Music Aptitude Tests for State Secondary School Music Scholarships – Page 5

Music Scholarship Entry to the West London Free School. It’s nearly time for the auditions for this hugely popular secondary school. Here’s how you can help prepare for the Musical Aptitude Test.

One of the most popular secondary schools in West London offers just 12 spaces on a Music Scholarship place. These places are highly sought after and awarded to students playing at a higher than average level.

If selected, scholars are expected to make a commitment to their musical education – arriving at school early on some days, giving up their lunch break on others, ensuring they practise their chosen instrument regularly, etc. The programme aims to develop the practical abilities of scholars and deepen their understanding of how music works. Keyboard skills, ensemble playing, pitch perception and music theory are at the centre of these lessons, along with learning to use notation and sequencing software.

Why Sit the Test?

A priority place at WLFS, regardless of catchment area.
A half hour instrumental or singing lesson each week, paid for by the school.
Theory of music classes on Wednesdays at 8.00am.
Membership of the school choir.
Sight-singing classes.

What is Included in the Test?

The test at Year 7 is designed to identify pupils who have musical potential as well as those who already study an instrument. So long as your child has a love of music, we would encourage you to apply. The test lasts 5 to 10 minutes and assesses pitch perception and sense of rhythm/pulse. The candidates will not be asked to prepare anything or bring an instrument, as the test is completed entirely vocally. It is not a test of vocal quality.

Can I Download Any Training Materials?

We do offer a digital download which is useful preparation for these styles of tests. However as the WLFS test is entirely vocal then we recommend booking a 1-to-1 lesson to work on general musical ability in the style of tests you might hear on the day. Please note the tests varies each year so we cannot guarantee what you will hear on the day.

How do I book a 1-to-1 lesson?

You can book online on Eventbrite which shows all available times. Our teachers fit these lessons around their weekly teaching commitments so there are no other slots available other than what is listed.

Music Aptitude Tests for State School admissions

Music Scholarship Preparation at the SE22 Piano School

The Music Aptitude Test (MAT) specimen test materials have been created by the SE22 Piano School and music technology experts to help familiarise you with the MAT. The MAT is a test used by state Secondary Schools to select around 10% of their intake of students on a music scholarship program. We have been successfully preparing our students for entry to many London schools on music scholarship programmes for the last 4 years. Schools that have used the MAT in recent years include (please check via the links below whether the school are offering the MAT for entry):

What is the Music Aptitude Test?

The MAT is a series of listening tests that uses electronically generated sounds to provide a level playing field for candidates by not using real instrument sounds. Students that are familiar with the Aural part of ABRSM and Trinity exams may not necessarily be at an advantage as these tests are all conducted at the piano in the examination. The MAT tests uses microtones – intervals smaller than a semitone that do not exist on a piano. This means that pianists are not familiar with these small intervals.

The MAT uses a wide variety of instruments and electronic ‘beeps’ so that instrumentalists do not have any advantage over students that may not have studied music formally. For this reason, we decided to commission a set of sample tests that we can use with our students to prepare them as fully as possible for the MAT.

Here is one of our students taking the test. The questions are all clearly announced and there are 4 sections to each test with either 10 or 20 questions. The video has the first ten questions of Section 1. This clip is taken from Test 3 – Texture.

Using the sample questions from the MAT criteria, we have produced a series of 4 complete tests. We also provide the blank answer sheets and, of course, the answers! For the convenience of a smaller file size for download, we have made the MAT a bit quicker than the actual test. We recommend that you pause the MP3 after each question and take your time to answer it. Once you are more familiar with the exercises, you can try them at full speed.

4 complete training tests of 60 questions each are available to download instantly from our web site here:
https://musicaptitudetest.wordpress.com/buy-the-tests/

Summer Lessons for SE22 Piano School students

Music Aptitude Test Scholarship and Piano Lessons in Penge

Music Lessons in Penge or online on Zoom

Please note that none of our teachers are offering lessons in East Dulwich during Summer as we all live quite far away now. However here are the other options available to you for extra lessons in Summer:

Zoom Lessons
Mirna is offering music lessons online only during the Summer holidays on Tuesday and Wednesdays from 10am to 1pm (except for 15-24 August). You can use these lessons for music scholarship preparation or piano/singing lessons. Charged at the usual rates and invoiced separately. Email to book a session, either 30 or 60 minutes (£40/£80). Available dates can be viewed here. Nb. higher rates apply to non-SE22 Piano School students for Zoom lessons.

Piano/Theory/Music Scholarship Lessons in Person in SE20 (Penge)
Lorraine is offering lessons in SE20 and these are at a discounted rate of £30/30 mins or £60/60 minutes for SE22 Piano School students only* during the Summer break. You can also use these sessions for Music Aptitude Test and scholarship audition preparation.

Dates for Piano or Scholarship Lessons in Penge:

August 1st, 2nd, 9th, 11th, 15th, 16th, 30th : 11am to 1pm

*Higher rates apply to non-SE22 Piano School students that require music scholarship preparation.