I'm doing the prelude and fugue in Ab by Bach; 1st movement sonata in F from Mozart; and...one of those nasty modern pieces for C

We do aural in the lesson, but how can I practise on my own?

thanks

will

You can buy the Aural book with a CD if u like from most music shops or order it

I did it last term so just to say good luck.

I did bach p&f in Ab, mozart in F, and the grieg nocturne.

If you really ahte the C pieces you should look at the grieg, technically I didn't find it hard at all. I started it last April and got 29 for it in the exam in June.

x

Apparently I am* I'm playing the Bach Prelude and Fugue, the Beethoven Op31 and the Martinu.

As for the aural, as someone else has mentioned, there are CDs available, some produced by the AB, others independently. The more you can do yourself as well, the better - play some cadences and modulations to really get the feel of how they sound; listen to music from different periods and get used to spotting the key features; just get used to singing!

*Yes, I am in denial about the whole thing because the wheels keep falling off

Me too: grade 8 in three weeks and I was so in denial, but once my date arrived it's been 'action stations' ever since.

The aural books (with CDs) are ideal for practising on your own. I'm using Aural Time myself, thoroughly recommended.

denmark

p.s. My pieces are Handel Prelude & Gigue in F sharp Minor, Haydn Sonata in C ('English') and Brahms Intermezzo in E

Good choices, denmark77. You'll probably get an extra mark for NOT playing the Bach P&F

I shall be subject to ordeal by examiner in two weeks' time

This November it will be two years since I did my Grade 8 piano
Personally I didn't like the Aural CDs I have to say. I just used the book with my teacher, and practiced in my own time by choosing random books and sight singing bits of pieces I didn't know. Also playing through hymn books helped a lot with the chord changing part!
I hated doing Aurals, I don't envy you!
Good luck though, keep us posted on how you're doing! What date is the exam?

Not this session but in march



Bach duetto, Mozart sonata and chopin nocturne

I also have problems with my aural.

I'm not so advanced as all you lot and only about to take Grade 3 piano. I've used "improve your aural" which comes with a CD and found this useful. It's not badly priced at around £4/5. I was that impressed that I've already bought the Grade 4 book in anticipation!!!!

Yes :S
Although i still don't know the date of the exam getting nervous now.
I'm doing the Bach p&F, Mozart and the Copland (not so sure about this choice but too late now)

I have problems with my aural as well i just persevere and hope for the best.

Good Luck All

I'm redoing it next week after failing it in June. I made a complete and utter mess of it, but still got 92. I think I should pass this time. I'm doing Scarlatti E-maj/ Haydn in Eb/ Copland. Don't know why the Bach is so popular. I found it too difficult - same with the Shostakovitch. Maybe I'm just not used to that style of music enough to play it well.

Main thing I'm worrying about is my aurals though. I can't sing to save my life and I'm useless at identifying the different chords and inversions. I can identify a basic cadence and that's about it. Intensive practise this week/ next week I think.

Good luck everyone. Are any of you using a page turner? Mr Flutecake has permission for me to turn pages for him, so I can get nervous too!
He's playing Bach (Duetto, not the Prelude and Fuge), Schubert and Brahms.

Yes, I am - Husband will be page-turning for me in my Beethoven and Martinu. Beethoven has three smelly turns without a free hand; the Martinu is just about OK but it's got one fairly rotten turn in either direction, and as I'll be playing on a grand, the desk is just that little bit too far away to do it myself.

I didn't realise until last week that permission for a page-turner has to be requested at time of entry, so sent a very grovelly e-mail to the AB asking permission. They told me off for not requesting permission in writing at time of entry, said it would be OK, then wished me every success

I was particularly amused when they asked me to remember to seek permission in advance for the future. Yeah, like I'm going to be doing any more exams ever after this one

Good luck - I ducked out at Grade 6, so am full of admiration for anyone who gets this far!

I didn't realise until my piano teacher told me.. 5 minutes before the exam! She didn't know either
Thank god my page turns weren't too bad, I had to do them myself haha.

If you were the applicant yourself, they were probably thinking in terms of you entering other people in future. I know people who have taken in a page-turner without requesting permission & nothing has been said, but I expect that depends on the examiner - it would be rather a risk not to get permission if you really want a page-turner.

I'm back! Anyone who gets a bit squeamish during post-mortems should look away now...


Good to see a couple of familiar faces at the centre, as some of the members of Valhalla Choral Society were stewarding. We were a couple of minutes early, so Husband sat down in the waiting room with the singing syllabus, looked at the Grade VIII repertoire list and realised he knew enough of the works to consider taking it. I looked up from my copy of Maggie's Holiday (a lovely story about a small boy who adopts a horse when her owner emigrates - spot my intellectual level!) to tell him he could find another accompanist for that!

Then came the hour:

Bach: LH decided to have a couple of bars' holiday in the Prelude but otherwise OK.

Beethoven: Better than it's been for weeks. Phew!

Martinu: I stumbled a bit when *someone* didn't turn a page in time. A couple of other small slips but the wheels stayed on.

Scales: mostly OK, but a couple of stumbles. I lost count during the chromatic and think I played too may octaves

Sight-reading: OK.

Aural: Ah, yes, the aural. Tests A and C seemed fine, the examiner had to tell me to curb my enthusiasm for Test B (I wanted to start singing before she was ready! ) and as soon as she'd finished playing the excerpt for Test D, I blurted out "It's Gershwin!".

I bought a Curly Wurly on the way home. I'm sure they used to be bigger

Well, that's it. I think it's a three-digit mark (not sure I can face a repeat ordeal if it isn't) although I've been too enthusiastic in my estimates before now, examiner seem smiley (hopefully not the smile that hides the tiger), and now begins the long wait for results.

Well done! Have you let Hubby out of the doghouse yet?!

Hope you get some really good news in 2 or 3 weeks' time.

Well done

All the best for a good result.

Well done Deborah

You got through it that's the main thing. I actually had a similar experience to you but I enjoyed the exam weirdly.

denmark

Sounds good! I had a Gershwin piece for my grade 8 violin exam last year too (His Promenade, to be exact. I didn't know the name until I heard it on the radio a month ago and thought it sounded too familiar.) The examiner was very pleased to hear I knew that it was Gershwin. My entire aural mark was pulled up by Test D, in which he wrote, "excellent and quite detailed for [test] D today." and I got merit. So I'm pretty sure your examiner was smiling 'cos you passed nicely.

Sounds like it went quite well Deborah! I'm sure you'll do fine

Are there always 4 aural tests per each grade? I can only ever remember having three in my grade 1, 2 and 3.

No news yet then Deborah? Did you enter yourself? Are you feverishly refreshing the online results portal?....

No news yet, and piano teacher submitted the entry, so I can't carry out the traditional check every five minutes.

The wait is over! Piano teacher has just phoned with a series of numbers:

Bach: 23
Beethoven: 25
Martinu: 27
Scales: 15
Sight-reading: 19
Aural: 17

Adding up to a shiny merit of 126, my highest ever mark.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Well done, Deborah.

Deborah, well done. That's a really good score. Do you think you might consider working towards the diploma now or do you tihnk you've had enough of exams?
I have failed. I got 94/100. I think that nerves got the better of me:

Scarlatti in E maj - 19 (I thought this went well though and was suprised)
Haydn in Eb - 18 (fair mark)
Copland - 20 (fair mark)
Scales - 12 - fair I suppose, I knew them all, but nerves got the better of me and I kept messing them up.
Aurals - 12 (fair mark)
Sight Reading - 13 - again I thought this went well and was a little suprised by the mark

I honestly think it was nerves, the Haydn wasn't perfect but my teacher thought everything else was pretty good and it was really frustrating having played the scales so much not getting them out. Same with the Scarlatti really although I did think it had gone well enough to pass at least.

Congratulations Deborah


Sorry things didn't go quite according to plan, Kevin. Exam nerves do get the better of all of us at times, and the thing to bear in mind is that how you play in an exam is not necessarily indicative of how you play the rest of the time. Talk the comments through with your teacher and then move on to enjoy other piano playing, whether or not you retake the exam.

Congrats Deborah - excellent mark ! Have you started looking at the DipABRSM list yet?...

Yes - well done! Just goes to show you can't always judge your own performance.


Ready for the next one?

Mel

Congratulations Deborah! Bad luck Kevin, sorry to hear that.

Yay - well done Deborah!

Well done to you Deborah!

Bad luck to you Kevin. Will you re-sit?

Thank you all for your kind words, both here, in other threads, via PM and Facebook. Commiserations to those who failed - better luck next time


Well, I must confess to having looked at the list - then ran away wailing "It all looks far too difficult".

Seriously, I'm aware there are holes in my technique which would need patching before attempting a diploma of any sort; in any case, my inner letters tart is veering towards an associate diploma with another board, so that I can increase the spread of post-nominals. Wonder where that idea came from

I couldn't possibly imagine! No-one on such an esteemed forum as this would dream of collecting endless meaningless Certs and Dips from obscure organisations and colleges with no credibility, which aren't worth the paper they're printed on and probably cost £25 over the internet, just to look good on their signature...

Would they?

Congratulations Deborah - great marks, especially the Martinu

Bad luck Kevin - will you have another go?

Sounds like an eminently sensible idea!

Gosh, I'm amazed anyone needs the music, never mind a page turner.

Well I tried to enter for March earlier but wasn't allowed as it doesn't open until tomorrow. The examiners comments were very encouraging. The scales seem to have been the killer area, I did know them, but tended to get halfway up/ down and freeze. I think it's just a matter of being calmer and together with more practise I should be fine.