too obssessive about having the term exactly right, though - vif, vite and veloce I can never remember which is swift/lively/quick but they are all roughly the same-ish so I take my chances with those ones

I always learn my terms in a type of code so I can remember them. Like leggiero looks like legs. the meaning is light, nimble - so I think of nimble legs like a ballerina.

Giocoso and Giojoso look the same so I remember them together - one is joyful one is humourous/playful - the one with the J in the middle is joyful.

Not sure if I've spelt those words right, but you get the gist.

I've found that doing some of the earlier grades has been very beneficial. If I'd only come in at grade 5, I'd have had nearly 250 terms to learn and OK, I would have picked up some of the common ones already but not that many. So the terms for G5 were a bit of a bind, but achievable.

If G5 had been my first exam, I'd have probably hated theory because it would have seemed overwhelming. As it is, I've taken a grade at a time, really got to understand and remember things, and have really enjoyed doing it, so much so that I'm looking forward to at least taking a look at G6 to see if I want to pursue with it, and I'm assuming I will. I would recommend to anybody that they get the "First Steps in Music Theory" book which is laid out grade-by-grade, and possibly do Grades 3 and 4 before doing Grade 5. Of course everybody's circumstances are different and maybe it wouldn't suit everyone, but because it's benefitted me enormously, I would encourage any student not just to go in at Grade 5 "because that's the norm", but to go against the norm and take it a grade at a time. You'll have the last laugh when you come to do Grade 5 because you'll find it much easier than the people who thought you were for doing the earlier grades and you'll probably get better marks than them too

And to come back to theory terms, of course they're a bind, but I'm really chuffed now that I can look at all the music in the books I'm currently using and know instantly what the terms mean. They'll stand me in good stead for the future and I'm really glad I made the effort to learn them.



[ suddenly realises a soap box has appeared, oops, sidles off ]

My daughter is doing Gr 5 as first exam and yes... I agree the terms are so hard..... so I am now encouraging my pupils to take the earlier grades as then... you learn it all bit by bit and the information sticks. Also, key sigs etc are cumalative.... so that helps too.... no grade is too much of a burden if you thoroughly know the grade before.
The other thing I've changed is that I'm teaching my pupils theory..... not sending them to the class at the music centre. This helps as I know what terms they are supposed to know and I can link stuff into the lesson to match the theory.... so I have a pupil studying for Gr 3 clarinet next term. She is just about to start Gr 3 theory as well, so in yesterday's clarinet lesson, I recapped tones/semitones in a harmonic minor and then we looked at how a melodic minor scale was structured and we played some..... If I hadn't known what I'd be teaching her in her next theory lesson I wouldn't have touched melodic minors yet, as she won't do those until Gr 6. When practical lessons and theory lessons back each other up, it's great!!!!

What I found, when I did G3 back in 2002(?ish), was that I already knew most of the G1-3 words. I still recalled them from my younger exposure to music, when I wasn't doing any 'deliberate' theory. I think I must have learned them at a sufficiently young age that there wasn't even any having to think - a bit like reading music. You know, when you start it's a dot on a page, OK, that's a G, that means my fingers go here; but later on it just turns from dot-to-noise without any of the in between bits. So words like allegro, largo, forte, pianissimo, these were still automatic for me, no thinking required to 'translate' them in to an understandable word.
I also found that, on the G1-4 words I have trouble remembering, there's a 50% chance it'll mean "sad" and a 50% chance it'll mean "dying away"

All my pupils start with grade 1 and work their way up. I do a little bit of theory at every single lesson, and it soon sinks in. I've had one or two people come to me for last minute coaching for grade 5, having done no formal theory until that point, and it is a nightmare for them. Learning theory shouldn't be simply a means of qualifying for the higher grades. A lot of people find it fun and satisfying and it contributes to their practical skills sight reading, aural, interpretation etc.

I did my G5.

I totally forgot how to create a melodic minor scale so only got it half right.

Had a mind blank on breve but remembered before the end (its always the simple things that get you...)

And realised just before it was too late that I was looking at the right hand piano part in the "which instrument can play this" question and noticed the "bass clef" part of the question which cheered me up a bit.

I think it went okay all in all. It was my first theory exam so a bit wierd...

I think we were having the same exam question, although I took it in Malaysia. I took Theory of Music Grade 6 Paper A. Ya, I also encountered the same term "Molto Vivo". And regarding to question 1, was the melody line in G minor or B flat major?

Just did my grade 8 theory on last saturday, and found myself lucky that the whole Grade 8S paper did not test on any french, german or italian terms. Just that I always thought that appoggiaturas that contain more than 1 note are called acciacaturas as it was about as fast. After the examination, i went to ask my teacher and found out i had always got it wrong. But overall, the qns 4 and 5 are pretty straight-forward, so i am just hoping to do well is the completing the parts and melody writing. Also hoping to get distinction or merit, as i heard from my teacher that i could get a certain sum of money if i got distinction or merit. (Yes, i'm very money minded =), however i also want my cert to look good. >.<)