Music Exams: What Do You Need for Your Practical Music Exams

Hi everyone,

I will be talking about what you need to help you to plan and prepare your practical music exams. This will vary depending on the exam board you are taking your music exams with.

Exam Pieces

This is usually from a graded exam pieces book that has been compiled together for all relevant grades, but another option is choosing your exam pieces from an 'extended repertoire' list which can usually be found on the exam boards website. You can choose three pieces for a face to face exam, or four pieces for a digital exam. These pieces can be either all from the core pieces of music from the graded exam book, all pieces from the 'extended repertoire' or a combination of pieces from both the core and extended repertoire. You have a quite a range of pieces to also choose from, and you can also tailor the exam pieces to your liking due to the fact that there's now a lot more variety for practical music exams.

 The four exam pieces form part of the 'Repertoire only' exam option for Trinity College. If you wanted to do the 'Technical' exam option with Trinity College, then its three pieces of music. 

Scales, Arpeggios and Exercises

You will need to learn all of your scales and arpeggios from memory for your exams, if you are doing as part of your exam. For the exercises; you can take the pieces into the exam with you.

Scales, Arpeggios and Exercises form part of the 'Technical' exam option for the Trinity College exams; and this option can be done either face to face, or digital.

Aural

Familiarising and developing your aural skills should be done with your music teacher, and this can take time for you to develop your ear. But, you can buy books to help you to improve on your aural skills. Aural forms part of the face to face exams from both ABRSM and Trinity College. Even if you don't do aural as part of your exam; it's still a very good skill within your musical journey for you to develop.

What You Need for Your Practical Music Exams

- Exam Pieces (either from your graded pieces book, from the 'extended repertoire' list; or combination from each

- Scales, Arpeggios & Exercises; or just Scales and Arpeggios for your relevant grade

- Developing your aural music skills with your teacher

Also, once you have got all of your pieces, scales and arpeggios up to standard before you take the practical exam; another thing you can do is get yourself into a routine for how you would like to play the pieces for the exam. By doing this before the exam, it will make it easier for you on the day of the exam as you will already have the routine practiced and you will be more familiar in what you are doing on the day.

Trinity College - Mosaics Books 1 & 2

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about the Mosaics books for woodwind players by Mike Mower for Trinity College.

The Mosaics books for woodwind players is made up of two books. These books are available for flute, clarinet and saxophone. The clarinet and saxophone editions are a mixture of compositions by Mike Mower and James Rae.

Book One is for beginners through to Grade 5; and Book Two is for Grades 6 - 8.

Book One features 65 solo pieces, and these pieces vary in length depending where you are in your musical journey. In this book the pieces are no longer than a page in length.

Book Two features 42 solo pieces, and this book is aimed at the more advanced player. Another addition to this book is that includes notes from the composer at the back. I'm not too sure if this is a more recent thing that they have included, because it isn't in my edition of 'Mosaics: Book One'. Most of the pieces that are within this book are a page in length, but some of the pieces go over two pages in length.

What I really like about this series of books by Mike Mower are the daft titles that he has come up with for the pieces. It gives the books some light heartedness, even some of the pieces can be on the more trickier side; especially in the second book.

I can only give my opinions based on the Mosaics books for flute, as they are the only ones that I own. I also don't play either the clarinet or saxophone, which is another reason why I don't have those editions. So, I have no idea on what the books are like with the collaborations between Mike Mower and James Rae.

Tackling Sight Reading

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about tackling sight reading.

Sight reading is a skill within music that needs to be developed over time. In some cases, learners can get it straight away; but more often than not, it doesn't naturally come to others - and thats okay. There's no right or wrong way to develop your sight reading skills, but all I can say is just keep working at it, and it will happen.

Scales and Arpeggios

Before you even tackle sight reading make sure that you have practiced a few scales and arpeggios, just to warm up and familiarise yourself with the scales and arpeggios that you are working on.

Keep it Simple

If your just starting out developing your sight reading, please keep it simple to begin with. If you are learning a one octave G Major scale, then choose a sight reading exercise that also has the one octave G Major scale. 

Graded Sight Reading

If you are doing sight reading as part of your graded music exams, then start sight reading one to two grades below the grade that you are working on. This will enable you to gradually build up your sight reading skills up to the grade that you are working on over a period of time. By doing it this way, you also won't get as much of a shock, as if you would jumping straight in to the grade that you are working on.

You Can Always Go Back

If you aren't happy you can always take it back to basics and start again at a lower grade. There's nothing wrong in taking things back slightly to help you to progress a little further. Sight reading can be tricky to grasp and understand, especially in the beginner stages of learning a musical instrument. You can go back as many times as you want throughout your musical journey. You might also want to reinforce an unusual time signature or a more advanced key signature.

The 30 Second Rule

Don't throw yourself into this straightaway. For some exam boards, as part of their sight reading element of the exam; they will ask you to look at a piece of music that you have never seen before, and look at it for 30 seconds before they will then ask you to play that piece of music. 

Once you have become more familiar with doing sight reading, you can have a go at reading a new piece of music for 30 seconds and then have a go at playing it. Just to give you a feel of what it would be like during the exam, and get yourself more comfortable with the exam sight reading process.

Sight Reading Books

- Trinity Sight Reading (Initial - Grade 2)

- Trinity Sight Reading (Grades 3 - 5)

- Trinity Sight Reading (Grades 6 - 8)

- Improve Your Sight Reading (Grades 1 - 3)

- Improve Your Sight Reading (Grades 4 - 5)

- Improve Your Sight Reading (Grades 6 - 8)

- Schott Sight Reading Book One

- Schott Sight Reading Book Two

- ABRSM Sight Reading (Grades 1 - 5)

- ABRSM Sight Reading (Grades 6 - 8)

* The 'Improve Your Sight Reading' books by Paul Harris varies in the number of books, depending on the instrument you are learning. In some cases, its one book per grade.

 

Deep Dive Studies: 125 Easy Classical Studies

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about 125 Easy Classical Studies for flute.

This book is a great start for beginner/ intermediate flute players who would like to get into learning studies. 

This book starts off fairly easy, but it does get a little more tricky the more that you progress through the book. Most of the flute studies featured within this book are fairly short, but they are a few towards the back of the book that go up to two pages in length.

The book starts off with really easy studies that are suitable for flute players who are just starting learning the flute, and then progresses up to around Grade 6/7 standard. Towards the end of the book the studies also start a few tricky techniques such as octave leaps, and also more advanced key signatures.

The composers that are featured in this book are :-

- Devienne

- Drouet

- Furstenau

- Gariboldi

- Hugot

- Wunderlich

- Kohler

- Nicholson

- Popp

- Soussmann

- Tromlitz

I would recommend this book for anyone whose just starting out on the flute, and would like to explore the world of flute studies. There's also some really nice studies for you to learn and explore from beginner level right the way up to advanced level. Also, don't let the more complicated studies put you off from buying the book, as the more you progress through your own learning; the easier it will become to understand the studies and the benefits of learning studies. 

Another thing you can do with the easier studies, is to incorporate them as part of your scales and arpeggios section of your practice routine. To do this, all you need to do is find one or two easy studies to work alongside the scales and arpeggios that you are working on. What I mean by this is; if you were learning the G Major scale and arpeggio, you find find an easy G Major study to learn alongside that scale. If you would like to do this, but are unsure; ask your flute teacher as they will be able to advise you on what study/ies would be suitable for your level of playing.

Creative Keepsakes

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about creative keepsakes, and why you might want to keep them and how to store them for future reference.

The idea of having creative keepsakes is so then you can look back into your past from the future, and say "I used to do x, y, z when I was younger", or 'This is how far I progressed and developed in a certain area". Keepsakes can be kept for anything, not just creative subjects. These can you be your results from your GCSEs, AS/ A Levels, Vocational Courses and your degrees; just as an idea of what you can keep as a keepsake.

Practice Journals

Keeping practice journals are a great way to see how far that you have progressed and developed over the years. I usually write out my practice sessions in rough first, and I then I transfer those practice session notes over to a really nice notebook. For a really nice notebook I like to use a company called 'Papier', as their paper quality is really nice and you can customise the front with whatever you want. I have one Papier notebook per Grade. 

Certificates

These certificates can be from any graded music/ drama exams that you have taken over the years, any dance exams or anything else that you have gained a certificate for. In some cases, you may have a pay a small fee to get an 'official' certificate; or you may have the option to download and print off your certificate/s at home. For storing certificates I really like to use the display books from Shopake, and these come in about four different colours; so you could have one/ multiple for each area of study that you do i.e) one for music, one for drama and one for dance; or one colour for each of the different instruments you are learning and that you are doing your grades in. For any diplomas, you may need a larger display book as I think the certificates are slightly larger than A4.

Exam Feedback

Feedback from examiners is also a really nice thing to keep, as that again you will be able to look back at and see how far you have progressed and developed over the years. You could keep the feedback behind the relevant certificate that you have achieved, so that way you have the complete picture for your progression at that time of your learning and development.

Trophies & Awards

These could be trophies and awards that you have earned by entering into competitions, or just taking part in general.

Score Studies

Score studies start to get introduced at the higher grades, and this is when you do a score analysis of your instruments part, your part with the piano, and any recordings that you have listened to of those pieces of music to form part of the study; as well as any practice plans and ideas on how you like to interpret those pieces of music. For Score Studies I like to do mine in rough first, and then transfer them to a nice notebook. The notebooks that I like to use are from Kenji; and I use one notebook per piece of music.

Scripts

These scripts could be from all of the works that you have had to do as part of your graded drama exams, or from any productions that you have taken part in.

General Notes & Planning

These notes could be from planning your performance diploma and doing performance notes as part of that diploma; or planning on what order you would like to play/ perform your pieces/ monologues/ short excerpts in. This is just really any about keeping any planning that you do, and how you have progressed from the beginning stage to the end stage. This could also include any colour schemes and outfit ideas that you have for your exams.

 

Music Literature: The Complete Classical Music Guide (DK Encyclopaedias)

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about 'The Complete Classical Music Guide from DK Encyclopaedias.

This is a brilliant book for anyone whose interested in learning about the world of classical music, as it covers a wide variety of different subject areas. It's also goes into depth, but without being overwhelming for the reader.

The areas that this book covers are :-

- Understanding music notation and the stave

- Families of musical instruments

- Going to see an orchestra and what to expect

- Different genres of classical music & their composers

- Well known pieces of classical music

This book is great, as it gives you an understanding of the different eras of classical music and the composers that was within those eras. But, it also gives you a a brief history of the composers, as well as a few of their well known compositions and a little timeline of their life.

Another area covered within this book is the different types of orchestras that have occurred throughout history, and the formats. It goes into detail about solo recitals, modern orchestras, professional musicians and the modern day audience. It also explains what to expect from going to orchestra, and how to behave when attending an orchestra.

The DK Complete Guide to Classical Music is a brilliant resource for anyone whose looking for gaining some more knowledge about the world of classical music. The book is also written in manageable chunks to make it so much easier for you to digest the information, and to also understand it a little more easily.

Refining Your Exam Pieces

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about refining your exam pieces before you take your music exam.

When it comes to refining pieces of music for your exams to get them up to a high standard of playing, you may just need a little more time to go through just a few areas that need some minor attention in your practice sessions.

Play the Piece/s Through 

To help you identify any areas that need a little more work, play all of your pieces through fully a few times. As this will help you to figure which areas needs some more attention within your pieces.

Tone

Also when refining your exam pieces, you may also want to work on your tone and tonal colours for these pieces; to see if thats what you would like your piece to sound like. You may also want to work on giving your pieces a fuller, and richer tone; which will enable you to create more depth.

Phrasing

You might find that you may need to smooth out a few areas of phrasing, to make your piece flow a lot better. Also, you may want to work on your air support to enable to phrase a longer phrase/ section as smoothly as possible.

Articulation

You may find that your articulation isn't as clean and crisp as you want to be in certain areas of your pieces. You might want to work on an easy study to help you to crisp up your articulation, and to make it easier for you to articulate within your pieces of music.

Slow Practice

Playing the pieces through at a slower tempo to help you to identify any additional areas that need work, or just play the pieces through slowly to solidify any improvements that you have made to your pieces.

Feel free to do what ever it is that you need to do to get the best grade possible in your music exams, but also make sure that you take your time. Also, you can also analyse your practice as you go along; and this will also identify any areas that need working on earlier on in your music practice.