Does anyone have a list or know where i could get one of musical terms for Grade 5 Theory?

I've got a book called Theory is Fun (Grade 5) by Maureen Cox which contains a list in there but it doesn't say which board it applies to!

If anyone knows whether it applies to ABRSM or where i could get a full list for Grade 5 then let me know, basically?

The Maureen Cox books are based on ABRSM exams and should have all the words required. If not, there is a list at the back of The Associated Board's Guide to Music Theory Part 1.

May I addm on an aside, what a great username you have

Yes, I was going to say as well that part of the username was related to you, but let's get back to the topic.

Thanks! I was hoping I wouldn't have to learn out of AB 1 because that list a L T bigger!

I guess it's better to know all the terms from AB Guide...just to be sure you wouldn't lose any marks.... It's always better to get acquainted with as many terms as you can...isn't it?

But if the AB Guide list really bores/scares you, you probably can confine to the words in Eric Taylor's "Music Theory in Practice"...When you want to take a chance, I believe this one is more reliable than Maureen Cox..

Good luck!

How do you play music if you don't know these terms anyway? Most of what you're talking about is performance instruction, not strict theory.

Considering the reason you learn the terms is so that you can play music and follow the necessary terms, it would be a good idea to know as many as possible - and not just in order to pass your grade 5 theory...

Oh! you are right!!

But right now I am doing only theory...Piano is a bit ahead in my list (after singing). Since I am working, I could not cope with all of them at a time...

Since I am not playing any instrument right now, my mind did not reason out so naturally like this - "they are required to play"



Thanks sarah-flute!

Fair enough - but I do recommend learning them. Sooner or later you will come across them, and it's so much easier if you can see for example andante and know what that means in musical terms than if you look at it and think "oh I need to look that up" or even "oh that means a walking pace, therefore I should..."

I know tempo direction, cresc + dim, ral. and asc. (excuse the abb.) aswell as some common Italian terms but you have to know German and French terms aswell. French is a Latin-based language so it is similar, but German is Germanic (coincidence?) so it's totally different, Ja?

It reminds me of spelling tests in primary school.

Why do you have to remember the spellings so exactly? I think it would suffice if you know it approximately either for recognizing while playing or for theory exams. (In theory they ask meanings for the words only and not the other way round!)

And over time, when you see the word many more times....you would remember it automatically...

I'm not necassarily referring to the spelling, just the fact that I have a list in my spelling book (AB 1) and that I have to learn the spellings (meanings) of the words (terms).

P.S. The brackets are metaphors.

I have got Music Theory in Practise for Grade 5 aswell, but that list is smaller so I presumed that it only had new terms you had to learn for Grade 5 and that if I wanted the rest, I would have to go and buy the others.

But the situation has become more confusing because it DOESN'T say that something along the lines of "aswell as the other terms in previous books".
In section L, it just says:


It doesn't mention anything about previous books.

Can someone just clarify the situation?

P.S. I just need to know because I have finished school now so I won't see my piano teacher till Sept. I will learn all of the terms eventually but I need to know the list for Grade 5 first as these would be the most important one at the moment, if I only knew which ones I had to learn!!!

Not got the books handy, but if the terms from the previous books are not printed in the grade 5 one then you need to get hold of those lists too.
All theory grades (after grade 1) assume that you know all the material from previous grades.

Thanks for that!
I'll start learning the list out of Theory for Fun instead of buying the previous theory books becuase it's cheaper!

You were born in the same year I was too - this is weeeirrdd

I've got Theory for fun books 1, 2 & 3. Each book has a 'Dictionary of Musical Terms' that includes the ones in the previous books. ie: book 1 has 2 pages, Bk 2 has 4 pages and bk 3 has 6 and a half pages.
If your book has significantly more pages than this then it probably includes all the terms in the other books.