How's everyone getting on with Grade 6 theory? I'm slowly ploughing my way through Harmony in Practice. The exercises are OK so far, as long as I can keep remembering everything I've learnt and not forget it as soon as I move on to the next section. I'm planning to take the exam in March, which I think means about 8 exercises a week between now and February, leaving some time for revision. That should be achievable... I think... If not, I guess it'll have to be June instead.

Over to other Grade Sixers...

I'm another grade 6'er hoping to do the exam in March too

I'm sitting my Grade VI theory on 02 November.

Having a few lessons to help me along and I'm really glad I am!!! I'm making all the silly mistakes that I see when my students sit their theory papers, the biggest one being not reading the questions properly!
Sounds really obvious but when you're actually DOING it's a different thing altogether.

I'm currently struggling mainly with the styles of music (guessing the composer/period), chord analysis in the scores (I keep working to the starting key rather than looking at the key within the individual bars indicated). It's very hard also to keep abreast/learn all the different instruments of the orchestra and their individual ranges, techniques, etc.

I'm learning that it's all about keeping your cool, reading the questions properly and carefully, and working methodically. I've got to take more care, go over the questions a few times not just once.

Past papers - order as many as you can from ABRSM directly and get a good teacher to mark them/critique you each week. You find out your weaknesses this way along with familiarising yourself with the exam format.

Good luck with it - enter yourself for the exam and you'll be amazed what impetus it is to get your head down. I'm hoping to pass, and pass well, but I have to remember that all I need is a pass - 66% here we come!

Hello to other Grade VIers. Working through Harmony in Practice but occasionally panic because the answer book differs from my own attempt. For example, ex 19, page 21, no probs with writing out the triads for each scale (G, B minor, A etc) but my root position chords seem to differ from the official answer. Am I correct in thinking that for this question the answer book shows suggested answers rather than a definitive answer?
Grateful for your thoughts! :-)
(planning to take G VI theory exam in June 2012)

Good luck for November 2nd, amybalcomb!

niobe, my thoughts about exercise 19 might well be wrong because I'm pretty unsure myself, but FWIW, my understanding is that there are certain rules which *have* to be followed, and other constraints which would constitute "best practice". So some positions would be plain wrong, other positions may be technically correct, but not as good as a different position which *sounds* better as well as being technically correct. So what you have written could well be a different chord from the one in the answer book, and it may be just as good if not better, or it may be less good, or even incorrect. That's not a terribly helpful answer, is it!!! Sorry! Perhaps if you could give an example, it would be easier to see which of these categories it fits into. (Or I come back to the point made earlier that I may be talking twaddle anyway!)

Many thanks for your thoughts, the idea of what is possible and what meets exam standards (!) is likely to be the issue, hence some books do not give suggested answers for this area of the syllabus. It is also annoying that some chords sound great on the piano but a quick check in the reference book reveals that just about every rule has been broken! I have decided to press on with the text for the moment as I have a feeling that this is the area of study that will become easier with practice (ie when I am not tying myself up in knots trying to get a text book answer!). As a teacher (Classics) I would not normally advocate this approach as I firmly believe in understanding a subject before moving on, but I'm just having to go with the flow this time ...... and anyway I'm not planning to take the exam until next summer!

"It is also annoying that some chords sound great on the piano but a quick check in the reference book reveals that just about every rule has been broken!"

As I understand it, the ABRSM exam is based on the rules applying to tonal harmony, as used during the period xxx - I'm not sure about the period because Harmony in Practice mentions 1600-1900 but my recollection was that the period applicable to the exam was narrower than this. Anyway, that would explain why your chords sound great to your 20th/21st century ears, which are now accustomed to modern music, even though they break all the rules in the tonal harmony book.
(Still nervous about contributing these thoughts in case I'm talking rubbish! Somebody *please* feel free to put me straight if I am!)

Thanks again for your thoughts, definitely not 'rubbish' but extremely helpful!
Best wishes.

Hi, I've got Ex 19 in front of me now and I see that the exercise asks you to write root position chords in 4 parts. As long as you have the root of the chord at the bottom the arrangement of the other notes can vary (well, there are a couple of rules to follow, like the best note to double and the distance between the notes). If your answers differ from the answer book then it may be that you've arranged your notes in the chord differently.

Thanks, all thoughts welcome!

I thought I'd catch up with other Grade 6 students on this thread...

I've now got to the end of Part 1 of Harmony in Practice and I've been through it all a second time, and it makes more sense second time around. i just hope I don't forget it all! So "simple progressions" next (which don't look very simple!)

It's all starting to come together for me, finally

Well it better be as I want to take the exam in March

Grade 6 theory ...
Oh, dear ... I've started about 4-5 times and always got very discouraged. I'm planning a fresh start in short and, following the suggetsion of a teacher / friend who's already prepared some candidates at various levels (incl. Grade 8), I should be starting from Q 4 and/or 5 rather than the figured bass mind-boggling thing which drove me crazy a few months ago.
Whatever suggestions, whatever indications, of any type and nature will be warmly welcomed and very much appreciated

If you are a pianist or have reasonable facility on piano some basic keyboard harmony can help.
My theory teacher had me working through Dorothy Pilling's Harmonization of Melodies at the keyboard. While i never have managed to get fluent at keyboard harmony it did help me to learn and understand how different progressions work and how and when inversions are appropriate.

I had a eureka moment on Friday; some past papers arrived (easy to order via Amazon) and I tried a couple of Q4 questions and then Q1a (2008, A). Somehow everything seems much more straightforward on the exam paper than in the theory texts. I was pleasantly surprised when I checked the exam answer booklet.
I think it is easy to become bogged down by the do's and dont's in our many text books. My piano teacher always tells me to learn via the exam papers and in the main I think she is right, although at G6 one must clearly take time to study the theory topic to make sense of the questions.
Anyway, just wanted to share this with you as I have felt quite overwhelmed over the past few weeks. There is light at the end of the tunnel!
Best wishes.

Juan Carlos, when I first got Harmony in Practice, I found it totally daunting and I kept putting it aside. However, once I started studying it properly - slowly and methodically, and working out all their examples until I was satisfied I understood it, for instance - it started to make more sense. It's good that Harmony in Practice has got an answer book, I don't think I could do it without that.

Having said that, I'm now starting on Part 2 of Harmony in Practice, and I admit to feeling daunted again! Particularly because at the end of Part 1, I thought I'd have a look at a test paper, and unlike you, niobe, I found the questions so different to the exercises that it felt like a bit of a setback. But I'll do like I did with Part 1, take it slowly and methodically and hopefully all the rules will make sense eventually. I think I might have to revise my timescale though - it takes me ages to do the exercises, although when I did some of the them second time around as revision, I did find it easier, presumably because the rules made more sense by then. Hopefully by the time I've understood everything in Part 2 of Harmony in Practice, the test papers will look more achievable.

Question for all you Grade 6ers

I've just got the Gr 6 theory and theory workbook, is it possible to 'teach yourself' or is it a better prospect to get a theory teacher for the higher grades? I used the Dorothy Dingle Gr 5 textbook which was marvellous and managed to teach myself, but there isn't an equivalent for Gr 6.
How are you all managing? Are you having theory lessons or are you able to teach yourself?
Thanks.

It depends on what you already know and understand and how good you are at learning what might be fairly complex things on your own.
I know that I couldn't have done it without a teacher but there are people who have managed well on their own.
Even if you can't find a teacher who is teaching theory to that level your instrumental teacher may be able to give you some help (that's if your teacher isn't actually comfortable teaching higher theory grades).

It would appear that Liberty Belle has deregistered...

Thanks sbhoa, it is more than I can comfortably learn without guidance I think. I was discussing this with a friend last night and she is also keen to learn so we are going to approach a theory teacher.

I can tell we are all going to be busy bees next term. I have also decided to book additional lessons to cover G6-fortunately my piano teacher is happy to teach theory too. I'm determined to enter for the June 2012 exam!
Good luck.

I had a tutor for the month running up to the exam and it was really good for giving perspective, pointing out silly mistakes and for marking past papers.