Here we can all be heard for a little while. Part 3

tea_lover

I did grades 1 to 4 in the early 90s and it's changed quite a bit! Which I should have looked into more before I agreed to try grade 5 :rotfl:.

Pyxis

tea_lover wrote: »

I did grades 1 to 4 in the early 90s and it's changed quite a bit! Which I should have looked into more before I agreed to try grade 5 :rotfl:.

Is it still the rule that in order to progress from Grade 5 practical to a higher grade, you have to pass Grade 5 theory?

Waves_and_Smiles

WaSp- "You are like one of those soppy dogs that likes everyone regardless of who they are. You're the little dog climbing everyone's leg" Ben is back to fix our water problem, I said I liked Ben, in fact I have made WaSp make him tea. :rotfl:

Pyxis

Waves_and_Smiles wrote: »

WaSp- "You are like one of those soppy dogs that likes everyone regardless of who they are. You're the little dog climbing everyone's leg" Ben is back to fix our water problem, I said I liked Ben, in fact I have made WaSp make him tea. :rotfl:

You could adopt him!

jobbingmusician

tea_lover wrote: »

I did grades 1 to 4 in the early 90s and it's changed quite a bit! Which I should have looked into more before I agreed to try grade 5 :rotfl:.

Honestly, it hasn't! I teach theory and the only thing I am aware of that's different or new since I learnt it (my grade 5 was in the 60's, I think!) is the introduction of the chromatic scale. Which was new to me (the notation of it, I mean) but is dead easy to learn.

Bring your theory problems to the fort and I will help you solve them!

Pyxis

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Honestly, it hasn't! I teach theory and the only thing I am aware of that's different or new since I learnt it (my grade 5 was in the 60's, I think!) is the introduction of the chromatic scale. Which was new to me (the notation of it, I mean) but is dead easy to learn.

Bring your theory problems to the fort and I will help you solve them!

Didn't we do chromatic scale notation in the 60s????






Edit. Maybe not. Recently I've had to notate the music for a duet, for which I only had the parts recorded, and I found it difficult deciding whether to make accidentals be sharps or flats. I decided on sharps, as the key was A major, but some of them look a bit odd.
Well, it's done now and photocopied and I'm not doing it again! It took ages!

Izadora

tea_lover wrote: »

Although the 'sing at the examiner' parts are comedy-terrible too.

I used to despise that part!!! I could never understand why, to prove that I could play a flute, I had to sing a note back to them.
Play me a note and I can (well, I could, I very much doubt I still can) tell you what you've played. Sing it back to you? Not a chance in hell of me getting my voice to make the note I want.

Ono, your bank holiday plans sound very ambitious!! Good call on not redecorating yet though. My old bedroom used to have woodchip paper and, despite the fact that it was about 25 years ago, I still remember how long it took 3 of us to get it all off of the walls.

Pyxis

Izadora wrote: »

I used to despise that part!!! I could never understand why, to prove that I could play a flute, I had to sing a note back to them.
Play me a note and I can (well, I could, I very much doubt I still can) tell you what you've played. Sing it back to you? Not a chance in hell of me getting my voice to make the note I want.

It's for training your musical ear.

tea_lover

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Honestly, it hasn't! I teach theory and the only thing I am aware of that's different or new since I learnt it (my grade 5 was in the 60's, I think!) is the introduction of the chromatic scale. Which was new to me (the notation of it, I mean) but is dead easy to learn.

Bring your theory problems to the fort and I will help you solve them!

It's the practical that's changed . I haven't actually done any theory exams (apart from some RSCM stuff, but not sure that counts). If I did want to go onto grade 6 practical I would have to pass grade 5 theory, which all seems very unlikely :rotfl:.

The aural parts of the practical are much more advanced than when I last did an exam. One of the scariest parts is being given a line of music to look at, they play the first note then you have to sight-sing the intervals to them. Just awful! I don't think I've managed to get an interval right yet :rotfl:.

The style and period part is also new (well, compared to 20 odd years ago, not sure how new it really is). They play a piece of music then ask the usual questions about tone, tempo, feel, etc. Then you have to identify the style and period and give various reasons for your answer (eg. it's baroque because of lack of dynamics and ornamentation.....) It's very hard!

jobbingmusician

Pyxis wrote: »

Didn't we do chromatic scale notation in the 60s????

Edit. Maybe not. Recently I've had to notate the music for a duet, for which I only had the parts recorded, and I found it difficult deciding whether to make accidentals be sharps or flats. I decided on sharps, as the key was A major, but some of them look a bit odd.
Well, it's done now and photocopied and I'm not doing it again! It took ages!

The rule is very simple. (There are various ways of notation, but this is the simple way recommended for grade 5).

Write the tonic once, the dominant once and the top tonic. Write all other notes twice. (For example, if you are starting on G#, heaven forbid, you write one G# at the bottom and one at the top, a D#, then two each of A, B, C, E and F). You then add accidentals in front of all the 'double' notes to make your chromatic. In this example it would be

G#, A (no natural sign needed), A#, B B#, C#, Cx (double sharp), D#, E, E#, F#, Fx, G#.

Sometimes this results in a scale with mixed sharps and flats.

Izadora wrote: »

I used to despise that part!!! I could never understand why, to prove that I could play a flute, I had to sing a note back to them.
Play me a note and I can (well, I could, I very much doubt I still can) tell you what you've played. Sing it back to you? Not a chance in hell of me getting my voice to make the note I want.

Yes, this is the reason I would criticise aural exams - controlling one's voice to produce the pitch needed is a separate skill and one some quite good musicians can't do.

tea_lover wrote: »

It's the practical that's changed . I haven't actually done any theory exams (apart from some RSCM stuff, but not sure that counts). If I did want to go onto grade 6 practical I would have to pass grade 5 theory, which all seems very unlikely :rotfl:.

The aural parts of the practical are much more advanced than when I last did an exam. One of the scariest parts is being given a line of music to look at, they play the first note then you have to sight-sing the intervals to them. Just awful! I don't think I've managed to get an interval right yet :rotfl:.

The style and period part is also new (well, compared to 20 odd years ago, not sure how new it really is). They play a piece of music then ask the usual questions about tone, tempo, feel, etc. Then you have to identify the style and period and give various reasons for your answer (eg. it's baroque because of lack of dynamics and ornamentation.....) It's very hard!

Can't you learn pieces of music to help you with intervals? I used to use 'Z cars' (REALLY dates me!) for 1,3 5. But singing up an arpeggio works just as well. A perfect 4th is Away in a Manger.....

Not sure how to advise you to listen for period, except to recommend that you try to focus on harmonic structure, but I can see that isn't that helpful a recommendation :rotfl: