Questions about music theory exam, piano beginner |
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jqq888
Newbie Joined: 16 Oct 2018 Points: 4 |
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Posted: 16 Oct 2018 at 10:45pm |
My daughter’s piano teacher recommend her to take grade 3 & grade 5 theory exam. Is it good to skip grade 1, 2 & 4. I heard Grade 5 is the compulsory one because student need it for higher grade practical. e. But I have no idea of my daughter’s learning and want to let her go for exams, And I don’t think grade 1, 2 & 4 past year papers are sufficient.
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Alice
Groupie Joined: 09 Oct 2018 Points: 44 |
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There are a few of self-study theory books in
the market suitable for this purpose. There are also software and apps
that can help you with the explanations and more exercises, the parent who have no musical background can self learn and teach grade 1 and 2 theory to our kid |
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Jessyyio
Newbie Joined: 10 Oct 2018 Points: 32 |
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My daughter's teacher asked us if we will like my daughter to do Grade 3
next Oct or Grade 2 in Mar, I decided for Grade 3 in Oct as she has
just started on Grade 2 and may not be well prepared. I heard from my colleague, the older the child, the more likely she can
do well in the theory exam. There is really no need to do the grade 1-4
theory exams with ABRSM. Good to cover the contents, but exam is not
required.
Considerations when sending for theory exams: Age and Alignment with practical exams |
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luluchin
Newbie Joined: 12 Oct 2018 Points: 22 |
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Teachers play an important role. So far I have come across more
"unskilled" piano teachers than theory ones. Perhaps it's because
little time is spent on theory for starters. It is difficult to balance the practical and theoretical
side of things especially when the student is not strong in both. I will make the younger ones take grade 1 as a starting point, it is
like an entry into theory exam. Why is it quite difficult for a lot of teachers because of time limitation
to teach both theory and practical. I am actually considering to send
students to take grade 3 Practical Musicianship first before grade 5
Theory. I think the syllabus is actually quite good and helps student to
apply the theory concepts in practice. |
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Jessyyio
Newbie Joined: 10 Oct 2018 Points: 32 |
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Right at the beginning students were pretty disinterested, and most of them still didn’t understand why doing music theory was actually going to help them in music study. So we need to explain how having a thorough knowledge of keys, chords and intervals not only helps you understand music and learn songs faster, but it also allows you to transpose a song instantly in your head. It allows you to create altered chords that sound awesome by playing an entirely different chord to what the rest of the band is playing. When you can do this, you find that you have so much more musical freedom in your playing. It allows you to understand what you hear, and gives you a vocabulary for explaining it. This is applicable music theory. After that, the class was pretty eager to start learning some music theory.
Edited by Jessyyio - 20 Oct 2018 at 8:51am |
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doraleo
Newbie Joined: 07 Oct 2018 Points: 75 |
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Theory Guidebooks are the ideal introduction to music theory for musicians, composers, students and teachers, designed for use with theory exams, as study and teaching aids, or as standalone guides, popular Music Theory Syllabus is fully accredited. It is a firm grasp of musical language that opens up the door to achieving your full potential. To aid the development of articulate, accomplished musicians, and the Popular Music Theory resources have been specifically designed with this in mind.
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Lololo
Newbie Joined: 13 Nov 2018 Points: 14 |
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Parents love Grades, because they understand them. Saying “ooh, she/he’s studying for Grade Six,” about one child or another.
Teachers love grades, because they reveal their prowess as a teacher. I too signed up for ABRSM Grade 8 (piano) a year or so ago to set myself a new challenge. It took two years for me to get there and I scraped the overall exam with a pass of 130. The actual day was a horrendous experience. I can quietly say “I took Grade Eight a few years ago,” when people ask “can you play piano?” and nothing more needs to be said. |
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Alice
Groupie Joined: 09 Oct 2018 Points: 44 |
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Many piano teachers suggest that the student’s lesson length be a preliminary rule of thumb for a daily practice goal. This rule of thumb is most appropriate for the earlier levels. At more advanced levels, piano practice requirements can be much higher, depending on the student's ambitions. Other piano teachers base practice recommendations on age, on level, on motivation, or a combination of those three factors. For four-and- five year old beginners, 10 minutes of practice time is a common recommendation, unless the child is a prodigy or unusually self-motivated. The important goal for these very young piano students is to establish practice as a routine, daily responsibility and to make it fun. If these ideas can be intertwined, the child is less likely to resist practice later, when the time requirements are greater. For seven-to- ten year old beginners, a half an hour a day is a good starting point. More motivated and talented children may practice more, but in general, a half an hour of daily mindful practice will yield good results. Once students reach the intermediate level, satisfying progress requires closer to 45 minutes a day, because the material is more complex and more difficult to master. Without that commitment, intermediate-level piano pieces may take weeks to learn, students may get frustrated, and forward progress will be minimal. At this stage, piano students also need to make time in their practice schedules for more technical drills, including etudes, scales, and arpeggios, which at the intermediate level might require 15 minutes or so a day. More advanced students' progress will very much depend on their goals. With 45 minutes of daily practice, an advanced student can continue to learn new repertoire, although not at a fast rate. An hour a day will yield more satisfying results. Recreational high-school and adult pianists who have achieved an intermediate-to-advanced fluency in playing classical music, popular songs, and hymns, will find that a practice routine of 45 minutes to an hour a day is more than enough to maintain technique, learn new material, and develop skills. More ambitious high-school students who enroll in adjudications and competitions often find themselves practicing two or more hours a day. Those planning to audition for elite musical college programs may practice three hours a day. Advanced Piano Students and Practice At the college performance level, where students are majoring in music and practicing to be professional musicians, many piano majors practice between three and six hours a day, depending on the school. Pianists practicing more than two or three hours a day should divide their practice time into smaller units, perhaps an hour or two in the morning, at mid-day, and in the evening. Or they should take frequent breaks. Breaking up practice helps prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis, which are repetitive stress injuries that can occur with over-use or incorrect technique. Discuss any cramping, stiffness, or hand tremors with a teacher, who should be able to recommend relaxation techniques and other ways of preventing the problem. For all students, from beginners to virtuosi, it’s also important to note that a smaller amount of mindful, attentive, and creative piano practice is far more effective than many hours of repetitive, mindless drills that simply reinforce bad habits and mistakes. Small children may need parents to help them practice effectively and correctly. |
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Alice
Groupie Joined: 09 Oct 2018 Points: 44 |
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1) Music 'theory' by whcih I mean an understanding of how sets of notes form a scale / chord / etc 2) 'Implementation' meaning how you actually go about playing it. The theory part has different aspects of emphasis depending on what you want to play, and the implementation part is effectively your chosen instrument (incidentally I mainly play guitar) So your question is about a bit of both. If going back to basics, I have found that the best way to learn to pay a song is to listen to it, and find it on the instrument. It's on there somewhere- all of it ! you just have to find it, even if it's just some basic notes, one at a time, that fit with the tune. Play along to the original (as you're learning piano, pehaps use headphones so that you can hear the original tune over your own playing). Then look it up -perhaps google & find a web page with the chords listed. If you dont know how to play the chords, no worries- more web research will quickly show you how. It'll feel like horribly slow progress at first while you get to grips with each chord, but one brilliant thing about learinng music is that it builds on itself and all skills become re-usable elsewhere. Concentrate on a part of the song, get it right, then move on - it's important to hear back the song in what you're paying (rather than just a disjointed noise which it might be at first), so there's good reward in making a certain part, eg a verse. Work at a basic level, even if it's super-slow or a bit uncertain) before you get to grips with the next bit. Once you've had a crack at all the parts, glue it all together and keep playing the song all the way through, even if you make a horrible mistake. That way you play all the parts everytime, easy and difficult. Notice that there's precious little here about music notation. That's because music notation doesn't make music. You playing does :-) So the real answer is just to play ! What will happen is that as you learn basic chords for the song, you'll start to see how they fit toigether and will notice that two chords might be the same (eg A and B) just 'moved about' a bit. This is the beginning of the music theory making itself apparent. Regarding muscle memory: I think it doens't quite work how you anticipate: Muscle memory will help you repeatedly play chords because youre hands will naturally land on the right keys for a given chords. However when you're playing another song, perhaps using a chord whcih is in "close to you", the context of the same chord is often different enough for it not to feel associated. |
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gushiwen
Admin Group Joined: 01 Oct 2018 Points: 170 |
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The thing about music is that if it sounds right. It's not like building a bridge, where you need a theoretical model to back you up. I took a dozen or so bass guitar lessons a year or so back. "Music Theory" is a misnomer. It implies that making music is something like a theoretical science. Bottom line is you can read every work of music theory ever written but you'll still have no idea what C Major feels like to hear, which is what music is.The bass lessons were great and within a few weeks my beats improved some in terms of composition. Pick an instrument you can use in your own stuff and go for a few lessons - see how it goes. ive always had an acoustic guitar in the house since I was a kid but am what I'd describe as a 'strummer' as opposed to a 'player'. A way of giving instructions to an orchestra, or writing journal articles about different patterns in music. I have yet to see any evidence that music theory really contributes anything to music as an art, except that learning a lot of music theory and practicing a lot are correlated, so music theory and musical skill are correlated. Maybe it helps organise your mind. No-ones proven it. Music theory is mostly terminological, descriptive and organisational. You spend a lot of time learning 'rules' just to hear about someone who is a genius for ignoring them all. Music theory is just way of communicating ideas about music without having to play the music. |
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