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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Original poster

Music exams - where can I find out a bit more about what these entail?

36 replies

maggiethecat · 09/03/2009 21:13

Am trying to find out what these involve and when a child can expect to start preparing for grade 1. DD has been doing violin for under a year and I want to get an idea of what these involve before even bringing it up with teacher.

OP posts:
SueW · 09/03/2009 21:17

YOu should prob allow the teacher to be the guide.

At the school I work in pupils have lessons for roughly 5 terms before they take an exam (usually Grade 1) on their first instrument.

MargaretMountford · 09/03/2009 21:19

is this the same for singing do you know SueW ?

SueW · 09/03/2009 21:19

ABRSM info here

Trinity Guildhall here

SueW · 09/03/2009 21:21

Voice isn't usually done as a first instrument in our school. Most of the pupils who do it already play an orchestral instrument or piano (latter outside school)

SueW · 09/03/2009 21:25

I'm not a music teacher by the way, but an administrator for music dept and mother of a child who has Gr3 piano (ABRSM) and violin (TG) and is about to take Gr4 saxophone (TG). It's always been DD and her teachers who decide when she is taking exams.

mrsdisorganised · 09/03/2009 21:25

Hi, I studied classical singing up to grade 8 and would say that if you are putting your child through exams go for the ABRSM rather than Trinity. I did Trinity as my theory of music wasn't great and at that time (don't know about now) you had to have grade 5 theory to take any further practical exams with the AB, wish I'd stuck with the ABRSM for all my musical exams, looks better on UCAS forms!

mrsdisorganised · 09/03/2009 21:26

Voice was my first instrument, Piano second....took exams when I was ready to take them.

seeker · 09/03/2009 21:27

The associated Board used to produce a brilliant booklet called "Those Music Exams" which told you all about it in a very readable way.

Ask her teacher - I know in some instruments teachers don't bother with grades 1 and 2 and wait for the child to be ready to go straight in at grade 3.

MargaretMountford - if it helps, my dd did her grade 1 singing after 3 terms of lessons - but she was 12, rather than a littly.

SueW · 09/03/2009 21:28

Interesting POV.

DD has done TG to now - except piano - but senior school mostly does ABRSM exams. She's just taken Gr5 AB Theory - it is still required to go further - and we thought she might as well get it out of the way whilst she doesn't have much on and there's no pressure IYSWIM. She's Y7 at school so no other external exam pressures.

SueW · 09/03/2009 21:31

DD went straight to Gr3 on sax from Sept-Mar -lots of experience reading music already and of course had played recorder in school too so had some familiarity with fingering (so I understand).

AB still do a good guide.

Download link on this page

MargaretMountford · 09/03/2009 21:33

thanks for that...was curious - ds is in yr 7 and has been doing singing as his first instrument since September - was wondering when it might be time for exams, if he's up to it. My friends dd has only been doing singing for a short time and is doing grade 4, but she plays piano and trumpet too,so I guess gets fast-tracked.

Original poster
maggiethecat · 09/03/2009 21:35

Will look at the websites just to get a flavour. I'm not sure that teacher is too concerned about exams and I think she may be actually against them (heard this through grapevine) hence my reluctance to bring it up. That said, DD is doing very well and has moved from the stage of having to be persuaded to practise, to asking me to practise almost daily.

OP posts:
islandofsodor · 09/03/2009 21:56

Not got time to reply now but dh is a singing teacher and I fdid singing 1st study at uni.

It is very different to most instruments due to individual physical sevelopment etc.

Incidentally dh ahs just moved to Trinity from ABRSM as their syllabus has greatly improved and theort is done as you go along.

It is much better respected now (wasn;t when I went through the system.

islandofsodor · 09/03/2009 22:54

A ds in Year 7 (age 11???) may not do any exams for a year or two. Puberty is an akward age for voices both girls and boys and much depends on an individual's development. You can start to develop a good technique, but voice change may have started, or it may be a while off. During this time the voice becomes more breathy, youlose range etc.

I bagen singing lessons at age 18 and went straight to Grade 5 I had Grade 7 piano by that time though and was studying A level music. Dh has just entered a 10 year old for Grade 1, she has been studying with him for around 18 months.

LilyBolero · 09/03/2009 23:03

On violin she will need to be using 4th finger, know 'low' 2nd finger, and be able to bow and make a consistently ok sound (slurred and single bows). She would need to do 3 pieces, plus 3 scales and 3 arpeggios. Also sightreading and aural.

maggotts · 10/03/2009 00:51

Hi

First post so hope I don't do anything wrong.

DD1 (12) has done ABRSM on piano and violin. Started piano at 8 and took 2 years before doing G1. Still hasn't done G2. Started violin at 10 and did G1 in 6 months aand 18 months on is doing G3. Basically, it depends on the child and the instrument but for G1 they need to be able to make a nice sound, play 3 pieces, know some scales, be able to do some simple sight reading and some simple aural tests. Can take a while to get there on a first instrument.

MargaretMountford · 10/03/2009 09:52

thanks islandofsodor - that is interesting - yes,he is 11,not sign of voice breaking yet...am not especially bothered about his doing exams,except that I think it would boost his confidence..I love seeing which new songs he is learning...

AMumInScotland · 10/03/2009 10:03

Some music teachers don't like the exams, so it depends to an extent whether you particularly want your child to get the grades and why. DS's first violin teacher didn't believe in grade exams, but we wanted him to have something on paper so he did Grade 3. We've since changed teachers and he then did Grade 5, and now is about to do Grade 7. So, it's really up to a combination of the child, the parents and the teacher whether you do them at all and if so, which ones!

seeker · 10/03/2009 10:13

Dd did her Grade 1 singing at the beginning of year 8. Her teacher likes them to do the occasional exam because it gives them the opportunity to sing in front of strangers. Dd did very well, and it has given her SUCH a boost. Interestingly though, she only scraped a pass in her grade 3 clarinet and that gave her a boost too - she was very amused by the very tactfully phrased 'you got this by the skin of your teeth' comments!

islandofsodor · 10/03/2009 10:57

If your ds was a littl younger maggotts then I would say that the prep test would be a great thing to do. There is no pass or fail, just constructive criticism form the examiner. A great boost.

However the repertoire for the prep test is a little childish.

That can also be a problem with the lower grades full stop though the newest syllabuses have started to address that. In the old ABRSM syllabus there was virtually nothing for adult beginners in Grade 1, it was all children's songs.

That is another reason why I like Trinity Guildhall, also if a youngster likes musical theatre there are a lot of options there.

Is your ds gaving lessons in school? My dh teaches in schools and is very wary of putting pupils in for exams as a. parents often won't pay for either the music or exam fee (you have to take original copies into the exam and some pieces are only available in expensive anthologies). Also if the lesson is a group one or a very short lesson there is not enough time to cover everything. Dh has been known to have been given3-4 students of different abilities in a 20 minute lesson. Privately he would see an 11 year old once a week for 30 mins.

islandofsodor · 10/03/2009 10:57

I meant margaret not maggots sorry.

Original poster
maggiethecat · 10/03/2009 14:19

AMumInScotland did your ds's first teacher ever say why she did not like exams? I imagine that they might get in the way of learning and expression but I too would like dd to have something on paper. She's still quite young but I'll see how things continue with her playing before even bringing up the subject with her teacher.

How old was yours when he did grade 5?

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AMumInScotland · 10/03/2009 14:48

I think he felt it just meant "teaching to the test" to get them through grades, and he felt that some people were pushed through grades who weren't really that good, which meant they were meaningless bits of paper. But we wanted the "meaningless" bit of paper as we were thinking towards private school applications and it seemed easier to have something to put down on the application rather than just "his teacher thinks he's pretty good". DS then did Grade 5 when he was 13, and he's 15 now and doing Grade 7 at the end of the month. I get the feeling that's good but not exceptional, but it really depends on so many factors how fast they will progress.

MargaretMountford · 10/03/2009 17:05

ds has a half hour lesson at school with an outside teacher (is also a music specialist school btw) - he shares the lesson with a yr 7 girl

Original poster
maggiethecat · 10/03/2009 18:29

That's something that I have in mind AMIS, applications at a later stage. I understand that for music scholarships to independent schools a grade 5 is the standard usually required. I don't know what kind of minimum grade is required for just increasing chances of entry.

I would like to just let her play for as long as possible without even mentioning exams so we can see what her ability is. Then we can determine, with her teacher, what we want to do about exams.

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