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Topic: Piano Exam....  (Read 1615 times)

Offline Tammie

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Piano Exam....
on: July 05, 2004, 12:01:19 AM

I have been preparing for my Grade 10 piano exam for about a year and the exam is coming up next month!  Sadly, I am convinced that I am nowhere near to be ready.  Though my piano teacher reassured me that all my songs are quite good already and that I'd do well if I could only give more confidence to myself.   :-[
For some reasons, I just can't play as well as I wish i would when I play in front of some people.   :-/
Anyways, I am having some diffifculties in the ear tests.  The exam requires some identifications of intervals, chords, playbacks, etc.
Can anyone give me any tips on how to improve my listening skills?  :)
Thank you very much!

JK

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Re: Piano Exam....
Reply #1 on: July 05, 2004, 12:21:09 AM
Singing is the best way (imo) to improve your listening skills. I used to have a bad ear, however through singing and determination I have managed to improve it a huge amount. Practice singing intervals, if you can sing them then this will give you a much better chance at being able to recognise them. Also singing along to bass lines from songs (by songs I mean actual songs!) is very good, if you can work out the bass and then relate this to the sound of the chord above then this might help with recognition. Also a lot of chord progressions are quite standard and therefore just through playing chords on the piano can help a lot. What ever you decide to try the only way to improve your ear is practice and determination, this can be done in a short period of time if necessary.

Offline donjuan

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Re: Piano Exam....
Reply #2 on: July 05, 2004, 12:32:42 AM
Watch "Sound of Music" and memorize the doe ray me fa so la tee doe song. ;D

Offline Stolzing

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Re: Piano Exam....
Reply #3 on: July 05, 2004, 02:26:37 AM
Here's a program you could use to help with learning intervals/chords.  There are tons of these programs but this is probably the best one of all I tried:

https://www.teoria.com/software/index.htm

Offline steveolongfingers

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Re: Piano Exam....
Reply #4 on: July 05, 2004, 04:34:18 AM
Come up with songs to remember the intervals. For example perfect 5th=star wars, or augmented 4th = yyz by rush,

for the playback, the only way to get good at that is to practice, its pretty easy after you get the hang of it.
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture – it’s a stupid thing to want to do- Frank Zappa
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