Music exams - help please for cloth eared mother!

[katelyle]

dd is doing grade 3 clarinet in June. First music exam she's ever done. No problem with scales and pieces and all the rest of it, but how on earth do you practice the sight reading bit unless you've got someone in the family who knows enough about music to tell whether it's right or wrong? Or don't you bother and trust to luck on the day? We're pretty laid back about the whole deal, but I don't want to discover that there's something I should be doing that I'm not. Her teacher is even more laid back and says "She'll probably be fine!"

She'll probably be fine!
If you music teacher is anything like our (4!) she will not enter any pupil for any exam that she is not very sure she will pass- ours generally enter them a grade behind the level they are working at.

But if you get her to sight read tunes you are familiar with I think you will easily be able to tell if she is managing.

Yes, it's a bit of a problem, isn't it. Could you get your daughter to record herself and check how she did? It would practice at being honest with herself, a Useful Skill in Later Life.

If you want to be slightly more helpful but don't want to go to too much trouble, would you be able to check that the rhythm is right? You'd only have to learn the note lengths to do that.

Another thing you could try is finding music for tunes you actually know - but obviously just give your daughter the music and not the title.

I have to admit I've largely just left my son to it. His teacher's done a bit of practice with him in the lessons, and he's done all right.

Thank you - I must be particularly dim, I didn't think of giving her tunes I know! I might do a bit if either of us feel so inclined. I must admit, I became marginally less laid back when I discovered that it's going to cost thirty five pounds something! That's nearly a case of wine!

Her teacher should be helping her prepare for this anyway.

Don't worry too much, the sight-reading is a relatively small part of the exam. And the sight-reading pieces are generally set approx 2 grades lower than the grade you're doing - so it will be approx grade 1 for your daughter.

Loads of people struggle a bit with the sight-reading but still do really well in the exams.

And don't want to depress you, but the price per exam goes up every grade!

As portonovo says, the sightreading part of the exam is definitely one for the teacher
Good luck to your dd

Hi

The sight reading component of the music exam is but a small part of the exam itself. Your dd can pass even if she makes a hash of the piece, but I recommend that she looks at the piece given, and the time signature, then "feels" her way through the piece before actually playing it. Children tend to dive straight in and play the piece very badly, but if she reads it through first and takes her time, she may do a bit better.

It is possible to practise sight reading by attempting to play pieces unseen as a regular thing. However, it is may be a bit late for that now, and it might panic her.

Good luck with the exam! (Grade 6 was £49 - and you have to do the theory first too!)

There is a website for this- you could ask the teacher if she/he has signed up to it. The student can practise these tests online and is corrected. I think it's called Hofnote or something.

It is- I've googled it. It's had a load of positive feedback. They also sell metronomes.