During my lesson yesterday, my teacher said that the examiner won't have any idea what I am supposed to be singing (in terms of dynamic, words etc) as he won't have the music. I'm fairly sure I read somewhere that I need to give him copies of what I am going to sing, but I can't find it anywhere now. Does anyone know what I need to do?

Also, I have done my pieces so often now, I'm beginning to really disllike some of them, and they seem a bit stale. Anyone else have this problem?

Any ideas about how to freshen them up by the exam, or at least make it look as though I like them?

QUOTE (Emma C @ Mar 13 2004, 01:39 PM)

During my lesson yesterday, my teacher said that the examiner won't have any idea what I am supposed to be singing (in terms of dynamic, words etc) as he won't have the music.

One may only assume that your teacher presumes that you will get an examiner who has never heard any of the pieces for. Any examiner worth their pay knows exactly how all the pieces go.

David, I quite agree with you, but I want to know if I need to supply him with a copy! (it wil be a him!)

E

Hi
You don't need to supply a copy of the music for instrumental exams so why would you need to for singing - all the regulations are the same .
(aren't they??).
I do agree with David that although the examiner won't have a copy of the music he might well have heard your particular song many times before. He will be listening for a musical performance, if your interpretation is convincing he should like it even if you have not followed all of the editorial marks on the music.

Thanks.

I was just wondering how many choices there are for instrumenal grades, not having taken any?

I had a choice of over 80 set pieces, about 20 in each section (some according to voice), and had to choose an unaccompanied traditional song - so the number of possibilities is huge!

I'm sure, though, he will have heard my songs before.

Well I once had to give a copy of music to my examiner in a piano exam. It was because I was doing a peice that was in the 'alternative peices' bit i.e not in the actual piano exam peice book. I don't think you will have to give him a copy of music if it's on the list... not sure though

xx L xx

To quote the Exam regulations (it's in both UK and Ireland and international ones)

QUOTE

Playing one or more of the prepared pieces from memory is optional. Candidates playing from memory must bring copies of the pieces for the examiner's use.

( http://www.abrsm.org/?page=exams/regs/ukIr...kIre_03_19.html )

To quote these music exams:

QUOTE

There is no advantage, as far as exam results are concerned, in playing from memory (though it should be noted that singers are required to sing all their songs from memory).

So if you are a singer, you must be singing your songs from memory and hence according to what this says must give the examiner a copy of the music.

Note though that in the regulations it does say there clearly that it is optional to play from memory and doesn't say nearby that singers must sing from memory...

In the specific regulations for singing and it says

QUOTE

"THREE SONGS to be sung from memory..."

so these must override that

Anyway from all that I would say yes, you have to give the examiner a copy of the music to adhere to regulations; but I've never taken a singing exam so I don't know if they will want it in practice I suspect they will because there's quite a wide choice of repertoire.

You may as well take one and offer it to them anyway (I'm assuming that you have one) that way you have one less thing to worry about

P.S. For Piano there are six pieces for each list, apart from grade 8 which has eight in lists A and B and 16 in list C. Not all of them are in the selected pieces books for the grade in so I expect that the latter three on each list are far less frequently used.

Thanks so much, AnotherPianist, I was beginning to think I was going mad! I knew I'd seen it somewhere...

Hmm. I just realised I actually have a copy of the singing syllabus on my desk. You don't need to give them a copy of the music, just a translation of the words for the traditional piece, if it's not in english.

Now I am confused!

Can any singers help? I'll be doing Grade 6, but I don't suppose that makes any difference!

The best thing to do would to just take a copy of your pieces to the exam. If he doesnt want them then at leaast you brought them just in case. Better to be safe than sorry!!

Good luck!!

Nat

Hi Emma C

Don't worry. You DON'T need to give a copy of your music to the examiner, just make sure your accompanist has original music to play from!

Performing from memory is compulsory for the singing exams (as opposed to any of the instrumental exams - see the regulations for Singing in the syllabus section of this website), but I found that helped as I had less stuff to drop/break/lose/leave in the waiting room.

You do need to prepare a list of what you're going to sing, which is what you will give to the examiner - this is so that he can check you're actually singing stuff that's on the syllabus.

Good luck with your grade 6 - I've got my grade 8 on Thursday........

Cheers

Katyjay

Hello Katyjay, good to hear from you again.

Thanks for clearing that one up for me - there don't seem to be many singers round here at the moment!

Hope all goes well for you on Thursday. Mine's on Monday 22nd, and at the moment I'm not too confident about it - discovered yesterday that there is a whole section of the exam (sight singing) that my teacher hasn't really done with me... She doesn't know yet, so we'll see how we go!! It's a bit late now...

Emma

you don't have to give your examiner copies of your music. you give them a list of the pieces that you're going to do with the codes (A3, B1 etc.) next to them. the examiner will have a basic idea of what your pieces are like.

i know the feeling of getting sick of a piece. just try singing some completely different music for a while. when you come back to your pieces you will hopefully like them more and they will almost seem like new pieces. in your exam, just enjoy your pieces, if you don't enjoy them then you can't expect the examiner to enjoy your singing.

This is an ancient thread! How come it is back? Katyjay taking her grade eight? That was well before my time here. I did not realise that the old threads were still around. I assumed that after being quiet for a certain length of time they would be deleted.

Petra these old threads are circulating amongst search engines. There'll be some one studying Baudaliere and google L'invitation au Voyage, and they'll find my musings on the diploma thread. I know this happens I've googled it. We know that KJ got that Grade 8 with distinction a few years ago... the trouble is the search engines don't!

I do hope they don't get deleted - I've been trawling through all the old threads on how to memorise music this weekend and they've been really useful. One of the threads was the most interesting thread I remember reading, in fact I was thinking of resurrecting it from about a year ago, but memorisation has been covered recently so I decided not to in the end. And the thread from which I got the most useful information dated from 2004.

do you think this means that today's posters are more boring and less informative than in the 'old days' ??

More likely to be a reflection on my memory, particularly considering it was memorisation advice I was looking for