Grade 5 Music Theory help!

[FedUpWithBriiiiick]

DS (13) has to do his ABRSM Grade 5 Theory. He has never done a Music Exam theory test before, but we were reassured by teacher(s) that he will have no problems with it, and can do it without any tutoring.

Got the official ABRSM Discovering Theory workbook and cannot make heads or tails of it! Neither DH or I have any skills in this so we are floundering. Can anyone suggest books/resources to support learning, or should we bite the bullet and find a tutor? Would uni students do this sort of thing?

There is an app by the Abrsm my dd uses but only at grade 2 theory and only using it for general knowledge not exams, I assume it goes to grade 5. I had my piano teacher tutor me through it although that was 25 years ago so it may be best to get an actual tutor for a few months.

I second getting a tutor. I breezed through Grade 5 but I’d been having lessons specifically in music theory. Lots of instrument teachers will teach theory or there are people who specialise in it (though fewer of them!)

Definitely get a tutor. He won’t even need a huge amount of sessions, once he’s picked up the theory it’s just a matter of practice.

Youtube does have some good videos in the meantime to have a watch of.

Have you started with Book 1? Look at the AB guide to music theory as well. Whereabouts are you?

I love music theory! Is your child also baffled by the book, or just the parents?

A music uni student would most likely be able to guide them through music theory. They should be reasonably across 5th grade theory because they would have done the exams themselves if they play an instrument at a high level.

I think it is because this workbook doesn't explain the why.

He is a very bright boy and a great musician. Understands theory well, just not the new concepts introduced in the workbook without context.

We are in NI. Will check out AB guide. Thanks!

There was no way either of my kids would have managed music theory Grade 5 without lessons - one had them at Saturday school for a term and that was enough. With the other, because she was older and I just wanted it out of the way, we paid for this

https://www.celebratewithmusic.co.uk/grade-5-theory-course/

She did four sessions at two hours a day, took the exam at the end of the week and passed. Which was pleasingly efficient. But I appreciate that may be more than you want to spend.

If you get the Abrsm app, you can work through each grade from one upwards, will get through the lower ones easily, then will need to look at the book to learn the grade 4/5 stuff probably. The Blitz your theory books are good too and have an online answer book which helps. They explain how to do things like intervals etc. As to the why, it's just a language to convey music, once you know the rules, you can break them! DD did it herself as very motivated but that's probably rare, even if you don't understand the theory you can probably help with studying.

Thanks all for the advice!! That online course looks great @minisnowballs - I'll check it out!

I used to teach Grade 5 theory and used to get all my students to buy this book - written by a dad for his DC. It is the old syllabus and pre online days but is a pretty good summary of all the theory needed.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-Five-Pass-First-Time/dp/0953500705

I'd also recommend buying all 5 of the ABRSM work books and starting at the beginning and working through them all as the earlier grade stuff should be straightforward and (rather like maths) the later grades build on the early foundations. An online course like the one @minisnowballs recommended would be useful too an in person one even better if you can find one - the head of music at school might be able to help (or recommend a 6th former doing A level music who might support your DC).

Definitely get a tutor - when I did mine my instrument teacher did theory lessons with me.

DD is doing hers this year, but luckily her school run a lunchtime theory club/ lessons so she has done it through that, and I know enough to help her when she's doing work at home.

Can I ask much theory your daughter had before doing the course? My 11 year old DC wants to have it done before September and we have been trying to grind through grades 3 and 4 workbooks with online video courses with mixed success. So this is appealing but if you have to be able to pass grade 4 before starting maybe not.

As pp have said, start with the G1 book - there's an example test at the end of each book. There's also a good youtube channel covering all this - SharonBill

As others say, he would probably need to start from grade 1 book, the 'new content without context' is probably not actually new. Does that series have answers in so he can check his work? If so, he could work through and take any queries back to the teacher who set him going on it. If not it's harder, I did find mine had a tendency to fall into misunderstandings when they just worked through the book and I had to re-direct a few things.

Back in the mists of time, I was just told by my piano teacher to buy the tiny red ABRSM book and start at the beginning. I do remember some of it not making a lot of sense tbh. The worst bit was learning all the key signatures.

I agree, start with book 1 rather than jumping straight in at 5 if it's not something he's done before.

I had a similar problem last year - My daughter is a violin player and was using the app but we found she just needed it all to be explained properly, using the proper methods. She was studying for her Grade 5 theory exam, but we couldn’t find the right tutor for her. Eventually, I found a crash course for Grade 5 theory which was amazing. She loved it and ended up getting a Distinction. Here is the link for the course. I hope this helps and good luck to him!Green Room Music Theory

There's so many ways to learn music theory, and the right materials for a musical 8 or 9 yr old or a bright teenager could be quite different. Hope you find something that clicks because I agree with your son's teacher that he probably shouldn't need loads of time to prepare for it. (He might indeed enjoy trying grade 6 theory after that, especially if he is interested in composition or music arranging, but that would definitely need some teaching support and his instrument teacher may well not be able to do it).

Thank you for this. He's keen to pursue music at as a career, from GCSE through university, so carrying on with theory is a great call.

I love music but haven't got a musical bone in my body. It's good to have all this encouragement and tips!

I'm sorry, I never replied to this did I? DD1 had done about two terms of theory lessons before this - but frankly never listened in them... she appeared to know nothing before doing the course.

Booked this course for DD on the back of your recommendation. Am v glad to see your DD had done theory lessons but paid no attention.

That's the position we are in... knows a lot about practical music, and suspect a far amount of theory but not in a put it down on paper kind of way. Also dyslexic...

Hoping this will do the trick and we can both tick the Grade 5 off the list and give her more of an understanding of theory for GCSE exams.

Did you book the exam before you did the course? Am trying to work out whether best to try and do exam asap after the course or attempt to persuade madam to do lots of practice papers and then book it.

My daughter learns with Graham Bennett and he'll do by zoom too - he's lovely https://www.musicmasterseries.co.uk/

Hate to put a downer on it but if he's 13 and hasn't yet got grade 6 he needs to get a move on if he wants to study music at university. Most applicants will have their diploma or at the very least grade 8 distinction in their main instrument at the time of application, age 17.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow I booked the exam first. DD was in year 11 and we just wanted it out the way... she literally took it half an hour after she finished. If i had my time again though I'd make her do the practice tests on the website first too - it emerged she'd forgotten to drag and drop on the chords section so although she passed she got zero in that section.

But you can book it and then have a window of time in which to take it, I think - it's very flexible now. Her little sister did the first covid online theory pilot which was inflexible and fairly disastrous - it is much better now!

Perfect - I'll book it so that she's got till the end of August to complete it.

Did your DDs appear to actually know more afterwards and be able to apply it?

The chap that runs the course sounds super nice!