I am working on Grade 6 theory and think it would be great to know who else is on the forum. and who else would be interested in supporting eachother.

ET

I am!

I've only just started, so I'll probably need a lot of advice once I get really stuck into it. It's so much more complex than Grade 5.

Good luck with it!

Sam94.

I'm working towards it. It's been 5 years since I did much harmony but it's amazing how much comes back to me when I get stuck in.

I'm working on it slowly on my own so would love some support - and of course will give support if I can!

I start on it in September when I go back to college. I suppose in a way i'm begining to like theory because at the end of each question there is always an answer!
I can't believe I got a merit let alone pass grade 5 theory, my first ever abrsm exam!!!
I'm going to be grinning about this for a long time methinks!
What does everyone think of grade 6 theory so far?
PSL

Well done PSL!


I'm hoping to take it next June if I'm ready, but I'm having a break from the books while I concentrate on picking up the piano. But I look upon that as part of my theory study anyway (that's why I took it up) and I'm really pleased I did - partly because I've really taken to it which I didn't expect to, and partly because I can already see how useful it's going to be in understanding theory and composition.

I am working on Grade 6 Theory, but am moving rather slowly due to the very little time my teacher spends every week on it. I plan to get another copy of the book so that I can work on other sections while she marks the completed ones.

I hope to sit for the Grade 6 Theory exam by the end of 2009. I am not being overly ambitious with time, but I wish to attain at least a merit, because I have plans to become a music teacher in future.

Do you all have teachers? Or do you work on it through self-study? I feel that theory is still very much self-study. The teacher can only answer your queries when you have queries. And there will be no queries at all without any thought process.

What books are you all using? I am using Josephine Koh's. I also have ABRSM's Harmony in Practice, which I only refer to when I have very fundamental doubts on why certain rules are required.

Maybe we can post questions and help one another with it in this thread?

Hi teoani, and welcome to the forums

Up to G5 I photocopied the exercise pages (Music Theory in Practice) and the past papers, and worked on the photocopies. That way I wasn't without the book or the papers at any time and I've still got a clean originals in case I want to return to them at any time for revision. If you've got access to a copier, that would be cheaper than buying another book as well (sorry AB ).


I've got a teacher and I seem to have had a mix of weekly group lessons, weekly individual lessons and ad hoc individual lessons! I'm not having theory lessons at the moment and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do next term - possibly start off with group lessons, see how it goes, and if necessary switch to individual lessons if the group lessons don't work out. My teacher's really interesting - he tends to digress quite a bit into history, composers and all sorts of things, but that's what I find fascinating.


I've got both of those, and also the Answer book to Harmony in Practice. I've also got Music Theory in Practice, which is what I'm starting with.


My own feeling is (although others may disagree!) is that separate threads for questions would be best. Partly because it makes searching easier if anybody wants to find previous advice on G6 matters, and if several months worth of questions all appear in this thread, it would become difficult to find anything. Also because I tend to think that we might be more likely to get advice from teachers if there are separate specific threads, because they might not want to wade through the chit-chat in this thread. But I might be wrong!

I will be working on G6 theory though goodness knows when! I have MTiP6, Big 6, and Harmony in Practice. I didn't buy the answer book to the latter just yet, to remove any temptation to cheat

I'll be doing it teacherless, well, no specific teacher but I should from September have an instrument teacher who seems very nice and may well be able to help - oh, and she's part of the county music service so she would at least know someone to point me at if I did need someone.

I'll definitely be taking it in a June session because 5-8pm is no time to be doing an exam!

Me too! I'll be looking to take Grade 6 theory in period A. I've ordered the books and will be studying mostly on my own, with some support from my piano teacher. This thread will be a great help

Thanks,
Dave.

I am working on grade 6 too. Its quite a step up from grade 5 so I'm working through Harmony in Practice to help me.

Thanks, skylark. I get what you mean.





Point taken. Shall we use the forum "Theory and Composition" ? We can tag our discussions with "[Grade 6 Theory]" in the subject, and that would be easy to track.

To tell the truth, I have passed Grade 6 before when I was a child. But don't ask me how. I was plain lucky, even if you don't believe it is possible to be. I admit that I had no idea whatsoever what harmony is, and even the basic note doubling meant nothing to me. I had misconceptions about figured bass (I thought it was like Alberti bass... just imagine!!). I got those 5/3, 6/3 stuff right only 50% of the time during lessons. Chord progressions and the taboos? I never bothered about those. I didn't even revise the corrections my teacher made me do, because I simply didn't understand why they were important. How did I pass then? I still think it was a mistake. This is not an offence to those who passed, but I observe that sometimes child candidates tend to pass exams without understanding, which was the case with myself. I am so ashamed...

So this time round, as a responsible adult who is truly interested in music theory, I am going to study for Grade 6, and aim for a merit.

I have the Answer Book for Harmony in Practice too. We can discuss any doubts on that book too. Right now I am overwhelmed by the massive information in Harmony in Practice. I think following Josephine Ko's might give me a better structured guide on what's required in each grade. I will also be working on past year papers when I am done with all the topics. How is everyone structuring their study plan?

Good plan!


I remember doing A Level Latin at school, and writing an essay about something and the teacher said "Yes you've grasped very well how..." and I remember looking really startled because I hadn't grasped that at all - I'd just paraphrased some of the chunks of information I'd gathered together from various books


Same here, which is why I'm avoiding it for the time being and concentrating on Music Theory in Practice initially!


A bit unconventionally really - I regard learning the piano which I only started last week as part of my study for the higher theory grades because it will help me with a better understanding of harmony and composition. And I'm hoping to start going to an evening class entitled Music Appreciation in September which I hope will contribute to my music knowledge generally. I still hope to be ready by June because I don't want to do the exam in any of the other sessions (bad classroom environment for the other two sessions) but I'm conscious that I haven't got down to any "nitty-gritty" yet.

I'm working towards grade 6 theory too!! Some of you may have seen my posts a couple of months ago asking for advice with some of my answers to the harmony questions (which were disasterous!), so you may be glad to know I've now got myself a teacher!! I've only had two lessons, but it has made a big difference - more from having someone to check my answers and point out/explain my mistakes rather than to actually teach me...a lot of it is self study really...

I'm hoping to take the exam next Spring...I've got my grade 6 piano at Christmas, and hopefully (depending on my grd 6 singing results from this term) grade 8 singing in the summer...I'll slot it inbetween. Plus, I'm helping my friend get up to her grade 5 theory, so we can go for our exams at the same time!!

I think a support thread for grade 6 theory-ers is a good idea!! There are so many rules etc for this level (and above, I'm sure) that it'll be helpful to pass a few idea's and bits of advice around!!

Do people think you're crazy for doing grade 6 theory?! Loads of people who know I'm working on it think I'm absolutely mad, because they all want to stop it at grade 5! Even music teachers I know haven't done it (although they covered lots of the harmony stuff at a-level and at uni...). I can't imagine how people don't love theory!!





Hi Teoani, welcome to the forums!

I'm currently using the pink and blue AB Guide to Music Theory, the ABRSM Theory in Practise books (more for the extra practise q's as opposed to gaining info), and the Big 6 book - which I'd really recommend...it has excellent step by step guides, a summary of rules etc and lots of practise q's, plus answers for the general questions at the back!

I'm also doing grade 6 theory as I want to be a music teacher, and think it'll be really useful to get to grips with before I do A-level in Sept and after that university. And on top of that I just love it!


Are you all planning to do grades 7 and 8 after 6? I am - sounds strangely exciting!!




Wow A-level Latin!!! I sooo wish they did that at my school, I absolutely love Latin - or singing in it at least! I'd also like to do Italian, but they don't do that either And I don't fancy any of the other languages!

I may be a lurker on this thread- I am currently off work with my leg in plaster following an op and so am heading tentatively back towards my goal of G6 theory (it was a thought at first so I could eventually do my singing diploma but now I'd quite like it just for the fact of having it and remembering all that theory from 10 years ago!)

I started looking at it because I want to do the teaching diploma but am really enjoying it in it's own right, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed harmony at Uni.

I'm working through the MTIP book with my cello teacher with reference to the AB guides but am wondering about getting another book for extra practice, any suggestions?

Yes it is quite different to Grade 5! Good Luck to you too



Hi Joanna, this is the first time I have done harmony and I am really enjoying it. How long have you been working on Grade 6?



Hi Rosie look forward to getting to know you and sharing support.

ET



I think theory is addictive! Well done on your exam.

Grade 6 I find very different but I am enjoying it, I just can't wait until I can pick up a paper and know how to answer it straight away. I find the wordings of the questions really hard, as soon as I work out what they are asking me, then I know what to do.



I must admit I haven't touched my books for about 3 weeks now as I have been concentrating on my piano. But like you say, you still learn theory whilst you play. My teacher always gets me to say what key it is in and what it modulates to and we discuss the piece of music that I am playing.

I am considering doing grade 6 theory...I know it'll be of use, and I have some experience with harmony, as I had to take compulsory harmony tutorials as part of the first year of my music degree.

I haven't properly taken a look at it, but I was just wondering if that would be of good use to me, and the books that I had to go with it, because I won't be having anyone teach me as such.

Thanks.

I do have a teacher and she is very good and loves theory as much as me. We have a laugh whilst we do it, sometimes she has to work it out first before she can show me. Both our heads are fuzzy afterwards. I don't do as much as I would like to as my time is shared with my piano. I was trying to do one week theory and the next week practical, but because I am hoping to do my Grade 4 piano in the autumn I have been concentrating on that. I plan to take some theory on holiday with me to help me with the withdrawals of not being able to play the piano for 2 weeks.

We use Harmony in Practise,Josephine Koh and the Big 6 book as well as past papers.

Know what you mean, they're weird aren't they!



[we could do with a theory smiley!]

I'm planning to take my grade 6 theory next year after a 9 year absence from practical and 13 years absence from theory. I regret not taking my grade 6 theory the same time I did Music A Level as I truly think the jump from grade 5 theory to grade 6 wouldn't have been so noticeable. Anyway, I'm in much need of all your support and advice if I want to conquer this grade. I hope we can all swap tips. Happy studying to all the budding theorists out there.

Anyone who is taking it this year please let us know how you found the paper

[quote name='eldatom' date='Jul 29 2008, 11:16 PM' post='728043']

[/quote]

I plan to take some theory on holiday with me to help me with the withdrawals of not being able to play the piano for 2 weeks.

[/quote]

Haha you sound just like me!! I'm also taking all my theory books to do lots of work on during my holiday to help with the fact of not having a piano for two weeks (actually 18 days ahhh!! ).

Slightly off topic, but I once went to Italy and was in huge piano withdrawal to begin with because it was so musical there, and I just wanted to play too - but then the hotel manager said I could go on their piano whenever I liked...so from then on I could be found in the entrance hall on the ancient piano (which had quite a few sticky keyd, but did the job!! ) They kept saying how lovely it was to have someone playing it, and how good I was...I'd love to see their feaction when, say, a grade 8 pianist played it (as I was only working on grade 1 at the time!!! )

[quote name='singerpianist' date='Jul 31 2008, 10:22 AM' post='728474']
[quote name='eldatom' date='Jul 29 2008, 11:16 PM' post='728043']

[/quote]

I plan to take some theory on holiday with me to help me with the withdrawals of not being able to play the piano for 2 weeks.

[/quote]

Haha you sound just like me!! I'm also taking all my theory books to do lots of work on during my holiday to help with the fact of not having a piano for two weeks (actually 18 days ahhh!! ).

Slightly off topic, but I once went to Italy and was in huge piano withdrawal to begin with because it was so musical there, and I just wanted to play too - but then the hotel manager said I could go on their piano whenever I liked...so from then on I could be found in the entrance hall on the ancient piano (which had quite a few sticky keyd, but did the job!! ) They kept saying how lovely it was to have someone playing it, and how good I was...I'd love to see their feaction when, say, a grade 8 pianist played it (as I was only working on grade 1 at the time!!! )
[/quote]
Oh Wow, Maybe I should take some music with me to play in case I find a piano.

I'm also working on grade 6 theory, have to do it on my own as where I live there is no teacher able to help, so would like to join in with ideas with you. I have only just begun though.

serrano

look forward to getting to know and working with you Serrano

ET

I started working on it just after half term.

I'm working on it with my cello teacher as I said but as my piano teacher knows I'm doing it she talks with me about the harmony in the pieces I'm playing. Consequently my theory is helping my piano and my piano is helping my theory.

Hi JoannaB,
I have just bought a book called " Theory Workbook" it's by ABRSM and it is done for gd 6 and there is a gd 7 also a gd 8 book. I have just started working on the first section.

What it does is take each of the examination questions one by one, it gives a sample of the question then there is a scetion called WORKING THE QUESTION. In this section it goes through each stage of the question, giving idea of how to tackle the problem step by step. Then you have some more samples to have extra goes at yourself.

When it gets to question 4 , which is questions on lots of things from the excerpt of the next page, and the whole page is worth 25points. The same with question 5, also worth 25 points. then there is an answer page at the back, so its great, you can take a look and see if you managed to get it right.

I'm also working through the AB theory in Practice, along with the Pink book 1 and Blue book 11. and I got some mock papers.
Hope this may be of help, as a starter

Good luck to all who are having a go, maybe together we will all get distinctions.

Serrano

Welcome to the forums greenie and Serrano, nice to meet you!

I think I'd better get the "Theory Workbook". I've already got a few G6 and harmony books and I don't understand a word of them! Perhaps I'll have more success with the Workbook

I think G6 is going to be very difficult - thank goodness we can give each moral support!

I seem to be of a minority here, but I found the workbook too in at the deep-end, as all its really about is telling you how to do the exam questions, and seems to assume an understanding of the 'sylabus' already. Whereas the MTIP book, i found a lot more helpful, in that it tells you how things work before telling you how to use them.

But then I never took grade 6, so what do i know...

I agree with you on this. When I was deciding which books to get I chose the MTIP rather than the Big 6 workbook for the reasons you've given. But I've been ploughing my way through MTIP and I think I need to do some exercises to work out what it's all about

Hello, what a great idea!
For a long time I've had the intention of picking up my theory studies where I left off (in 1980) eeek!! Have taken hte plunge and have bought several of the books already mentioned. No idea when I will be ready to sit the exam, once I've got seriously stuck in to the material I should have a better idea -2015 maybe .But seriously I expect progress to be fairly slow as I need to pick up all the threads from grade 5 so long ago!. Am working on my own so a support network would be fab.

Hello saxophone-sue, nice to see you!

I'm beginning to think I might revise my timescale - it seems extremely difficult!

I got the Big 6 workbook at the weekend and I think it might be slightly easier after all to see what they're getting at and then go back to MTIP and the other books to see if they then make more sense.

Looks like there are quite a few of us want or working already on Grade 6. We should have a great support network.

My teacher teaches me were we work direct from the past papers - no wonder they give you 3 hours to do it, one question appears to take us a full hours lesson at the momet. My problem is that I need to really get into it more as I forget what I have learned. Chord progression is coming more easily though. As soon as we go through the question together I am on roll and can cope. When I come home and try myself that is where I go down. But if I am honest I just haven't put in the work because I have been working so hard on my piano study.

I am arming myself with Harmony in Practise,Josephine Koh and the Big 6 workbook along with some past papers oh plus the pink AB theory book, to take on holiday with me. I just hope that they don't weigh too much.

Well I can't see me being ready for November, but who knows maybe February. I would really like to do it by February if possible before I start the A214 OU course.

Pity I can't pack my teacher for 2 weeks, just think how much I would learn then! hehe!

Hi Skylark,
Please can you tell me what is this book MTIP. I keep seeing this book mentioned, but sorry to say I don't know about it at the moment. May be it would be helpful for me.
Thanks Serrano

Hello everyone.

Just wondering where you are all up to! I've gone through harmony in the ABP2 book, and have bought Butterworth's book.

I'm already confused, and the Harmony In Practise book is more than 200 pages.

It will be a while before I get the workbook, because I really want to get into it first and really have a good understanding of it all before I start the exam-like questions.

Sam.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'll even be ready for next June!

I'll be glad when I can have some lessons


It stands for Music Theory in Practice - it's one of the ABRSM publications. The difference between this and the "Big 6" workbook, in my opinion, is that the MTIP has a lot of explanations in it and not many exercises, whereas the workbook is the other way round. (I use the word "explanations" fairly loosely as I'm really none the wiser after I've read it most of it )


Welcome to the club


Yes that was my idea too but it hasn't quite worked out like that. I'm now planning to work backwards - use the workbook to see what they're getting at and then go back to the text books to study the finer detail. I've come to the conclusion that the text books need to be backed up with the practical examples that you get in the workbook, otherwise you feel like you're wading through treacle. Well I do anyway!

But you don't need all of Harmony In Practice for G6 - you don't even need all of it for G8! So you don't need to get yourself too confused with it just yet

(Easy for me to say, MTIP6, Big 6 and Harmony in Practice are just lurking at the side of the bed unlooked at, at the moment!)

Just my little progress update:

I am working on the Revised Practice in Music Theory by Josephine Koh, and have the first 2 books of ABC in Harmony, Harmony in Practice and MTIP.

Right now, I have completed Note Doubling and basic Chord Progression rules for root position & 1st inversion chords with my teacher. On my own, I went through the basic Figured Bass (without 7th chords), and have just completed the Dominant Seventh exercise with progression rules. I should be completing the Supertonic Seventh exercise this week, and will proceed to Figured Bass with 7th chords. All these should lead me to Harmonising Melodies by the end of August. Wish me luck!

I think Josephine Koh has so many exercises, but little background. That is good for learning the rules of chord progressions and note doubling, but it does not tell you exactly WHY you have to learn all that. The layout of exercises is clearer and more spacious than MTIP. (I know, because I used MTIP Grade 6 book as a child, and it hasn't changed very much over the decade. There wasn't much space for me to write my answers, and my teacher had lots of problems squeezing her corrections in.) When I cannot comprehend why certain rules are necessary, I will refer to Harmony in Practice. When I doubt the rules in Josephine Koh's, I refer to ABC in Harmony where the rules are more comprehensive.

Something I heard over the weekend from my friend teaching piano:
ABC in Harmony (3 books) are good for chords and chord progressions.
Josephine Koh is good for composition.

That is really helpful teoani, thanks. I've got the Josephine Koh book book but I haven't started on it yet. Since I haven't found MTIP very clear, I'll have a look at the Koh next. I've got Harmony in Practice as well which is pretty mind-boggling and it's difficult to sort out what you need for G6 amongst the G8+ stuff. Probably best used for reference as you say. I haven't seen ABC in Harmony but I'll take a look at it.


Edit: I've just been looking for it on the net... what's the difference between Book A, Book B and Book C please - do you need all of them at once or are they progressive?

See the G6 theory books discussion thread here - Katyjay recommended these and answered the exact same question from me ...they are progressive and broadly correspond to G6, 7, 8...

(and if you like those books, they actually also publish specific G6, 7 & 8 theory books)

I'd forgotten about that thread, thanks!

I found the ABC of Theory and ABC of Harmony to be really useful. Before you can use the "Big 6" workbook you will need to learn about chords/progressions/figured basses etc and the ABC of Harmony will give you all this. Josephine Koh is also useful - lots of exercises for practising what you've learned. Big 6 tells you what is expected in the exam, and gives you some worked examples and exercises. It does not teach you about chords and figured basses; you are expected to know about them before you start on this book.

I had a look at Josephine Koh last night I'm much happier about it now. I can see that the way she deals with everything is very simplistic, but for me that's been good because she breaks it down into manageable, logical and clearly laid out chunks and it's very easy to see what the rules are. I'll feel more confident now about looking at other books to find out the reasoning behind the rules. I'm hoping that the ABC of Harmony will suit me better than MTIP or Harmony in Practice, and then I might get down to studying instead of just reading!

I do think non-pianists are at a disadvantage when it comes to this level. The books seem to assume that everybody is familiar with terminology which other instruments don't use - contrary motion for example. At least I'd heard of the term through reading this forum, and now I've played it so I know what it means, but as a clarinet player, I wouldn't have done otherwise. That's just one small example but the books generally seem to be written for pianists. In fact that's obviously the wrong way round - the whole area of study at this level is about the structure of music on a keyboard! I'm very glad I've taken up learning the piano - it's a big commitment but I think it will be so useful in the long run.


Edit:


I've done a forum search for ABC of Theory but it doesn't seem to have been mentioned very much. I see that both the ABC books are written by Roy Wilkinson - is there much overlap between them or is it worth getting both of them?

Question for those who have worked through Harmony in Practice and have done the higher theory grades....

Which bits of the book would be essential for say, grade 6 theory? The book is so big

I've not used the book but the summary of the harmonic vocabulary expected for the grade might help you to sort out which sections you need to look at.

Has anyone used the 'Harmony is Fun' (Subject Publications) series? I have a set of Books 1-3 which I haven't tried yet. I'm thinking of cross-referencing between this series, 'Harmony in Practice' and the Grade 6 AB books and papers to help sort out which sections of Butterworth are relevant to the Grade 6 exam. I am trying to find a systematic way of teaching Grade 6 theory to pupils new to harmony without just ploughing through a big book of exercises.

No I haven't seen "Harmony is Fun". I've just ordered ABC of Theory and ABC of Harmony so will report back with my "take" on these when I get them/look through them.

I've received Book A in the ABC of Harmony series now and my first impression is that it looks more digestible than some of the other G6 books. Everything is written as bullet points and there are lots of exercises to do (no answers though). The style and layout make it look like a small step from Grade 5, rather than a huge leap into unknown territory. Obviously this is just a first impression though, I haven't started working from it yet. Although it's not published by the ABRSM, it's written by Roy Wilkinson who "for many years has been an examiner for the ABRSM".

In the Preface he says "Harmony is about sound - only by playing the examples and exercises can a student begin to learn to hear and notice the results of what is written down. A purely mathematical approach is not musically satisfactory". If that's the case, then it definitely puts non-pianists at a disadvantage - as a clarinet player, how would I manage if I hadn't decided to take up the piano???

Sign me up for it! I've just got the book for G6, well i've got the Music in Practice books. Looks Fun! I'm suprised what I can remember from my A Level days

Hi Chris L, great to have another Sixer on board!