At Music Waves we like to spend the last 4 weeks approaching an exam, doing ‘mock exams’.
This eases the child into the procedure so that when their day of examination arrives, the procedure seems second-nature and there are no surprises.
The exam is typically only 15 minutes long give or take. So the examiner will not ask all scales. Just a random sample selection. All three songs will be asked for. (Please note: All Piano Leisure exams only request 3 pieces. The student has a choice between Aural and Sight Reading; On the other hand, Pianoforte exams often have 4-5 pieces and the student must do both Aural and Sight Reading).
This is a Mock Exam for Grade 1 Piano for Leisure:
Tutor (staging as examiner): Hello, is Sam there? (quote student fullname, pretend to be calling out to waiting room at AMEB centre).
Tutor: Hi Sam, I am Dr Olga Smith (alias name). I will be your examiner today. Come right this way. Welcome to our exam room. Feel free to set up your chair at the grand piano however you like. (student should practice placing seating in a regular spot, appropriate distance from the piano, aligned with middle C and the pedals).
Olga Smith: Today we will start with your scales and then you can play your songs in your chosen order. After that I will ask you some general knowledge testing and then we will finish up with a sort Aural test ( or sight reading if you have selected sight reading over Aural).
Do you feel comfortable on your chair and ready to start?
Student: Yes
Olga Smith: Could you please show me G major scale hands together similar motion 2 octaves
(student should take their time before starting. You really only have one shot at each item and we need to avoid restarting as much as possible. I always tell students PPP for practical exams: Plan, Pick a Pace, Poise.)
Olga Smith: Could you please show me E minor harmonic hands together 2 octaves similar motion
Olga Smith: Could you please show me C major Broken chords Left Hand
Olga Smith: Could you please show me A Minor contrary motion
Olga Smith: Could you please show me Chromatic Scale commencing on C, 2 octaves, Left hand.
Olga Smith: Let’s move onto your songs. Song 1: Arabesque by Burgmuller (if this is the first song you requested – you get to choose the order and write the order you would like to present your pieces on your Notice of Examination. Its best to place your most confidence-building piece first)
Olga Smith: Song 2
Olga Smith: Song 3
Olga Smith: Let’s move onto General Knowledge
Olga Smith: What key is Arabesque in? What does Allegro mean? What does Scherzando mean? What does dim. e poco rall mean? who is the composer? What period of Music is it from? Can you Tell me anything about the Romantic Period?What structure is it, binary or ternary? What doe a dotted crotchet mean? What is the Time Signature of this song? What does risoluto mean? what is an Arabesque?
Olga Smith: What period of music is Plaisir D’amour from? Tell me more about the Classical Period of Music? Who is the composer? Who is the arranger? What is the key? What is the time signature? What structure is this song? (Ternary) (these are just sample questions not necessarily what will be asked. Anything on the page of your pieces can be inspected and asked about).
Olga Smith: 3rd Song: what is the key? What is the time signature? who is the composer? What is a crescendo? What is a quaver rest? A minim rest?
Olga Smith: Now we will move onto Aural testing. If you could now hop off the piano and face away from the piano. I will now play the piano whilst you listen. (I strongly recommend closing your eyes throughout the Aural test as it makes your audible loop stronger and working memory has more room to dedicate to audible stimuli.)
Olga Smith: I will play 3 bars of music twice. Then you can clap back the rhythm pattern of those 3 bars.
Olga Smith: I will play 3 bars of melody but I will stop right before the resolving note. If you can sing the resolving note .
Olga Smith: etc 3rd part of aural test
Olga Smith: That is the end of your exam. I will upload the report to AMEB connect and it should be available to you from 3 working days to 3 working weeks.
Hope this really clarifies things guys. In a lot of ways the exam follows very closely the lesson order of proceedings except that in an exam the student only has ONE attempt at things. Hence it is really important to poise and plan before launching into exam items.
Moreover, the examiner will not interject and guide the student whatsoever as to how to correct things. They cannot even help you know where to start (it is very much like exams in any discipline at any stage in life – examiner must have no interference). So it is really important that the student knows their content so well, they know their starting positions independently, they can pick him/herself up from a slip promptly and independently and move on forward to next bar or next stage. It is important to train your student in abandoning perfectionist tendancies, and powering forward after slips. Slips will happen. About 4-6 slips occur in any exam, even A+ students. The examiner is looking for performance resilience and the ability to move forward!
Call 04012 MUSIC anytime and book an appointment between 9am-3pm to discuss AMEB examinations and performance skills.