Don't they all happen on the same day?

Thanks! I did mine today and it wasn't toooo bad although I think I still got the orchestra questions wrong!

Thank you. I have done my Grade 5 in the Netherlands today, my first AB exam ever. It was not hard, I even checked my composed melody when I came home, and it actually sounded like music.

Well done Tortellini, and why do you think that you got the orchestra question wrong?

Not sure if I can post but I am guessing that people yet to do the exam will have a different exam paper? Anyway I am sure it was only worth a few marks.

Well, I think that went OK!

My teacher turned up to lend some support to all her students, which I thought was really nice of her!

To paraphrase Douglas Adams - Realising figured bass is easy, all you have to do is stare at a blank sheet of manuscript paper until your eyes bleed.

I was the only person in the centre (a high school) doing a three-hour paper, the poor caretaker had to wait a whole hour to lock up just for me! Fairly confident about passing, anything else is a bonus.

Think mine went ok too. The composition to words was hilarious though....lord knows what it sounds like....I can't even remember what the words (or notes) are now...Something by Wordsworth about a cuckoo. I'm praying I get *some* marks for just sticking a treble clef, a key signature and time signature on there and random notes that might make a choon

Well - I'm just in the door after an hour's drive back from the theory centre. I am completely drained, dehydrated and exhausted after the Grade 8 paper and I am now indulging in an extremely chocolatey, chocolate bar which I know is very bad for me!

Are we allowed to discuss the content of the paper on here? I can never understand why we can't take our rough workings home. I think I did okay but I was stuck on a chord which had the * over a note of anticipation which was very ambiguous. I chose to treat it as a non-harmony note but I think I got that one wrong.

Overall there were no real surprises. The Trio Sonata which I was most concerned about seemed to be the easiest question.

How did it go for the other Grade 8ers today?

Thank you ET A214 was quite hard going in the exam room I remember but I found Grade 8 a lot tougher in many ways. Reasons being some of the AB questions are so ambiguous and you have to do a lot of composing in the exam room, whereas in A214 all the composing is encompassed in the TMAs, in your own time at home. A big difference. A comparable paper to Grade 8 was one I took years ago for the ALCM performance diploma. We had to do a three hour theory paper for that and it was rudiments of music, plus harmony and counterpoint.

Time wise today was okay. I had an extra half-hour to spare because I whizzed through the Trio Sonata. I wondered if I would manage to finish though!

Pretty happy with the grade 5 paper - I took my time and there were only 2 candidates left in the room after me! I tried to remember my composition tonight and reproduce it on the piano - and failed miserably.

Thanks I did grade 5 yesterday although i'm been trying to find out all day if I did the Clarinet / Concert transposing correctly. I know it now makes no difference but i'm sure the paper said it was already written for Clarinet but to transpose it downwards for concert C, i'm guessing thats the wrong way round?
So would I be right having transposed down a major 2nd as stated so 4 semitones? I'm sure i'm wrong so I'm expecting to fail but hey who knows.

Glad everyone elses went ok!

Nope, I transposed it down 4 semi-tones! oh damn thats 10 marks gone then, guess i've failed.

Hmm we'll see, I'm not convinced. I know my composition wasn't that great but it should get me some marks. I don't know, its going to be a long 6 weeks if I keep worrying about it though.

Thanks for the support.