New Year Resolutions and "How to Keep Them"

New Year is traditionally a time when many people like to make resolutions. Will you be making any MUSICAL New Year Resolutions this time?

The New Year is a time when we like to make a fresh start, maybe do things a little better than last year. In terms of musical resolutions, maybe a good place to begin, would be to look at the mark sheet from your last exam and analyze where your weaknesses are. However a recent survey suggested that only an average 8% of people kept their resolutions. So "How Can We Achieve Our Goals?"

Maybe your goal is, for example, to improve your sight reading. The secret is to start small, give yourself achievable goals. So it would be better to say, "I will do one sight reading exercise a day" than "I will improve my sight reading this year." Don't try to be a perfectionist. If your goal is too high, you will get discouraged and give up.

Secondly - make yourself accountable. Tell someone about your goals. Get them to ask you how you are doing. You could even post your resolution in the comments below, Nothing like telling the world what your plans are to motivate you to stick to them, and if you leave a comment, I will check up on you in a month's time and ask how it's going. Maybe find a "buddy" who has similar goals to yourself from the comments and you can motivate each other.

So go on - do it -  write down your goal now, below this post and make yourself accountable. 

Here at MusicOnline UK, I would like to wish YOU all a Happy New Year where you will achieve all you plan to do.

The Examiner's Marksheet - INVESTIGATED

By looking carefully at the comments of the examiner's mark sheet, we can get a good insight into the ABRSM marking criteria  thus helping you to get a better mark in future exams.

Here is one such mark sheet from an exam recently taken by one of my students

Let's analyze it section by section.

Pieces

For those of you who find it difficult to decipher the examiner's handwriting which can at times be like that of a doctor's prescription let me translate:

First piece - A bright and stylish tempo with a good sense of pulse and played with even tone and contrasted dynamics. Briefly "something" (even I cannot decipher this word so if anyone can help please let me know in the comments below) rhythm only.  

You will notice that there is nothing in this comment about playing the correct notes, but rather, how the tempo, tone and dynamics resulted in a bright and stylish performance.

For the second piece there were similar remarks made;

The character was well conveyed at a confident tempo with well controlled and contrasted tone. 

Notice here however he adds, that there was

Just an occasional small slip and stumble

Even so, this piece still got a very high merit mark. If any of you saw to my post from last week, you will remember that I  mentioned how many students come out of the exam remembering just the wrong note or two they may have played and then think that the whole thing was terrible.

For the third piece, which incidentally gained FULL MARKS, again notice what things apart from just getting the right notes gained this excellent mark. He writes

A flowing and well chosen speed for the style. Hands were consistently well balanced and it was fully accurate in notes, with well contrasted dynamics.

So in summary, with regard to pieces, try to NOT just focus on getting the notes correct, but try to learn the piece as a piece of music

Scales

Here again, it's not just getting the right notes, notice how the examiner mentions the speed, musicality and tone. He writes

One slip in the broken chords but otherwise all fluently played with even tone at a musical speed. 

If you want to check the speed for your grade you can do so here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pNhwGLQYnA

Sight Reading

What many students don't understand is that sight reading is not just a matter of getting all the notes correct, especially at the expense of losing the sense of pulse. Notice in the remark how much the examiner hints at keeping the momentum going

A slightly hesitant ending, but otherwise fully accurate at a musical speed with firm pulse.

May I say that this student used my Sight Reading Trainer to help with this habit of keeping the pulse going  and again, here is a link  for you to practice this yourself 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRhVgcglVQ9ldTP-U_jVH1P2yhH3Ilfoa

Aural Tests

For this section, notice again how the examiner doesn't just remark on the fact that the answers were correct, he says

All accurate and musical responses

...and may I add that in their marking criteria for Aural tests the ABRSM official guidelines mention that they are looking for confident rather than hesitant responses. You could lose marks, even with the correct answer if you answer hesitantly.

So I hope that was an interesting journey through an examiner's mark sheet. Maybe you would like to dig out  one of your recent ones and let us know in the comments below some of the things mentioned that might give other readers more of a clue what they are looking for and how to get a better mark in a future exam.

Feel free also to use our new FORUM to start any music education related discussion and you can even share with us your recent exam successes there.

How to improve note recognition

In order to play fluently especially when sight reading a musician needs to be able to recognize notes instantly. 

I have in the past taken over students when they have changed teacher and noticed that when they are learning a new piece, or when they are sight reading, they will use acronyms such as "FACE" or "All Cows East Grass" when working out the notes. 

Maybe this describes you or if you are a teacher, describes some of your students. This technique would be fine if you were doing Music Theory, but for playing, it is a very limited approach. 

With this in mind I have prepared a "Note Recognition Flashcards" video where a note will appear on the screen for just a few seconds. You will need to play the note instantly before the next one appears. You can even use this video away from your instrument by simply naming the notes that you see. If you struggle with, or have a student that struggles with recognizing notes quickly, repeat this exercise a few times and you will soon be able to improve your note recognition.




Please let me know in the comments below if it has helped you to improve your note recognition.

The Art of Sight Reading

Sight Reading is a skill in which many people concentrate just on the pitch and forget about the rhythm.

With this in mind I am developing a new series of videos in which you play along with the test to force you to keep in time. Added to this, the skill of sight reading is developed by reading ahead  of what you are actually playing and so in these videos notes will disappear - just before you play them.


Give it a try with these pilot videos (more to come) and let me know what you think.

Perfect Pitch - can it be learned?

Perfect Pitch, also known as Absolute Pitch is the rare ability to sing a note without reference to any other note. Some say that you are either born with it or not, but according to a recent poll I took with my subscribers, 55% of you said you believed it can be learned. So lets find out.

The method we will use is called association which, in psychology refers to a mental connection between concepts, events, or mental states that stems from specific experiences. A little like Pavlov's dog. Let me explain. Have you ever made a mix tape or playlist that you listen to over and over again? After a while, at the end of any song in that collection you  can already hear the first note of the next song. Your mind has associated them, by them being repeatedly next to each other. The songs may even be in totally unrelated keys. In our experiment you are going to associate a sound of indefinite pitch, in this case, that of running water with the note A. Also, at the same time, whenever you watch the training video I want you to imagine the colour green and when you try to reproduce the note, imagining this association will help trigger those connected pathways in your mind.

At the end of this post there will be a  training video. You will need to listen to it many times daily, to train your memory to reproduce the note A. I would suggest the best time to listen to the training video is just before bed, so that your subconscious mind can absorb the new associations as you sleep. You could even go to sleep listening to it. However, the more times you can listen to it, the better the results will be. You can listen to it whilst you travel, when doing the ironing, when you're in the gym. Any time your mind is free. If internet access is a problem  and you can't watch the training video , I have also produced a downloadable audio on  which you can put on your ipod or phone to listen to offline.
This audio track repeats a few times with ever increasing periods of silence to develop your longer term memory and  the YouTube version will also contain some deliberate mid roll adverts. You are welcome to skip or listen to these adverts, either way the extra distraction will help train you to focus on that one note. Additionally, if you feel that the training is becoming easy, you can increase the periods of silence by pausing the video for a few minutes during the silence. I would suggest that after a month of repeated practice YOU too can develop perfect pitch. 

So ARE you ready. Please do come back here and let me know how you are progressing with the experiment. Good luck.

You can either watch the training video on YouTube below or download the audio file to use Offline HERE

How to choose your exam pieces.

Should a student choose for himself or let the teacher decide his music exam pieces?

This week's topic comes from yet another question from one of my subscribers.

Firstly, let me thank you Rohan for your question and by the way, if anyone else has a question they would like me to cover in a future post please leave a comment below.

Secondly, I want to thank those of you who took my poll this week where I asked whether you chose the pieces yourself or your teacher chose for you. Interestingly, the vast majority of you, 72% said that you chose yourself.

There were also some thought provoking comments below the poll.

One of you wrote,

"The teacher plays all the songs for me, and I choose."

...and this is exactly what I do with my students.

Another contributor adds

"I choose what I like, or sometimes, I choose what piece is easiest to play."

Now, this raises an interesting point. I totally agree that you should play the piece that you like, if the music inspires you, then you are much more likely to play it musically and far to often we forget that in exams, the examiner is not just marking you on your technical ability. If you enjoy playing a piece, the examiner will enjoy listening to it and no doubt you will get a better mark. As to the second point this contributor raised, I never advise my students to play the easiest piece, mainly because there is no such thing. All pieces have their own areas of difficulty, even though that might be,  for example speed for one piece and awkward stretches for another. That said, there will be some pieces which suit certain people better. As another subscriber "Nighthawks" wrote,

"I told him what pieces I liked and he told me what he thought I would be good at and we go from there. "

Maybe a student with smaller hands might avoid a piece with big stretches. With this in mind I do tend to point out to my students the areas of difficulty in EVERY piece, but still I like them to decide mainly on which one inspires them the most simply from listening to it. I have had students who see one piece is a page longer and immediately decide against it before they realize that very often this piece includes a lot of repeated sections and doesn't involve as much learning as it first appears. 

I will leave you with a question related to this picking your favourite piece idea. How many of you start learning your pieces with the, lets call them, more fun pieces, i.e. the C list pieces in ABRSM exams or do you have a different criteria for choosing which piece you start learning first. Please let me know in the comments below. 

How long should I take between grades?

What is the average time between music grade exams?

This question is often asked by students and teachers alike and there is not just one simple answer, but in this post I will give you my thoughts on the subject as a teacher of over 30 years experience. I have heard it said that one grade per year is about average, although an exceptionally talented student might progress quicker. However, the question I asked at the beginning “How long should I take between grades?" is different from “What is the average time between grades?” There is a danger that we can turn learning music into an exam factory, where we are comparing ourselves to others trying to be better or quicker than our peers. And this doesn’t just apply to students. Sometimes teachers and parents can put pressure to progress through the grades quickly.

It is true that exams are a good way of measuring progress, it is rewarding to feel that you have passed a certain level and this reward can be a motivation to try even harder to achieve the next level. I have had some students who didn’t want to do exams, just learn “fun pieces” but their progress has always been slower.
Despite all this, we must never forget that we are learning to be musicians, not just technicians and musicianship is a skill not best learned by playing the same three pieces for 6 months or more. One of the best ways to learn musicianship is to play with others. This is a little harder for pianists, but still, you can try to find duets or even accompany other instrumentalists. I said earlier, that those who just want to play “fun pieces” often do not progress as well, but that is not to say that you shouldn’t incorporate other music into your practice. On the contrary, EVERY practice session should involve something not exam related. The more pieces you are exposed to, the better a musician you will be and regularly having something new to learn, even if not to the same standard as an exam piece, will do wonders for your sight reading. Is it a coincidence I ask, that so many people are bad at sight reading? Not a coincidence at all, these bad sight readers are the ones who only practice three pieces for the exam and nothing else, to the point where they have memorized them and effectively have done no real reading of music for a period of many months.

So in answer to the question at the beginning, yes I think exams are very useful in measuring progress, they motivate you to work harder and you should try to achieve at least one grade per year, but NOT at the expense of becoming an all round musician.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments below, do you practice other pieces apart from the exam material, if not, have you seen your sight reading suffer and how long was it between your last two grades, I’d love to hear from you.

Tricks to Remember Major Scale Fingerings.

Getting the right fingering is essential for executing scales proficiently and fluently - here are a few tricks to help.

Getting the right fingering is essential for executing scales proficiently and fluently, but I'm sure you, like many of my students, find remembering the fingerings a little daunting, especially considering the sheer number that you need to learn for the higher grades. In this post, I will be sharing a few tricks which might help and by the way, if you have any tricks that I don't mention, feel free to add them to the comments below to help other readers. 

Let's first consider the basic scales C, G, D, A and E majors. I'm sure you are all aware that these follow a basic "3 - 4 - 3" finger pattern and when you came across the first three in Grade 1, you probably had little problem learning these. One of the greatest challenges for students between Grades 1 and 2, is putting these scales hands together. I like to point out to them, that "3's are always together", so if you are using a third finger in one hand, you should be doing the same in the other hand at the same time. Then, I like to liken the hands together scales to a couple dancing, where the man leads. On the way up the right hand is the man, that is to say that it will do the changes of "3 - 4 - 3" just before the left hand and on the way down, the roles are reversed where the left hand leads  the 3 - 4 - 3 pattern. The mistake that many students make is to think that any fingering will do as long as they play the right notes. This is not true. OK, sometimes you get away with it, but invariably mistakes happen just after the fingering goes off course. Make sure you start slowly to ingrain the correct fingering into your muscle memory.

Next let's go onto the flat scales, that is, B flat, E flat, A flat and D flat majors. These all follow one pattern. In the right hand ascending and  the left hand descending for all these scales, the thumb always goes after the black note or group of black notes if there are more than one consecutively.
The right hand  descending always puts 4th on B flat, and the left hand ascending,  always uses 4th for the first cross over.

Finally that leaves F major, B major and F sharp major. To be honest, B major despite its many sharps, is one of the easiest scales, because there are only certain places where the thumb can go and that's where you put it. Interestingly, in all three of these scales thumbs are always together in both hands, except for the very first and last note in the case of F major. If you want to see these principles in action here is a video for all major scales clearly showing the correct fingering below. 

Why do we want to listen to sad music when we are sad?

Why do we want to listen to sad music when we are sad?

In a recent poll about the personality of a musician, one of the questions I asked was whether you prefer to listen to happy music or sad music. 

It turns out that the majority of you, nearly 60%, said you prefer sad music. This would seem a little bit of a paradox. Surely no one would want to feel sad rather than happy. Or is there something in sad music which actually makes us feel better. I have read many theories on this topic recently, trying to find answers to this question. Some suggest that we feel better listening to sad music because it is not our own sadness and we actually feel better knowing that it is virtual and not real. I personally don't agree with this argument. Others argue that there is an emotional reward when we show empathy towards others and listening to sad music is like showing empathy for the music. Indeed musicians, it has been shown, tend to have more empathy. Others will state that sad music is simply aesthetically more beautiful. 

May I offer another explanation here. If you are very sad in your own real life do you feel better in yourself if you can express that emotion in some way, maybe have a good cry. It is a scientific fact that crying releases endorphins, the body's own hormones that make us feel better. When we listen to sad music, we can express our emotions through the music and this in turn can release the same biochemical reaction that makes us feel better. Scientific studies have shown that at the peak emotional content of a particular song, your brain is likely to release dopamine - a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centres. Why do musicians linger just that fraction longer in a kind of rubato pause on a particularly poignant chord in an emotional piece. To enjoy the moment, even though that moment might be tragically sad? A paradox for sure.

Interestingly, the same is true for watching sad films. Why do we watch them. To feel sad? Or to release some of our sadness through empathizing with what we are watching. Also bear in mind that much of the emotion we experience in films is induced through the music of a powerful film score.

Now I said the beginning, that 60% of you preferred sad music, which means possibly, that 40% of you might totally disagree with me, feel free to leave a comment below on anything I have mentioned.

The "Obsessive Nature of a Musician" - Decomposing the Musician - Part 2

Following on from last week's post about the personality of a musician, where we discovered that a large majority of you who took my poll were introverts, this week I want to look at the obsessive nature of musicians. By the way, if you haven't taken the poll yet you can do so HERE

In the survey only 20% of you said that you were not obsessive at all, 50% being mildy obsessive and 30% VERY obsessive. I believe that this goes along with being an introvert and also some of the other questions in the survey. For example, most of you said that you were "single minded" rather than "easily distracted". A similar proportion of you describe yourselves as organised. Are these results surprising? Not really. First of all musicians need to devote large amounts of time to practice. This activity in itself requires a somewhat obsessive nature. They need to be very strict with themselves to stick to a schedule ignoring distractions.

Added to this, musicians exist in an environment of pressure to perform well. Concerts and exams, for example can create a competitive characteristic within us.  Do you for example, compare yourself with other musicians in a competitive way trying to be better than your peers? Please leave a comment if this describes you.

However, here comes a word of warning. Being overly obsessive can lead us to practice an instrument to a point where  doing so can cause physical injury. The famous violinist Itzhak Perlman recommends practising no more than three hours a day. 

Watch the video - Itzhak Perlman on Practicing

In fact, researchers have found that setting goals to outperform others seems to undermine musical performance. There is also a danger that we can engage in this activity to the point where health deteriorates, relationships are strained, and finances can suffer.

Now, I'm not advocating that a musician should not have a structured approach to practice, but maybe a more healthy way would be to always try and be better than yourself, rather than better than others. Additionally, as musicians, I believe we will be better in what we do, if we have a life outside of music. A person who is passionate about life, will be more passionate when they perform. Conversely,  a student whose life is only about music, can end up being very mechanical in their playing. 

Trinity vs ABRSM - The new syllabus 2018-2020

Trinity vs ABRSM - The new syllabus 2018-2020

Grade 1 Trinity Piano 2018-2020

This summer the new 2018-2020 piano syllabus was published by Trinity College London and out of curiosity I thought I'd take a look. I've always been an ABRSM person, took their exams many years ago and now teach their syllabus to my own students. However in this post I would like to point out some of the differences between ABRSM and Trinity College and I would be interested in your thoughts, so please leave a comment below. 

VIEW THE COMPLETE LISTS OF TRINITY COLLEGE LONDON PIANO PIECES
Gr1  Gr2  Gr3  Gr4  Gr5  Gr6  Gr7  Gr8



First of all, ABRSM is much bigger worldwide than Trinity College and by many it is considered better. Being bigger, it has more exam centres and so unless you live in a big city like London, you might find yourself having to travel a long way to take your exam. 

LISTEN TO ABRSM PIECES  HERE

Regarding the exam itself, the biggest difference I noticed is in the supporting tests. In ABRSM as you probably know, you have to play three pieces, do scales, aural tests and sight reading. In Trinity there is a choice. You pick only TWO of the following four supporting tests: 

 Sight Reading; Aural; Improvisation; 

Musical Knowledge about a piece you are playing. 

This means that a student can focus on his strengths - for example if you really find the aural difficult, you won’t be penalised. Then again, does the ABRSM approach make for a more all round musician? Should everyone, for example, be able to sight read or is it a cop out to let the student decide if he wants to avoid sight reading through his entire studies on an instrument? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. 

The scales seem of a similar difficulty, but there are less of them in Trinity. Many students, especially in the higher grades feel inundated by the sheer number of scales they need to know for ABRSM. Is knowing the complete cycle of fifths both major and minor at Grade 5 piano a good thing or a bad thing in your opinion?  
To make up for the fewer number of scales, Trinity College has additional Technical exercises, short little pieces which test things like tone, balance, coordination flexibility whereas ABRSM tests this in the main pieces. 

Then there are the pieces themselves. My first impression is that they are a little easier especially at the early grades. I’ve made some video recordings of both the new Trinity College Piano syllabus and that of ABRSM.  Have a listen and tell me if you think they are in fact easier than ABRSM. However, the difficulty of the pieces is not the only difference. In ABRSM you need to choose three pieces one from each of three lists A, B and C. In Trinity College, again you need to choose three pieces, but these can be ANY three from the whole book. There is even an option where one of the pieces is a duet, where your teacher would accompany you in the exam. You can even offer you OWN composition as an alternative to one of the pieces. The idea behind the ABRSM forcing you to play from three different lists, I guess, is that you will get experience of playing different styles of  music. In my opinion, although the Trinity option might be more popular with students, that of the ABRSM in the long run might produce better all round musicians. What do you think? 

So in summary, my initial little curiosity has opened up a lot of questions as to the PROs and CONS of these two examining boards so please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Decomposing the Musician - Part 1

Are Musicians Introverts or Extroverts?

A while ago I published on YouTube a "Musician's Personality" quiz and it seems that there definitely are certain personality traits shared by the majority of musicians. 

The two most definitive results, that emerged and that I want to discuss today were in answer to the questions;

1. Are you sensitive to other people's feelings?
2. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Regarding the first question, I have to be honest, I anticipated that most people would say YES, they are sensitive to other people's feelings. The result backed this up - a massive 96% of those who answered said yes. Of course many of us would not like to admit if we were insensitive and could answer not honestly, but if we think about it, being a musician requires sensitivity, it's all about communicating emotions and feelings, communication being a two way thing. Especially those of you who play in ensembles, need a high level of empathy to communicate non verbally when performing. However, is this "empathy" a pre-requirement to make a good musician, or does being a musician develop empathy. As I delved into this subject further I found an academic study by Cambridge University where Researchers looking at group education sessions for 8 to 11 year old children showed that engaging in regular music-based activities with others - from ensembles to simple rhythmic exercises - can conspicuously advance empathy development, increasing a child’s capacity to recognize and consider the emotions of others. If you are interested there is a link to this article below.

The second question produces a more surprising result. One might think that musicians are extroverts. They often play in front of large audiences, expressing themselves openly through their instrument, quite the opposite of what one would expect from a quiet, shy, retiring type. However, the survey returned a result that 92% of you who answered were introverts. It is true that in order to spend enough time practicing to become really good at music, you have to enjoy being alone for long periods. Playing music with and for other people is social, but in a highly structured way that's easier for introverts. Could it also be that we use our instruments to hide behind and we transform into an extrovert only with our instrument in hand (or in throat in the case of singers). In real life are we the one who stands in the corner at parties, not the best at starting conversations especially in larger groups of people. Please leave a comment below if this describes you, do you hide behind your instrument, but without it are you shy in social settings?

As I said at the outset, these are only a couple of the results and I will be commenting on other questions in future weeks, so stay tuned and watch out for the next in the series of "Decomposing the Musician"

Further Reading
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/music-of-kindness-playing-together-strengthens-empathy-in-children

The Personality of a Musician.

It has been suggested that Musicians score significantly higher than non-musicians in certain personality traits and without giving too much of the game away, with your help I would like to take a poll   on various characteristics to see if there is a common type of personality for musicians. 

The poll is actually taken through poll cards on the video below

Questions will pop up in the video which you simply need to click one of the options. After you have voted you will see an aggregate of all the previous votes so you can compare your character against fellow musicians. Please answer honestly - all answers are anonymous and it would be nice for us to get a accurate sample.

PLEASE TAKE PART ONLY IF YOU ARE A MUSCIAN

You can of course watch the video if you are not a musician, but in this case do not vote.

I would like to get a large sample to make this experiment as accurate as possible, so PLEASE SHARE WITH ANY MUSICIAN FRIENDS

How many scales in an ABRSM exam?

A question often wondered by students going into an exam is "How many scales will I be asked?"

This post is basically in answer to a question I received on one of my videos on my YouTube channel.

In answer to this, I would say that the absolute minimum would be one of each type of scale, and this number increases with the higher grades. It seems from experience that there is usually an easy one at the beginning to settle the candidate down, followed by more difficult ones. If you make a complete mess of one, the examiner may give you a second chance by asking another similar one. The mark for the scales is based on an overall impression, not only of how well the candidate knows the various keys, but also fluency, evenness, how promptly the candidate responds and that the speed matches the grade. So the odd mistake or one disastrous scale won't necessarily lose that many marks. 

All the scales you'll ever need 

Complete playlist for every grade ABRSM and Trinity Scales

It is believed, that examiners are supposed to work their way through all the scales and arpeggios required for the grade over the course of various candidates - otherwise, it would quickly become known that a certain examiner  always asks for Bb minor etc. Experience suggest also, that they aim to ask a mix of easy and difficult scales for each person, so you would be pretty unlucky to get all the worst scales for a grade, but you are bound to get some of them.

Examiners are aware that nerves play a role in exams and may well give the candidate a second chance to repeat a scale. A  struggling candidate is usually given several chances to redeem themselves, but someone who is clearly floundering on every scale won't be asked every single one. There just isn't time, and the examiner will have made up their mind on the mark fairly early on in the process.

Classical Musicians at extreme risk of hearing loss.

Classical Musicians at extreme risk of hearing loss.

**PLEASE SHARE WITH FELLOW MUSICIANS 

HEARING HEALTH IS IMPORTANT **

In this post I want to make you aware of some of the risks associated with being a classical musician or music lover and there is a “hearing test” below to see how good your ears are.

In the European Union, the EU directive sets a daily noise exposure limit value of 87 dB in the workplace. If noise levels cannot be adequately reduced, hearing protection must be available and regular hearing tests must be conducted to safeguard the employees' hearing health. However a flute or the percussion instruments produce as much as 95 dB of noise. Classical musicians are exposed to high levels of noise for five to six hours daily. One recent study among classical musicians found that 15 percent of the musicians in the study suffered from permanent tinnitus, in comparison to 2 percent among the general population.

Below you can play some sample tones at different frequencies. Click on each one to test your "Hearing Age". As we age, we lose the extreme ends of the hearing spectrum so for example people under 50 years of age on average can hear 12,000 Hz. And 15,000 Hz can be heard by people under 40. The frequency of a mosquito - just under 18000Hz is usually inaudible to people of 30 years of age. WARNING - some people find this test uncomfortable and if you have a cat or a dog it might send them a bit crazy - I would recommend trying this test at half volume to start and then repeat it at a higher volume if you wish. Also this test works better with headphones or good quality speakers.


10 kHz

12 kHz

14 kHz

15 kHz

16 kHz

17 kHz

18 kHz

19 kHz

20 kHz

21 kHz

22 kHz

So now I’ve finished scaring you - you might ask so what can I do? If you are a pianist - normal practice range is about a safe 60-70db but if you have an electric piano or even use headphones, obviously you can turn down the volume.

Etymotic Earplugs

For those who play with others, either in orchestras or Rock bands for example, you might think - well I can’t wear ear plugs - I need to hear the other musicians. However there are devices called etymotic ear plugs - developed specifically for musicians which reduce the sound by 20-dB equally across the spectrum of hearing whilst preserving the richness of music. They are available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Leave a comment below how you did on the hearing test and if you have any concerns about hearing loss as a musician or music lover.

Is ABRSM listening?

ABRSM responds to criticism about the changes to the Music Theory exams for next year.

Today's post is a follow up to a previous post in which I reported about the changes to ABRSM Theory from next year.

(You can read about the changes HERE)

It seems they are aware of some of concerns of many and have issued a reply. I am interested whether you think their response is adequate - really listening to teachers, so please let me know your thoughts ON OUR FORUM. It goes as follows:

A healthy debate

News of the updated exam papers has led to some debate. We know from research and recent feedback that many people welcome these changes. We also know that some teachers have concerns and I’m going to write about some of these here.

The value of theory

Learning about music theory and the way music works is such an important part of any music education. It gives students the tools they need to get the most from their musical activities, whatever they might be. Because of the value we place on music theory, we’ve recently spent time reviewing the exams. We want to ensure that they assess the right things in the right way, are encouraging and supportive, and give candidates the best opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.

Responsibility, consultation and research

Each year thousands of candidates all over the world take ABRSM exams. As an awarding organisation monitored by official regulatory authorities, we take our responsibilities very seriously. This involves reviewing and refreshing all our assessments on a regular basis, a process which is always founded on consultation and research. We talk to experts. We listen to teachers and students. And we take into account best practice in assessment and question design – not just in the world of music but more widely as well.
In reviewing our Music Theory exams at Grades 1 to 5 we followed all these steps. The result? We’re making a number of small changes. We’re modernizing the exam papers and focusing more clearly on the building blocks of music theory – the essential tools that give students access to future musical progress and opportunities. And while there’s a small change in the skills needed in certain parts of the exam papers, the underlying knowledge students need to cover and the standard of the exams is staying the same.

What about creativity?

As part of this process we’re removing rhythm-writing, melody-writing and word-setting questions at Grades 1 to 5. Some teachers are concerned that this might reduce opportunities for students to be creative. However, while we would always encourage creativity in learning, research tells us that these questions are often answered in a way which suggests a formulaic or even ‘space-filling’ approach. So following consultation we decided to replace these questions. This has allowed us to focus more on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of music theory, give candidates extra opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge in this area, and increase objectivity and consistency in the exam marking. 

I’d also like to reassure everyone that we are not replacing these questions to make the exams easier. In particular, at Grade 5 we are continuing to ask candidates to apply their knowledge in a wider context when they answer questions on musical extracts. This is something which requires a similar approach to the melody-writing question and calls on similar higher-level thinking. So, importantly, the knowledge and understanding candidates need is not changing.

Moving up to Grade 6

There is also a concern that without melody-writing at Grade 5, candidates who want to carry on to Grade 6 Music Theory, with its requirement to write original music, might not be adequately prepared.
It might help here to explore the difference between Grades 1 to 5 and 6 to 8. In many ways, these two sets of grades have different roles to play. At 1 to 5, the focus is on developing a good grasp of the basic principles of music theory. The revised papers now reflect this more clearly. Grades 6 to 8 then give opportunities to demonstrate this knowledge in an applied and more creative way.
When making the changes at Grades 1 to 5, we’ve been careful to ensure that despite the slight shift in focus at Grades 1 to 5, the step-up from 5 to 6 won’t change. Once students have passed Grade 5 they should have the tools they need to start tackling the different requirements of the higher grades.


Why multiple choice?

One result of our research into question design is the introduction of multiple choice questions for musical terms and signs. Multiple choice questions are widely accepted as an effective assessment method and they will be familiar to the majority of candidates from their experience of taking other tests and exams. But does this mean we’re ‘dumbing down’? Absolutely not. When multiple-choice questions are well-designed, the likelihood of being able to give correct answers through guess-work is very small. We are continuing to assess a full range of terms and signs, and candidates still need to learn these thoroughly to do well in this section of the exam.

So what do you think? Does this response answer any concerns you may have had about the changes. Please let me know your thoughts ON OUR FORUM, and let's have  as ABRSM calls it, some "Healthy debate" .

Changes to ABRSM Music Theory

In the summer of 2017, ABRSM announced that it was changing it's music theory exams as of the beginning of 2018. The announcement is titled, “Improving our Theory Exams”. However, are these changes are for the better or worse?

ABRSM Music Theory in Practice

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The main changes from January 1st 2018 were:

Introducing multiple choice questions for the musical terms and signs. This will be more like the style of questions used by Trinity College and by the way our Android App "Musical Terms and Signs" quizzes you using multiple choice answers. I'm sure many students will welcome this change as it will make the exam EASIER, but will it make you a better musician? In real life when you are given a musical direction you have never seen before - are you given a multiple choice?

Sample questions here

The second change is to remove completely the writing an answering rhythm question in the lower grades and also the writing an 8 bar melody question in Grade 5. Again I'm sure many students will welcome this change. I know from my experience of teaching this section, that a lot of students found it one of the hardest parts, but my question is again, "Will it make you a better or worse musician?" Are we simply technical analysts or creative artists? 

JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON OUR FORUM

Here is a comment I found on a forum discussing the changes: "One of my recent Grade 5 candidates really enjoyed and blossomed with the composition question. Early attempts were abysmal and I don't think he'd mind my saying that, but he commented later that it was one of the things he had most valued. I suppose if you are simply taking the exam as a qualifying thing, rather than looking at all round musicianship, it may matter less."

This in itself poses another question. Why do ABRSM make it a requirement to have Grade 5 Theory before doing a Grade 6 Practical exam? Isn't it because they claim to value all round musicianship? And yet they are taking away the most creative element of the theory exam!!

The third change is the removal of yet another section from the Grade 5 exam, the SATB short to open score question. With regards to this I am somewhat in agreement. The old style question was just a lot of copying out notes, but couldn't they just have made this question shorter, maybe just converting one bar from short to open score or vice-cersa?

What I find even more disconcerting is that they are not updating the workbooks in line with the new syllabus. It seems this is just to save money. Their official statement regarding these work books is;

We are not making any changes to our Music Theory in Practice books for Grades 1 to 5. They still cover all the knowledge and skills you need for our Music Theory exams at these grades from 2018. The sections on rhythm-writing, word-setting and melody writing will not be directly relevant to the exams from 2018, but overall Music Theory in Practice continues to provide plenty of valuable teaching and learning material for the exams.

As I said before, in my opinion, this is just a money saving exercise. Then regarding the book,  First Steps in Music Theory and The AB Guide to Music Theory (Part 1)  they state;

We are not be making any changes to these books. They cover the basic principles of music theory and provide a thorough introduction to the knowledge and understanding needed at Grades 1 to 5. They continue to offer valuable support for exam preparation from 2018 onwards.

Of course to change this book, it would be too expensive for the board who charge nearly £40 for a ten minute practical exam. 

If you would like to see a sample of these papers you can find them HERE

Updated 28/01/2018

How to turn pages - WITHOUT throwing your music on the floor.

We've all been there - either a long piece with multiple pages or even a shorter piece with bad editing so that the page turn arrives at the most inconvenient moment. How does one turn that page without running the serious risk of the music ending up on the floor? 

Page Turner

This is quite a luxury for some and you need to find a good one. Someone who instinctively knows when is the best moment to turn the page and also won't get in your way. Here's a little know fact. In ABRSM exams, although candidates are not allowed to bring a page turner into the exam, the accompanist of a grade 8 or ARSM exam MAY do so.

Photocopying

Generally, the photocopying of music is illegal, but in certain situations it is permitted. Obviously, in your own home, copying a sheet of music that you have already purchased to help with page turns, isn't going to be problem, but what about in an exam situation? The ABRSM's official line is;

• The making or use of photocopies of copyright works is not permitted. Application should be made to the copyright holder before any copy is made. It is the Applicant’s responsibility to ensure that candidates act within the law with respect to the making and use of photocopies. ABRSM reserves the right to withhold the exam result of any candidate where it has evidence of the use of an illegal copy in connection with that exam.

This all seems a bit of a hassle, writing for special permission to copy one sheet for a page turn.

Memorizing

If you can do it, this is the ultimate solution and in many ways better for the music itself. I personally performed all my exams from memory, it helped to get more involved with the music rather than be distracted by the notes. If memorizing a whole piece is too challenging, I have a few students now, who memorize just the first or last page of a three page piece. You could even just memorize a few bars and turn the page at a more convenient moment.

Dog-Eared Pages

This is quite an effective method and I use it all the time when accompanying for exams where I haven't had the time to memorize the piece. Also many of the videos I have put on YouTube of exam pieces use dog-eared pages. You need to be careful though, to remember to re-fold the corner of each page everytime before a performance, as a flat dog-ear isn't as easy to get hold of. Another variation I have heard of is using mini post-it notes on the bottom corner of each page, but these need to be staggered if you have more than one turn, otherwise you might end up grabbing two at a time.

Cutting your music

It sounds like sacrilege, but another alternative is cutting your music. This works best for instrumental music with accompaniment, where they may be a few bars rest here and there. You could cut just under where there are a few bars rest, or in more continuous music, where there are a few beats rest, so that you could turn just half the page at this moment. Hopefully, if the edition lends itself, you will have an opportunity in the top of the next page to turn over the bottom half of the previous. (I hope that made sense)

Technology

More recently music has been available in digital form where you can store entire an library on your ipad for example. With this it is easier to swipe a single page without the risk of picking up two pages at a time, or worse still throwing your music on the floor. Further still there are now hands free devices like "Blue Turn" which connect to your tablet through bluetooth. 

BlueTurn Bluetooth Page Turner for iOS and Android

Let me know in the comments below - what methods you have used or if you have any horror stories of page turn fails.