Teacher Dreamaurora - Piano Q&A

[csb]

Hi, my son did very poorly for the aural portion of his last ABRSM exam. Is there any way I can help him at home? I’m not musically trained. Thank you.

[Dreamaurora]

nissin:

Dreamaurora:

You need to be more specific. There are plenty of Menuets/Minuets by different composers. Which book/composer this Menuet is from?

The music teacher actually printed it from the Internet. By Johann Sebastian Bach

There are two very popular Menuet by Bach for lower grades, both of them in G Major. The first one, the most famous, is this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqSAGwa49MM. This one is commonly given for students who are transitioning to grade 2 from grade 1.

Another one is set for grade 3 ABRSM syllabus for the year 2009-2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zomb7itNZyQ. This one is more challenging.

[Dreamaurora]

csb:

Hi, my son did very poorly for the aural portion of his last ABRSM exam. Is there any way I can help him at home? I'm not musically trained. Thank you.

You need to be specific with the grade because for ABRSM the aural requirement can differ vastly from grade to grade. Also what cause the poor mark? Wrong answer? Too long to response? Inability to pitch or follow a pulse?

But in general, I always advise student to participate in musical activities outside piano lessons. From my experience, students who have experience in choir, band, or singing in church will generally have a better developed ear and thus have easier time in aural. Picking up a second instrument like violin or singing will also benefit a pianist immensely as unfortunately a lot of piano students just play piano in 'autopilot' mode without actually doing inner listening of whatever they are playing.

[nissin]

There are two very popular Menuet by Bach for lower grades, both of them in G Major. The first one, the most famous, is this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqSAGwa49MM. This one is commonly given for students who are transitioning to grade 2 from grade 1.


[/quote]

This is the one. Tks!

[peanut_butter]

Dreamaurora:

1. For a well rounded development, your ds should have a mix of pieces, technical exercises, and chamber pieces (i.e. piano duets). Personally I believe, for each grade a student should learn minimum 5 solo pieces, 2 technical exercises, and 2 duets.

Could you please elaborate? Are you referring to scales, Hanon?

Thanks.

[Dreamaurora]

peanut_butter:

Dreamaurora:

1. For a well rounded development, your ds should have a mix of pieces, technical exercises, and chamber pieces (i.e. piano duets). Personally I believe, for each grade a student should learn minimum 5 solo pieces, 2 technical exercises, and 2 duets.

Could you please elaborate? Are you referring to scales, Hanon?

Thanks.

Yup, Hanon and etc. Can mix and match from various books. Some technical books I use are Hanon, Czerny, Little Pischna, Joseffy, and Dohnanyi. Beside the 'boring' exercises, I will give etudes by Burgmuller, Heller, or Bartok also. If not sure what to give there is this excellent compilation of etudes by Keith Snell ordered from grade 1-10 (Canada RCM grading system) http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Neil-A-Kjos-Piano-Library-Piano-Repertoire-Etudes-Level-1/291123.

Scales have to prepare anyway if they are taking exams, so these exercises are exclusive of the scales.

[csb]

Dreamaurora:

csb:

Hi, my son did very poorly for the aural portion of his last ABRSM exam. Is there any way I can help him at home? I'm not musically trained. Thank you.

You need to be specific with the grade because for ABRSM the aural requirement can differ vastly from grade to grade. Also what cause the poor mark? Wrong answer? Too long to response? Inability to pitch or follow a pulse?

But in general, I always advise student to participate in musical activities outside piano lessons. From my experience, students who have experience in choir, band, or singing in church will generally have a better developed ear and thus have easier time in aural. Picking up a second instrument like violin or singing will also benefit a pianist immensely as unfortunately a lot of piano students just play piano in 'autopilot' mode without actually doing inner listening of whatever they are playing.

Thanks for your advice. It was grade 4 and based on the examiner's comments, it's inaccuracies which I assume refer to wrong pitching. I think it's also clapping wrongly to given rhythm because when I played the ABRSM sample aural tests CD for him, he couldn't get the whole rhythm right.

He seems able to recognise the notes by ear. He has been with his school Chinese Orchestra since January but joined the group (as in orchestral vs just his instrument's group) practice just the past few months.

Is there anything else we can do at home? Thanks again.

[Dreamaurora]

I think you can play as much classical music recordings at home to let your son get used to western pitching and rhythm. Also make sure your son regularly do sight reading practice as a good inner hearing is important to sight read well. Try to get him into singing activities as in the higher abrsm grades there is a strong emphasis on singing for aural. Chinese orchestra’s tuning is different. I have a student who took erhu exam and she found it very hard to pitch and sing western tuning, but at least her sense of rhythm is good.

[csb]

Dreamaurora:

I think you can play as much classical music recordings at home to let your son get used to western pitching and rhythm.

Actually the default setting of our radio is 92.4, and I turn on the radio almost all the time except TV and practice time. Are there other titles similar to the ABRSM sample aural tests that will help? Thank you.

[Dreamaurora]

For more sample questions you can purchase Paul Harris’ improve your aural series. If willing to spend more there is this very good book 'music for ear training by Michael horvit but you have to purchase it from amazon.