I've got my Grade 5 Theory exam this weekend and I'm extremely worried about it - I feel that I need alot more time to revise, and I really need more tutoring. I was going to go over the stuff I was still unsure about with my teacher in a extra-long lesson this week but unluckily she didn't turn up because her car broke down!

The thing I'm really stuck on is composing an 8 bar tune - I haven't been told how to do it properly, and I wondered if anyone could give me any rules or guidelines I could follow? Also, is it necessary for me to learn all the ornamentals symbols and their meanings because I literally haven't done anything on these apart from trying to remember their names. Please help me!

dear Maz:

usually composers look for repition for composing music, especially in eight bars music.The main repetition is rhythmic repetition,...i.e. having 2 four bars phase with the second one repeating the similar rhythm as the first...(which I loved to use! )
Or....melodic repetition...(this might be used with more advance composition...)
as it can also be combined with rhythmic repetitions to from a motif which you can use over and over again later in you composition.

Dynamics is important,you would probably want to have different dynamic contrast at the 2 different phase...
Articulations....staccatos, slurs, ties, scopations used where approraite....
Oh yes....also Tempo and performance direction.(which is already given in the test.) However care need to crackle this, I'll give you a hint: If the tempo of the given opening is slow and sad and it's for the cello, you won't continued it and give it demi-semi-quavers....or and fast, joyful aspects.... Overall it's about suiting the style and the period of the opening...ie. if it is quite baroque like, you difinitely won't put any crescendo or dimuendo in it will you??

Grade 5 theory is the funniest part of theory I reckon, I here to wish you good luck! (also you might have already did you exam considering that you said 'weekend').

I've got mine tomorrow too, and the composition part is the bit that gets me too.

I have posted a topic in the general music forum on this and there are some really good helpful replies there, so have a look there.

My strategy is to go for an AABA structure on rhythm using the rhthym given for the first two bars in the 3rd and 4th, and 7th and 8th. Use the first two bars pretty much as is again at the end but making sure I finish on the tonic. And try and get a I-IV cadence at the end of Bar 4 and a V-I at the end of bar 8.

My problem is that bars 5 and 6 are therefore completely up in the air with no real strategy, I might try and do a sequence here, but am not confident.

I think the ornament bit, from what I have seen from past papers they will only ask you to identify the name of one from its symbol in a piece of music

Good Luck, we'll have to compare notes on Sat afternoon!!!

Thanks both of you, I feel I bit better now. My exam is on Saturday morning, at 9 o' clock, which is a bit unfortunate because I am terrible at getting up in the morning.

Would it be OK if, for the composing, I work out a simple-ish 4 bar rhythm; then did a melody which goes up in 3rds and 2nds; get to the highest notes in bar 4 using notes in the I-IV candence; then repeat the rhythm but have the melody descending; in bar 7 use the dominant and leading note and then finish with the tonic?

Oh yeah, for the scale of C-major, would the I-IV cadence be ending on F, A or C? These things still completely confuse me - I have idea what I'm supposed to be doing with them. I'm so going to fail this exam

So how did both of you do? Max and Jane? Relax, it's not that easy to fail Grade 5. I've had a fresh adult pupil (well she was 16, so considered adult) who did one Grade one theory workbook, and then I asked her to work for Grade 5 because she would've finished school and had a couple of months to kill. That was the initial plan. Who knows, she began WORKING after her secondary school final exams, after we'd registered for the theory exam, and her work was the shift kind (think MacDonald's but it's a cafe) and hardly had any time for revision.

In the end, she still passed, even though she kind of scrapped through, having only finished one booklet of 2004 exam questions and did most of her cramming in one night.

The moral of my story? With such "careful" preparation compared to my student, I think you both must've got merits!

Well it was as I feared. Ok except for the composition, and I am sure I at least finished on the right note. It was for violin so that was something of a relief too.

Bars 5 and 6 were a tone row I think

I am sure I have passed (said she confidently ), but we'll see.

So back to practising the practical stuff now that's out the way

That's good hearing, Jane! I'm sure you would have passed too. Never mind, I'm sure the violinist will know how to add vibrato to your tone row.

Well for Grade 5 practical *I* need to learn how to add vibrato to my tone row...that's the next hurdle (well after the Forum concert anyway )

Well I think I've done OK. I found it alot easier than I thought it would be, and I remembered most of the stuff about composing (I put in a note from the dominant chord to make an imperfect cadence in bar 4 and had a leading note and tonic note at the end ). I bet my tune would sound horrendous if I played it in real life though!

I think I probably got the first question wrong because you had to put in bar lines and work out the time for some really confusing piece of music with lots of demisemiquavers (Did you put 7/8 Jane???). Everything else was OK, though I probably should have checked through it more carefully. I also think I got all the questions about musical terms right because I checked them in my music dictionary before going to Boots to calm myself down.

Hopefully I've passed, but I have a nasty feeling that because I think I've done well, I've failed, because when I've come out of an exam feeling unhappy I always get good marks and vice versa. If I've failed, I'll just do the thing again, it doesn't really matter that much.

I put 4/4. It was confusing with all the demis though. I tried to do it mathematically by adding up all the demis and semis etc into crotchet beats. Not easy.

Just glad I didn't have to play that extract!! Imagine if you got that for your sight reading test

I'm sure you'll be fine.....sounds like you got the composition bit sorted.

Oh no! I bet you're right but never mind, it was only a couple of marks hm? I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it, and after spending a few minutes counting and re-counting I gave up - I didn't even go back to it at the end, how lazy is that? Oh yeah, did you get that transposing or non-transposing question too? I wrote down basson, and non - transposing, because I could only think of the Cor Anglais being a transposing instrument, but I have no idea if that's totally wrong or not

Bassoon and non-transposing sound familiar, I think that's what I put too. I think a cor would play in treble clef? and yes that is transposing.

I'm sure both of you have done fine. Well, let me know how you are getting on with that tone row vibrato, and preferably added to the whole lot of semiquavers and demisemiquavers, Jane.

Yup I think u both got bassoon and cor anglais right, but didn't see the question, so just making a guess what from you said. I'm sure you both passed, maybe just a few marks less than your preliminary tests ... just like my students.