- Hi, you may well be one of
the people who's coming up
to take a theory exam soon.
And if you want some help with
the kind of teaching content,
do have a look at our website,
because we've got lots of material
that covers everything you need to know,
for each of the grades.
So if you want some teaching input,
go onto the website, you'll find it there.
And what I'm going to
do in this short video
is just talk about some
of the practical things
that might just help you in the exam room.
And if you're starting off at say,
a grade one theory exam,
one thing that would be
incredibly helpful to you
would be to be able to draw,
a sort of mini keyboard
on the scrap paper that's given to you.
So you can just see where the notes are.
So when you're working out
the answers to the questions,
you'll be able to see where the notes are.
And you know, we've got a little video
that just explains how to do that.
You don't have to be a
great artist to do it,
but it will just explain how to do that.
And it may be something
that just helps you
to visualise the keyboard,
you'll be able to see where
tones and semitones are,
maybe be able to work out how to do scales
or just check you've got those right,
or maybe help with one or two intervals.
So lots of things that drawing a keyboard
would help you with.
As you climb the grades,
so particularly when we
get to grade three onwards,
certainly grade four and
most certainly grade five,
you have to do intervals.
And there's an interval table
that I think is a really helpful thing,
just to help make sure
that you know which intervals of perfect,
which are major,
which are augmented and diminished,
which are minor.
And it might be a helpful thing,
just to know how that table works.
So you can scribble that out
on a piece of scrap paper too,
to help you deal with any questions
that are about intervals and again
we've got an explanation of how
to do that available to you.
The other thing is,
that I think is quite helpful,
particularly as you start
to climb the grades,
to know how the circle of fifths works.
So that you can very quickly
draw a circle of fifths,
it's amazing actually
with a bit of practise,
how quickly you can
draw a circle of fifths.
And that gives you all the major keys,
gives you all the minor keys,
gives you all the key signatures,
gives you all the sharps and
flats in the right order,
helps you to think about
which key something's in,
how to write a scale,
how to do intervals,
how to do transposition,
incredibly useful thing.
So have a look at those
resources that we've got here,
just to show you how to do those things.
So the keyboard is
certainly incredibly helpful
from the very beginning.
The interval table as you
start to climb the grades,
and the circle of fifths as
you start to climb the grades,
and the time you spend just scribbling
those onto a piece of
paper, you'll claw back,
because it will save you time as you go.
Now, I'm just going to talk about
other really practical things.
First of all, you don't need
to write answers in pen.
The trouble is if you start
writing answers in pen,
if you make a mistake
or you want to change
your mind about something,
well, it's actually very
difficult to rub it out.
There are some erasable pens out there,
but then that might cause
other difficulties as well.
So, you know, it's just much easier
to work these things in pencil.
So very obvious thing.
Take a good supply of pencils,
if you just take one pencil and it breaks,
then you're a bit marooned aren't you.
So take a good number of pencils with you.
Test them out beforehand,
work out which is the best pencil for you.
Is the pencil too hard?
Is the pencil too soft?
What's going to give
me the clearest answer
when I'm writing with a pencil.
And of course, you're going to have
to take a pencil sharpener,
just in case you've
managed to break all 15
of the pencils that you've taken with you,
sort of thing that happens
when you're under pressure.
So have a pencil sharpener, then you know,
you've got no problems with that.
But you really don't need
to worry about taking a pen.
You certainly want to take a rubber,
but take a good quality rubber,
not something that smudges
the pencil all over the place
and takes away from the neatness
and the clarity of what you're doing,
because, don't forget,
marks can be affected by neatness.
So make sure you got a rubber,
one of those little plastic rubbers
are particularly good
because they kind of rub
out nice and cleanly.
You might want to take a
ruler, you don't have to.
But if you want to make sure
your bar lines look really good,
you could draw your
bar lines with a ruler.
Some people draw the stems of
all their notes with a ruler.
I happen to think that's a
little bit time consuming,
actually.
So you'd be better to put your efforts
into getting through the questions
than doing all the stems of the notes.
But you might just want
to make your bar lines
look good with a ruler.
So there's a thought.
You'll begin to scrap paper.
And if you need any more,
you just put your hand up
and you can ask for that.
And obviously, there's going
to be an invigilator there
who will start the exam
when everybody's ready
and will kind of tell people
when the time is running out.
They'll be different people
leaving at different times,
depending on which grade they're doing.
Try not to be put off by
people who are leaving earlier
then you, just sort of keep
focused on what you're doing.
Now, I'm going to say something
that's really obvious now
and possibly a little bit annoying.
But it's something that
all teachers say really.
Read the question carefully.
Read the question, R, T, Q.
Read the question.
Make sure you've really
read the question carefully.
You might even want to
underline the key things.
Make sure you've got every
part of the question answered.
You know, sometimes you
find these questions
have got lots of different parts to them.
So you look at the question
and it says write the scales.
So you think "Oh, yeah,
I've got to write a scale",
but then what is the
scale of A-flat Major?
Okay, so don't write a minor scale,
write a major scale.
Make sure it is A-flat major
and not something else flat major
or E-sharp major or something.
What does it say next,
it might ask you to
write it in semibreves.
So don't write it in crotchets or minims.
It might ask you to write
it one octave ascending,
so don't write descending.
Don't write two octaves,
if it's one octave.
So making sure that
you've got that sorted.
Have we got the right kind of minor,
because if you write
the melodic minor scale
where you're being asked to
write the harmonic minor scale,
it's a great pity
if you happen to know
what those things are,
but you just write the wrong thing.
These are all things
that lose people marks,
not reading the question
carefully, or fully.
So underline every part of the question
so you make sure you've done that.
And it's amazing how sometimes
you get a little sort of
extra thing tacked the end
that people just forget to do.
And it's going to lose some marks.
When you're filling up bars with notes
have you got the correct
length of notes in each bar,
have we got an extra beat
here or beat missing there,
that kind of thing.
If you're transposing something
as you climb the grades,
is it asking you to transpose
up or to transpose down?
Have we got this absolutely clear.
When you're writing something
in an alto or a tenor clef
from grades four or five upwards,
actually, have you got the
notes in the correct octave,
things like this, so easy
to just kind of know about,
but get the wrong answer.
So make sure you're really
reading the question
and thinking through the
implications of all these things.
I mean, how you want to tackle a paper
is something that's worth thinking about.
Lots of people just
start with question one
and work on to the paper
until they finished it,
that's a perfectly
reasonable way of doing it.
You may actually have
a favourite question.
You may say, I really
like the question on this.
And you may want to
get that one done first
because you know you're confident at it
and you can get that
question out of the way
and then maybe the things
you're less sure about,
you'll have more time for later on.
But you can try your strategy
and see how you get on with these things.
Anything you can't do,
don't sit there for half
an hour trying to work out
the answer to something that
may only be worth one mark.
You know, if you're
looking at it thinking,
"I just don't know the answer to that."
One thing you can do is
just put a little asterisk
in the left hand margin say,
something really obvious
that you can obviously rub
out later if you want to,
but it will just remind you
that when you've finished doing the paper,
you need to come back to
these asterisk moments
and have another think about them.
But sometimes they're
best left to the end.
So you think, "Oh great,
"I've got 10 minutes now I
can just really think through,
"what is this asking me to do?"
And it's funny as well,
how sometimes you look
at a question and think,
"My goodness, I don't
know the answer to that."
You leave it, you come back to it later,
and suddenly it hits you and you think,
"Oh I know what they're
asking me to do here."
So that may happen to you there.
And, of course, the best
way to prepare yourself
for these things is to work past papers,
get lots of experience
in working past papers.
So you get used to the kind of questions,
you get used to reading all
the parts of the questions
and tackling them,
you get used to how
much time does it take?
Do I find it easy to finish a paper
in the time I've got or
actually have a run out of time?
Or am I a bit pushed for time?
And if you do run out of time,
well, have a little think
about what's taking me time?
Where do I need to speed up?
Maybe a bit more work in that area
will enable me to get the
answer a little bit faster.
If you finish the whole
paper in 10 minutes,
and it's a three hour exam,
that's also telling you something
like actually you're going to quickly
and you've probably not done things right
or probably not answered
everything properly.
So, working through past papers,
apart from making sure
you've got the knowledge,
gives you experience in pacing the exam,
dealing with the kinds
of questions you've got,
and working out how you
want to tackle things.
So you don't have to do
everything necessarily
in the order of the exam
but do make sure you've
answered every question.
And you sometimes see
great big things saying,
"Now turn over!", and
people forget to turn over.
So, is there a question on the back page?
Make sure we've turned
all the pages of the paper
and answered everything there.
And if you really don't know
the answer to something,
you might as well guess
because it's probably not
going to go against you really.
But if you leave it blank, obviously,
it's not going to get any marks.
And I'm thinking particularly
about things like,
Italian terms, what does this word mean?
So you look at this
word, it says moderato.
And you think never heard of
it, but have a little think.
Is that a word that it is sounds like,
moderato, moderate?
Okay, now, moderate, what
would that be talking about?
Could it be talking, for example,
about the speed, play at a moderate speed,
just by thinking about it,
you can have an intelligent guess.
And a word sounds like something,
not all these words sound
like something you know,
but some of them do.
Accelerando, isn't there
an accelerator on the car?
What happens when you press
the accelerator? We go faster.
Accelerando, gradually speeding up.
So do you see, sometimes even
if you don't know the word,
it might just help you.
And even with other things,
you might as well think,
well, I really don't know
what the note is here,
but I might as well put a note in
and take your best guess at it.
But whatever you do, don't
spend ages on one question
that might be not worth very many marks.
Keep an eye on the time,
it's quite handy to have a watch,
there's usually a clock in the room.
So you just sort of make sure that
you're not letting time fly by.
Be as neat as you can be.
Some people who have got
all the right answers in their head,
but they're just a bit kind of scrappy
when they write it all down.
And then some poor examiner
is going to be sitting there,
looking at it thinking is
that note B or is it C,
because if you've not done
it really brilliantly,
it may not be clear if it's
on a line or in a space.
So those kind of careless inaccuracies
could be very costly in marks,
so really be as neat as you can.
Some people are naturally neat,
some people are naturally untidy,
but it's a good challenge
to try and be neat.
When you're finished,
obviously check through the answers
don't think great I finished
early I'll clear off now.
Use the time, go through everything.
It's amazing when you check over answers,
how sometimes you think, "Oh my goodness,
"I've written the scale C-sharp minor
"and it's supposed to be C minor,"
all is not lost, you've
still got time to change it.
So double check the questions,
double check your answers,
make sure everything ties in.
And look over for details,
like are the stem directions
in the correct order?
Have I got my clefts drawn accurately?
Or actually is my treble clef
wrapped around the wrong line?
Or my two dots after my bass
clef are in the wrong place,
you know things like that.
Have I got the right number
of beats in every bar?
All this kind of stuff.
So you're absolutely on the nail.
By the time you've finished and gone home,
you've done the best you can
to answer every question,
to be as neat as possible,
and it's going to give you
the best chance of success.
So, if you want to know
some of these details
about drawing keyboards and
doing the interval table,
how to do the circle of fifths,
well, you can have a look at all that,
it's all on the website.
So just go there and you can
find a completely free resource
with all this on it.
And if you are preparing
for an exam sometime soon,
the very best of luck to you.
If you want some help,
have a look on the website.
There's all the material
for each grade there
that you're going to need.
If you want somebody to
mark a paper for you,
you can get in touch and we
can organise that for you
to give you an idea of how it's going
and give you some feedback on
the answers that you've given.
But when it comes to the
day, try and enjoy it,
concentrate as much as you can.
Make sure you're fully equipped
in all the ways that we've talked about
and the very best of luck
for a successful outcome.
