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!

 

 

 

 

The key to successful sightreading is …………..

            …..don’t look down!

 

To reduce the number of times you have to look for a note on the piano, do all these activities first with one hand then the other.  Then try hands together.

  1. Cover hands with a towel.  Find all the groups of two and three black keys – by feel.  Find all the Cs in the same way, then all the Fs, Es and Bs.
  2. Play harmonic and melodic intervals, using different white notes as the tonic (C, F, G).  Start with fifths, seconds and thirds.  Ideally, use flash cards with these patterns on them to reinforce the link between looking at printed music and responding with touch.
  3. Do the same an octave higher or lower.
  4. Do the same with sixths and octaves.
  5. Do the same an octave higher or lower.
  6. Still with hands covered, play scales and arpeggios from printed copies
  7. Use a combination of these flashcards and/or those with individual notes on them to create longer note sequences and try to play these by feel too.
  8. Play a very short, simple piece - or just a chord sequence- entirely by feel.  (Don’t even allow yourself to find the first notes with your eyes!).  Don’t worry about tempo or even rhythm – melodic accuracy is all you are after at this stage.  By all means reach instinctively (using your muscle memory) to find the next note.  But don’t play the note until you have checked by feel it is the right one.
  9. When the notes are secure work on the rhythm.  If necessary tap out the rhythm on one note first until it is comfortably known.

You hum it...then you play it

Learn to sight sing; if you can hear the music on the page you stand a much better chance of getting it out to the ends of your fingers.  Activities to help with this are:

  1. Write out a scale and sing it.  Try small sections.  Go up and down.  Change direction.  Try to sing intervals from the scale (doh - re, doh - mi, etc).  If possible get someone to test you with this!
  2. Find a short simple piece and play a few notes of the melody.  Stop and see if you can read the next note and hear it in your inner ear.  See if you can sing it.  Play it and see if you were right.
  3. Extend this practice to try and sing longer phrases, or even the whole melody.

Analysis

Look at a piece of music that you have not learnt to play yet.  What can you understand about how it may sound without playing it?  Try to answer these questions:

bullet Is it in a minor or a major key?
bullet What does the title tell us about its mood and style?
bullet What does the composer tell you about how fast or slow the piece should go?
bullet Are there rhythmic patterns that keep recurring?
bullet Is a melody repeated through the piece?
bullet Can you hear all or part of the melody from looking at the page?
bullet Can you recognise any of the chords in the bass line?

Last updated on: 03/01/2012