All Students preparing for Grade exams are recommended to use the Hofnotes on-line training pages to practise for the aural tests. 

At higher grades  you must be able to discuss with the examiner musical features such as texture, form, style, and period of a piece of music.  My own  web pages to help with these parts of the test at Grade 5+ and at GCSE are available here!

Welcome

Welcome to these listening training pages.  They will help you to:

• plan your listening
• get more from what you hear
• better understand the music you play
• improve memorisation skills
• find great performances in all styles....
• ...and .. just possibly... get better marks in aural tests!

 

There are several elements to listening with understanding at higher grades.  You need to be able to discuss with the examiner features such as

• texture           the voices and parts in the music and how they work together
• form               how the composer's musical ideas are linked and contrasted
• style               the musical characteristics that mark it as one of a type or genre
• period            its place in history

These pages were produced as a project for the ABRSM Certificate in Teaching course.  You can access a paper on its development and rationale here.

Last updated on: 03/01/2012