The exams – 27th August, 2007
Written Exams
In general, I found the written exams a lot easier than the workbooks. They were well presented and used appropriate sized manuscript for the grades i.e. 10mm for Grades Prelim, 1 and 2 and 8.5mm for Grades 3 and 4.
The problem is, I’m pretty sure I found them easy because I am a theory teacher, rather than being taught well by the workbooks.
There were quite a few errors in the exams themselves, which was a great shame. It only takes a couple of good proof-reads and these can be eradicated, thus eliminating the stress it causes the students when something doesn’t work out right.
Preliminary
This was a lovely, easy paper with clear wording for the questions. It was quite a short paper – it only took me 4 minutes to complete! I noticed that even very young children finished well before the 30 minute time limit.
The only issue was that the question on scale degrees went over the octave range. If students chose to write 1(8) for the top F, I hope that they didn’t write 2(9) for the top G!
Grade 1
This paper was well set out with considerably more to do than the Preliminary paper, yet no more time allowed – also a 30 minute time limit.
I wonder if ‘saxophone’ would be accepted for the question asking for the instrument with a single reed?
Grade 2
Wow, the question on consonant/dissonant intervals with alto clef is very tricky for a Grade 2 student!
I was also quite taken by surprise by the question asking for the candidate to write, from scratch, an imperfect authentic cadence in G minor. I realised that this type of question, which crops up all the time in Theory and Musicianship, has never been presented in this form in any part of the Music Craft course. All cadences are to be written by adding parts or following a figured bass. So this was pretty tricky too.
The only thing in this paper that was disagreeable was the question asking for the English meaning of ‘8vb’. This is a copyist’s shorthand and should not be used. It should be ‘8va’ or ‘8va bassa’; either way, ‘8vb’ does not appear at all in the Music Craft workbooks.
Grade 3
This syllabus is absolutely vast, and of all the exams this paper took the longest (including Grade 4) and required the most diverse knowledge.
If I were just a student I would have found this paper very challenging. Every question required lots of concentration.
For the question requiring transcription into the alto clef, it would have been nicer to have a passage that wasn’t so high up. We had to use heaps of leger lines. I mean, surely that’s why alto clef exists? To avoid leger lines?
Intervals, chords and terms were all fine – then – WHAM! Page 5 of the paper contained no less than three exercises on harmony.
The third exercise, writing a melody over a bass line, was ambiguously presented as the first note was harmonised in four parts. I hope students didn’t think they had to harmonise the whole lot in four parts.
Question 15 asked for the lowest notes of the flute, tenor trombone, violoncello and B flat trumpet. I take issue with the fact that the flute range was tested; woodwinds are introduced in Grade 1 but ranges are not required. As a result, these ranges are not even printed in the answer keys in the teacher guides!
Grade 4
This paper seemed shorter because of fewer questions on rudiments (i.e. no intervals) and the fact that there were only two harmony questions, not three,
I thought the question asking to describe one of the principal variation forms was very hard – I wrote about the Passacaglia because I knew about it, but I could not recall much information in either the workbooks or teacher guides that would equip me to write a paragraph-long answer! And again, later in the paper – pretty tough to differ recitative from aria in two ways.
Aural Exams
My main concern is that the aural exams were presented in a manner that is completely analogous with the presentation of the aural CDs in workbooks. For example:
Scales: On the workbook CDs, scales are played on either piano, harpsichord or organ, at a reasonably fast speed. In the exams however, the scales are played incredibly slowly in various orchestral instruments.
Intervals: On the workbook CDs, throughout the course, the intervals are played extremely fast and either melodically or harmonically. In the exam they are very slow and melodic only.
Instruments: In this regard, the exams were much harder. On the workbook CDs, the quality of each instrument is very clear and the excerpts demonstrating each instrument are easy to recognise and in an appropriate range. In the exams, the ‘name this instrument’ section was extremely difficult; even I had trouble identifying the instruments because they were modern excerpts with instruments doing strange effects. Are we trying to test the students, or trick them?
Rhythm Dictation: In each exam the rhythm dictations were played on a percussion instrument. It’s hard to hear minims on percussion, so this was a little confusing for some children. Only the syllabus states that rests will not be examined – the exam papers do not mention this.
Melodic Dictation: In every grade we were given the beat or pulse. This is not so on the workbook CDs. And in the Grade 4 exam – no time signatures given!
Set Works: Short excerpts were played, which was a surprise. We are not prepared for this on any of the workbook CDs; the set works are always played in their entirety, except for the end of Grade 4.