Now that the general euphoria at having passed Grade 4 is fading, I have realised that an 11 for aural is actually a fail!

My sight singing is awful and the singing back is painful. I can clap about two bars and then forget the rest. And when asked to describe the music just played I went COMPLETELY blank.

Any tips for improving? I am sure I have seen a thread on this before.

Do you have a teacher who teaches you the aural? I don't mean someone who plays the tests or who tells you what to do, but someone who teaches you 'how' to do the aural? There are of course books and things, but my advice would be to try and get some extra sessions with a teacher who'll really help you with the aural - I think that a couple of sessions with someone like that is money better spent long term. I think that as you get higher in the grades, there's only a limited amount which can be learnt from a book.

Firstly, you can't be quite as bad as you're making out because 11 is only a fail by 1 mark (and I've known plenty of people who've got 10, 8, even 6 . . . ).

So, don;t despair . . .

What was the examiner's comment ? Did he/she write something useful ? i.e. A mostly correct, time incorrect but other answers right in C - or whatever.

What does your teacher say is your main weak point ?

I think sight-singing is the easiest thing to work on and improve (as long as you can pitch the first note). You can do a lot of work on it yourself, just singing up and down three notes and then singing skips etc. You can take your time, there's no rhythm, just the pitch. (Sometimes imagining a piano kepyboard is helpful). And you can turn round and check each note if you need to.
The main point is to get the key note firmly implanted in your mind and then work from there.

And don;t worry - a good friend of mine got distinction in grade 7 but only got 6 in the aural !!!!

Hi PB and first congrats on G4!

I feel your pain on the Aural. I did my first music exam this year and had a shock when I saw what was required in the Aural. However, I stumbled across some things which turned out quite useful:

-ABRSM Aural Trainer on the iPhone, as well as few other apps.

These helped me with identifying aspects to pieces and getting used to some of the phraseology. Personally I can't tell the difference between Classical and Romantic and 4 time and 2 time! But I got a lot from these apps.

-ABRSM's G4/5 Aural Training and Exam Specs books.

I went through all the sight singing and melody repetition examples to get some practice. Despite these not being the pieces you get asked on the day they gave me some useful pointers. For example, I learned to identify when we returned to a tonic in a melody. In sight singing I practiced singing thirds and seconds. In the exam it all started with an arpeggio so once I had the tonic I was away. I didn't give the lady a chance to play a correct note if I played a wrong one, which in any case I don't think I did since all I needed to get right was a decending second.

More than that, there are only so many patterns with seven notes so you are likely to cover them all quickly in practice.

Failing that, I guess we all have something we're not so hot on. I'm waiting to see how many marks I got for sight reading knowing it's unlikely I got into double figures