Help - I will be sitting my Grade 5 Piano exam in November, and I am really worried about the aural tests!

I have a copy and CD of the ABRSM Aural Training book, and it is Test C in particular that I am having difficulty with - how and where can I swat up on who the composer could be and the style of the piece - i.e. baroque / classical etc?

I tend to get mental blocks on tests A and B also.

I am teaching myself, so I am quite daunted by this! Help!

Hi Louise

If you go into google and put Baroque composers, Classical composers/romantic composers etc, you will come up with loads of information. What about your piano teacher, does she do the aural with you?

Good luck with your piano exam. Which pieces are you playing? I am working on my Grade 5 but not in a rush to take the exam, I haven't decided yet whether I will go ahead or not as I hated my Grade 4.

ET

Hi Louise13,
As far as I know you do not have to name the composer of the piece, just comment on the period, which will probably be fairly clear. If I were you I would spend some time listening, and getting a feel for the differences; try listening to some Bach, Vivaldi, Scarlatti for example, which will give you an idea of Baroque style. Listen to some Mozart or Haydn for example and you'll pick up on the contrast between Classical and Baroque easily, especially if you are able to play through some stuff yourself.
You could get a good overview of the Romantic style by listening to some Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, late Beethoven - again if you can play through some music yourself it would help. I don't think that they are likely to ask about 20th century music in this exam, but I may be wrong about that!
There is a lot of free sheet music available on the internet to experiment with, and Wikipedia is a good source of information, which will help you find ways to talk about the differences. Probably the most useful thing you can do is listen a lot - and you have plenty of time yet.

Hope that is helpful! Best of luck with your exam -
N

Hi Louise

I know exactly how you feel. I sat Trinity Grade 6 aural and was struggling with the same thing, learning on my own. So I found a teacher who taught theory and aural and I used her for the aural and it was brilliant! She taught me the difference between baroque, classical, modern etc, cadences, modulations - in fact, everything. I found it really hard to learn on my own so finding the teacher was magnificent and I did well in the exam. Perhaps you could track such a teacher down?

Many thanks for all of your suggestions - I will start listening to the various styles, and will probably try and get some lessons in before the exam with my daughter's teacher - I think both of those will help enormously!

The pieces I'm doing for Grade 5 are:

List A - Haydn - Vivace Assai
List B - Burgmuller - The Swallow
List C - Cornick - In the Grove

Thanks for your help - I'll post the result (unless it's really bad!!)

Louise

One of the Aural books, and I'm useless that I'm not sure which one, it might be Aural Time gives some good bullet points to each period.
They can ask what period it is and why you think that.

The other two tests.
A - Sing something, as in don't give up half way through, try to get the rhythm correct and at least a sense of the melodic shape.
B - Take your time with this one in the actual exam. Practice singing intervals in the keys that they test you in.