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Extra-curricular activities

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Original poster

Aural tests in child who cannot sing.

38 replies

Didiplanthis · 03/02/2018 20:39

Any tips for helping ? Dd is doing grade 1 and really really really cannot pitch her voice at all. Can hear pitch ok as plays violin mostly in tune. But cannot sing back a note let along a phrase. I am trying to help but just starting with single notes then 2 notes. Will happily do this every day with her but what else can I do ? We listen to lots of music. I was rubbish at aural but could at least sing in tune!

OP posts:
Greenleave · 05/02/2018 09:31

I dont know how the marking work exactly, we have taken various tests for both violin and piano from prep test to grade 7. There were times we got distictions, many times got merit and only had a pass one. I had just checked our aural test and our results varied from 12-14. And as I mentioned earlier we refused point blank to any singing related however still perform other sections within aural tests.

Wafflenose · 05/02/2018 11:09

I was attempting to give the OP advice specific to Grade 1, which would be to just have a reasonable attempt, or to play the test on the violin instead. The examples I gave from my teaching practice in recent years were also grade 1s. Nobody ever failed grade 1 aural because of singing out of tune. I can see I'm making things worse so I will bow out now, and perhaps check with one of my two ABRSM examiner acquaintances if anybody is that interested.

Original poster
Didiplanthis · 05/02/2018 11:48

Waffle - thanks for your input - I have appreciated it greatly - thank you !!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Didiplanthis · 05/02/2018 11:48

And everyone else's too !!

OP posts:
INeedNewShoes · 05/02/2018 11:58

0 - no work offered

That would mean no work offered for any of the aural tests not just one of the elements.

You can always tweet ABRSM and I'm sure they'd clear this up.

AliMonkey · 05/02/2018 12:14

DD did grade 4 clarinet last year, after getting a new teacher. Previous teachers hadn't even mentioned singing whereas this teacher realised early on that DD couldn't do it so did lots of practice with her. She also spent time focussing on other parts of aural with aim of doing very well in other parts to compensate. We also practiced at home (although as I too can't sing in tune I'm not sure I was very good at working out whether DD was!) Whilst DD didn't do brilliantly in the aural, there was a huge improvement from where she started. DD has previously only got passes (including one where she just scraped through) and this time got a merit, and it was basically down to improving the aural. As a PP said, if you can get the rhythm etc right then the fact that the notes are off-key is less of an issue. So even at Grade 4 it's not a total disaster if can't sing, but with practice it can be improved, and can largely compensate with other parts of aural.

BeyondThePage · 05/02/2018 12:26

Broken11Girl, I think most people are posting to let the OP know that they are focussing on the wrong thing.

If you think how hard it is to teach the singing part of aural to very young children -as opposed to telling them to

make sure to put dynamics in the pieces,

or evenness of tone in the scales -

or even just "plough through the sight reading - don't stop and restart"

and you are talking about the same sort of mark levels.

Whowhatwhy · 05/02/2018 12:33

Greenleve you repeatedly use the word "we" when talking about your child's result and exams. You do understand that the mark your child got isn't yours don't you?

ArtisanBaps · 05/02/2018 12:36

A member of my family is a professional pianist, he was a Cambridge organ scholar, then conservatoire educated; he now teaches at one, in fact. He can’t sing in tune. So vocal and musical ability are definitely separate!

I am a music teacher and have only had one student like this, who couldn’t pitch match her voice to a heard melody.

I once heard an expert on supposed ‘tone deafness’ advise a teacher to try and match their voice to the singer as a first step, rather than trying to get the singer to match to them or a piano. Then they can hear and feel what it like to be in tune. From there they can try going one note up or down together, so that the singer calibrates and gains more control over their vocal apparatus

violinandpiano · 05/02/2018 12:37

Hi, hope you can help me.
My DD can’t remember clap part, how to improve this part? Singing low part is a bit weak as well, she always forget the last note.

Greenleave · 05/02/2018 13:04

Pls be excused my (rather crap) English Whowhatwhy, I am completely non-musical, I meant for my daughter.

Floottoot · 05/02/2018 14:41

Wow, broken11girl, I think you may need to get some perspective on this.
Plenty of pupils get distinctions without doing well on the singing part of aurals. It's really not quite as urgent as you seem to be suggesting, and being rude to people isn't helping your cause.

underneaththeash · 05/02/2018 21:35

My DS finds that he can hum more in tune than sing.

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