Many students want to know how to get a Distinction in their music exams. There is a very useful guide written by ABRSM called These Music Exams which details the marking scheme that examiners use.
Summer 2014 – Here’s Safiya (age 8) with her Grade 5 Distinction Jazz Piano Certificate. Click here to see more of our students’ exam results.
Here is a blank ABRSM mock exam form for use by teachers in accordance with the ABRSM exam marking criteria. There will be a session focussing on some of the Alternative List pieces in November – the session is for piano teachers. More details here: One Day Workshop for Piano Teachers in London
Many students do not realise that they can practice the aural tests at home but there is a really fantastic web site that you can use to help you prepare. See this link – there are lots of free tests plus it’s very reasonably priced to subscribe:
Congratulations Anne-Marie: Grade 8 Piano Distinction
Grade 1 Distinction, 144/150
Click to view our recent ABRSM exam results and certificates
I thought it may also be useful to see some of the comments sheets from examiners to compare and contrast this with the Marking Criteria. See below for the PDF with the breakdown of marks and the comments from actual exams ranging from Passes to Distinction.
Click here for the ABRSM Examiner’s Comments
See some of our students’ recent exam successes:
Safiya, age 8 – Grade 5 ABRSM Jazz Piano (Distinction)Grade 8 Distinction – 140/150Grade 4 Theory DistinctionGrade 1 Theory – DistinctionGrade 5 – MeritGrade 1 Distinction, 144/150 marksCongratulations Anne-Marie: Grade 8 Piano Distinction
How Long to Get to Grade 1? This is a question I am often asked and if you’d like to skip to the short answer, head straight to the end of the article!
In this article, I will discuss the journey a pianist must take to be ready for Grade 1. I believe that it is the hardest grade to achieve as there is much to conquer before being ready to sit the exam. The exam is so much more than just learning the three pieces, scales and the supporting tests. It is about creating a well-rounded pianist with enthusiasm and interest for all things piano.
Do you have enough time to practise daily? A pianist that is able to practise daily will make the greatest progress week-on-week. By the time you are starting Grade 1, you will have a lot of material to cover and should be practising at least 20 minutes a day when you start Grade 1, increasing to 30 minutes after one term when you will have learned more of the requirements for the exam. Effective practising means that you are able to work with your teacher to identify the weak spots in your pieces/scales/supporting tests and isolate these, work on any errors, and return to your lesson the following week with an improved version of what you played last week. If your teacher has identified errors such as incorrect fingers/notes/rhythms/unsteady pulse etc. but your practising routine does not correct these, then you will be embedding these mistakes and they become harder to undo.
It is worth taking the time to learn new material slowly and thoroughly instead of rushing through things hastily and inaccurately. Do not expect to be able to play your pieces within a couple of weeks. Use the practice chart from the Trinity Exam Handbook to guide your daily practice. Remember it is not just your pieces to practise but scales, aural, sight-reading and musical knowledge. 20 minutes a day will need to increase to around 30 minutes a day once you have learned all requirements. Students unable to commit to daily practice will take longer to be ready to sit the exam.
Listen to your pieces regularly. Your teacher can record the pieces for you if you ask your parent to bring their phone to the lesson. Buy the exam book with the CD attached to it although you’ll be amazed how many students fail to even take the CD out to listen to it! Listening to your pieces regularly will make the tune more familiar to you which usually helps you learn the piece faster.
Perform at every opportunity. We know how vital it is for young musicians to perform, even if they have only had a few lessons. We create events that are inclusive to beginner pianists. Performing helps build your confidence as it can be daunting to perform in public to an audience, but it gets easier each time you do it. Exam day often brings about a case of the nerves and pianists that have performed in public regularly will feel confident and in-control on exam day. Our pianists working towards graded exams perform regularly at our student recitals. Do ensure you sign up for all performance opportunities as this will help you breeze through with confidence on exam day.
Play Duets To Improve Rhythmic Skills Whilst you only have to learn three pieces for your exam, the well-rounded pianist will have a far larger range of repertoire under their belt. We encourage all students to play duets with their teacher as this is a fantastic way to help you learn to play in time and keep a steady beat. This is absolutely vital for exam day as the examiner will be listening keenly for a steady pulse in your pieces, sight-reading and scales. In addition to learning exam pieces, your sight-reading skills can be developed by learning easy, short pieces alongside your three exam pieces. Whether or not you choose to do sight-reading in the earlier grades, you will still need to develop this skill as it will be tested in the higher grades. The ability to sight-read is a core skill to learning any instrument.
Learn your music theory. Understanding music theory and how it applies to your exam work will help you with learning the pieces, scales and supporting tests as these all expect a good understanding of key signatures, intervals, dynamics and other basic theory concepts. The Musical Knowledge section of the exam will give you the opportunity to speak to the examiner and demonstrate your knowledge of your pieces. Working through the theory grades alongside your piano exam is always a good idea. We recommend the theory work books by Ying Ying Ng.
Know your notes! The basics of note-reading must be firmly in place before we start working on the Trinity Initial Pre-Grade 1 Piano Exam. Students that are struggling to read both clefs on the piano will make much slower progress in preparation for the Trinity Initial exam. Pianists that cannot proficiently read music will be encouraged to learn lots of repertoire and work on note-reading fluency before starting the Grade 1 exam. The demands of the Grade 1 pieces will mean that it would be very difficult to make progress with the pieces without having a good level of note-reading fluency and recall.
Trinity Initial Pre-Grade 1 exam We use a fantastic pre-grade 1 exam called Trinity Initial Piano that is the exact same format as the Grade 1 exam. The use of the exam allows the student to have a gentle introduction to the graded exam system. It also gives the teacher a good indication of how much preparation and progress is made each week in preparing for the goal of an exam. Some students that struggle to prepare for the pre-Grade 1 exam may prefer a less structured approach to lessons as the Graded exam system does require a good degree of focus, discipline and commitment.
Now that you have some idea of the requirements of the graded piano exam, then the question of “how long to get to Grade 1” will vary hugely from one pianist to another. A keen beginner around age 8 that is well-prepared for the lesson each week and has a good sense of confidence with performing in public could aim for Trinity Initial within the first 18 months, and then Grade 1 another 12-18 months after that depending on the amount of time they can devote to daily practice. The recommended amount of daily practice for Grade 1 is 30 minutes. Have a look above to download the Handbook with the practice charts to guide your daily practice and enable your teacher and parents to monitor your practice.
Younger beginner pianists aged 5 to 7 may take longer to grasp the basics of piano playing so it is often 2 years till Initial Piano is started, and then usually another 12 – 18 months until the exam is taken.
Taking exams is completely optional and some students will prefer not to follow this system which is absolutely fine!
If you would like to start piano lessons at the SE22 Piano School in East Dulwich then check out our Vacancies. We also teach singing, violin, guitar and harpsichord.
Music Scholarship Specialist Tutor’s Advice for Succeeding at the Music Aptitude Test for UK Secondary School Admissions
How To Succeed at the Music Aptitude Test Prepare in advance and make sure that you are familiar with the style of tests that you will hear on the day. Try not to leave it until September to start researching the Music Aptitude Test. The school holidays are the perfect time to practise for the test and make sure your Round 2 audition is ready to go too!
It’s that time of year when we are just a few weeks away from the start of the Music Aptitude Test season. Some schools such as Claremont High School Academy and Ashmole Academy hold their MAT test earlier than most schools and this takes place in June.
Many students want to know how to pass the MAT test. This is a selective test that secondary state schools use to select a number of students each year, often bypassing the catchment requirements, hence the popularity of it amongst Year 6 students. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to secure a space at your desired local secondary school and living within the catchment area is not always possible due to the steep increase in house prices near schools rated Outstanding by OFSTED.
Most schools operate a 2-part Music Scholarship system. Without passing the MAT you will not be able to progress to the audition stage so it’s very important to put the time in to prepare thoroughly for the Music Aptitude Test so that you can have the chance to perform for the scholarship panel. This is often on a separate date but some schools will put the two sessions on the same day.
Here is a video from our head teacher with information about the 1-to-1 sessions including whether you need to prepare and what the lesson includes:
We offer 1-to-1 Music Scholarship and Aptitude Test training on Zoom for students hoping to gain entry to a UK secondary school using the Music Aptitude Test criteria. We can prepare you for ANY school as they all use a very similar test or variant on a standard set of questions.
Here is a sample of what we cover in the lesson. Each lesson is tailored to your individual needs and we will discuss at the start of the lesson your requirements.
I have been preparing my own students for over 12 years for Music Aptitude Test and scholarship entry to state secondary schools. Through the grapevine, other students from UK schools found out that I have produced training test materials for my students and they enquired about purchasing these, and also about having individual or group MAT training sessions. This led to me offering the tests for sale and also inviting students from any area to attend my monthly Aptitude Test sessions. It gives me great pleasure to receive so much feedback from students that have successfully passed the MAT and many continue to succeed at the audition stage. I am available to prep students for both test and audition. Do make sure you engage your music tutor in the process too as they can follow the plan of action we come up with at the workshops to ensure you are ready for the tests that take place in Autumn.
In addition to preparing many music students over the years, I’ll be thinking about whether to send my daughter to a school on a scholarship place if she’s keen to pursue music at secondary school and she now enters Year 5 and we start looking around local schools in South London. Many of our local schools such as Prendergast, Haberdashers, Norwood and Kingsdale offer music scholarships. Kingsdale also offer sports scholarships.
Here are a few things to consider when preparing your child for the Music Aptitude Test.
Have we left enough time to prepare for the test? Even though the schools say no musical knowledge is required, the tests are quite unusual and it’s worth trying these at least a few weeks in advance but ideally 3 months ahead of the test date. Trying out the tests a few days before the MAT often causes panic and is not best advised!
What is the criteria for your chosen school? Each school has a slightly different MAT test and they often change it each year. As we, the teachers, are unable to sit these tests, we rely on the written guidelines and feedback from students that have sat the test to produce training test materials that will help familiarise you with the style of tests. These tests are not exactly the same and we tweak them to fit the feedback we receive from our students.
What pieces will you perform? We don’t recommend performing pieces from the exam syllabus. Try and think outside the box and pick some pieces that will make a memorable performance. You want to stand out on audition day and you also need to make sure your pieces are known fluently and have been performed many times under pressure – either at home to an audience of friends and neighbours; at school assembly to a larger audience or in a competitive event. Everyone gets nervous so it’s important to have performed your audition pieces under pressure several times so that you know you can beat the nerves!
Which schools use the Music Aptitude Test? This list is not exhaustive and is subject to change so please check your prospectus for current information.
Abraham Darby Academy
Ada Lovelace School
Ashmole Academy
Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School
Bristol Cathedral Choir School
Bushey Meads School
Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School
Chancellor’s School
Chelsea Academy
Claremont His School Academy
Clement Danes
Cooper’s Company and Coburn School
Croxley Danes
Dame Alice Owen’s
Ealing Fields High School
Enfield Grammar
Haberdashers’ Aske’s / Prendergast Hilly Fields / Crayford Academy
Hertfordshire & Essex High School
Highgate School
Langley Grammar School
Lorraine’s SE22 Piano School
Leventhorpe / The Bishop’s Stortford High School / The
Mill Hill County High School
Old Swinford Hospital
Parmiter’s School
Queens’ School (Bushey)
Rickmansworth School
South West Herts School consortium
St Anne’s Catholic School, Southampton
St Clement Danes
St Mary’s & St John’s CE School
St Marylebone Church of England School
St Paul’s Way Trust School
The Hertfordshire & Essex High School and Science College
Twyford Church of England School
Uxbridge High School
Watford Grammar School for Boys
Watford Grammar School for Girls
We also have free videos to help you with the tricky bits of the test such as the Texture section:
