Every time my daughter ( now 11) takes a singing exam her teacher encourages her to announce her programme to the examiner at the beginning of the exam. This seems to me to be a good way of breaking the ice, but my daughter seems to find remembering details of each song and repeating them more stressful than the singing bit of the exam!

With this in mind, and aware that I had seen various posts here about the need for singers to provide lists of songs in exams, I downloaded and filled in one of the Exam Programme forms for her last exam. I suggested to her that, perhaps, she could tell the examiner what she was going to sing, using the form as a prompt if necessary, before handing it over. But in the end she just gave it to the examiner, and she and the examiner were both happy.

Now the issue has come round again as she has an exam next week and her teacher says she should not write down the details of the songs but should announce them to the examiner as do all her other pupils. I'm concerned in case this is contrary to the exam Regulations. On the other hand, the teacher has entered many pupils in the past so should know what she's doing, and I don't want to suggest otherwise.... Of course, I also want to make the exam as stress free as possible for my daughter. Teacher is accompanying in the exam.

Anyway, I have checked the General Regulations for Singing. These just say that candidates "should provide the examiner with a list of the songs". They don't say that the list must be in writing. So, is it OK just to announce your songs or not?

Sorry, long post for, in essence, a short question.

Mine write out the songs they are doing. Recently they were given a form to fill in when they got there...which can be a bit much at 8 or 9. Once I was asked to fill in the numbers too....from the syllabus...
So I think announcing them won't help the examiner as they have to find the correct number to put on their mark sheet...and I am sure they would rather have it in writing. Making my pupils write it helps to confirm the order in their heads too...am I rambling...sorry

I would agree - hand the examiner a written list, and watch his grateful smile. They need to find the list number quickly, and pupils can hardly be expected to memorise this.

In festivals, on the other hand, an announcment is the way to go. But then, it's rarely more than one song.

I'm sure it's fine to just tell the examiner the songs without writing them down, but if this is a source of stress for your daughter maybe she should talk to her teacher about it. I expect the teacher thinks it will be useful experience for her, as when she's performing in concerts she could be expected to introduce her songs; but if your daughter would prefer not to she shouldn't be made to in an exam.

I accompany singers regularly and they always go in with a list. The examiner in the last session was pleased to have it because he didn't have to hunt for the song numbers. It seems a small point for the teacher to insist on - if your daughter feels happier with a list, I would speak to the teacher about it and be firm!

All mine go in with a list of songs:

Name - grade X
List A, No.6 blah blah
List B, No. 14 blah blah
List C, No. 2 blah blah
Unaccompanied: blah blah

Listed, of course, in the order in which they are to be sung.
Now that I have a special visit, I give the examiner a list of all candidates, in order, with all their songs as above. Last time we did a centre exam session, the examiner insisted on a written list, to save time as he didn't have to look the numbers up.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. I will certainly encourage her to take a list. Since the exam is happening at school I won't actually be there when she goes in, but I know she will feel happier with a bit of paper to clutch!

In grades 1 and 2 she had something amounting to a little speech prepared for the beginning of the exam:
"For my A piece I would like to sing X, which is a traditional British song with music by Y, and is A12..." and so on. This is what we gave up on last time around but her teacher would like to reinstate. I think. I can understand why daughter is reluctant.

I can understand that your daughter is reluctant. As a child/teenager I would sing in front of anyone, but to speak left me terrified! In an exam situation your daughter's feelings are paramount, so as a teacher I wouldn't push her to do this. Remember that there is also a time limit on exams. Your examiner has (for grade 3) 15 minutes to welcome her, hear her songs, conduct the aural tests and sight singing, write his remarks, allocate marks and add them up. He doesn't need extra time-consuming things like announcing songs! I know it doesn't take long, but even a minute over the whole exam is precious!
On the plus side, it does get the voice working in the room and makes contact witht the examiner, and is a valuable skill to practice, but personally, I would leave that for festivals and concerts.

Perhaps you could print out this thread and show it to her teacher?

These programme slips must be what I'd heard... but they could cause a problem if getting young ones to do it...although I accompany some..I can't always be there for all... maybe we could get these before...like T/G

For LCM exams I always send pupils in with a running order and photocopies of the songs and translations of any sung in languages other than English. This is always appreciated by the examiners. The photocopies are destroyed by them afterwards. Announcing songs seems totally unnecessary unless one is in a concert situation. For a diploma it might be important but not for grade exams.

aha... there's always an answer.

And here they are: http://www.abrsm.org/?page=downloads#programmeslip

And it says here that singers "are asked always to provide a note of their chosen songs", which seems to answer my original question as to whether the "list" mentioned in the regulations could be merely oral.

Please tell me you are joking?

Song lists are not part of the marking criteria.

But that doesn't mean that you will be given even one extra mark! In fact, you certainly won't! If the examiner really said this, then he was joking. All singers are supposed to take in their programme list. But at least it put him in a good mood.

Instead of the program slips you can type up your own programme if you prefer. I do that for all my exams.

Name

Instrument Grade x

A1 Composer Title (Movements)
B4 Composer Title
C2 Composer Title

Preferred order: scales, pieces, sight-reading, aural.


Instrument2 Grade y

A3 Composer Title
B2 Composer Title (from Whatever)
C6 Composer Title

Preferred order: pieces, scales, sight-reading, aural.



I just hand the piece of paper to the examiner when I go in (or leave it on his table for organ exams, as I'm in there first for those). Examiners seem to like it as it means they know exactly what I'm doing and can find things in the lists quickly and easily if they need to. I like it as it means I don't have to pronounce difficult names or titles, and I won't get any surprises (like aural before sight-reading). I think the examiners usually copy down whatever details they want to onto the mark form while I'm adjusting the music stand or sorting out my music or whatever, which saves them time between pieces. And it gets me out of having to speak to the examiner as much (I can be extremely shy with people I don't know, especially in something like an exam situation).
Bonus is that I have the programs for all my exams from the last few years still lurking on my hard disk, so if I can't remember which piece I did for a particular list I can look it up.

I think if a kid isn't comfortable announcing their songs/pieces to the examiner, then a written programme is definitely the way to go, even for exams where it isn't required. I'm actually /less/ shy in exams because my programme takes some of the stress out of it. So I usually manage to hand it over with a smile and a 'hello', maybe even a 'here's my programme'.
And, as someone's already mentioned, examiners are usually trying to keep to a pretty tight schedule, so they probably don't want a spoken intro on top of a written programme, which is needed for a singing exam anyway.

T.