ABRSM Grade 5 Guitar

Recently I just took the ABRSM Grade 5 Guitar Practical Exams.
It was a nerve cracking experience.

Preparation
Months before, the actual date I already went thru' all the catalog of pieces that was in the exam scope.
The set piece consist of 3 groups:
A Baroque Renaissance music
B Classical / Romantic period
C Modern Contemporary

Set pieces
For section A, I was tied between selecting the Bach or the Vivaldi's pieces.
I like them both.
In the end I decide on the Vivaldi's Winter Largo.
But the version that was printed on the book was too easy so I decide to add in my changes to the transcription.
The score's bass was having a crotchet bass line but the actual orchestra bass line was having quaver.
So I adopted the orchestra version.
(NB: I transcribed the piece for guitar ensemble many years ago I was very familiar with the whole 4 seasons.)

For section B, I seldom play classical period pieces.
In the end I chose the The march by Tchaikosky.
Well the melody sounds nice to me at least

For section C, I chose the Prelude in B flat major by Manuel M Ponce.
Well Ponce is one of my favourite composers.
However this piece proved to be difficult to memorise.

Scales and Arpeggios
The scales aren't too difficult, just need some practice and memorisation that's all.

Sight reading
I was pretty scared of the sight reading.
I bought the reference book by ABRSM and had no problem reading it though.
Nonetheless I use the one of the books which I bought for the set pieces (Timepieces for Guitar Vol 1) to practise my sight reading.

Aural
This is the part which I was not very sure.
Only 2 months before then I started to practise for it
Luckily some of my piano friend lend me some books on aural exams.
The first part was echo a melody after hearing for 2 times
I don't have any problem with it.
2nd part is the one which I had no idea at all: that is to sight singing!!!
I had to sing out 6 notes ranging from I to V (above) and V to I (below)
i.e. so la ti Do re mi far so
I had to learn soffiege in order to do that.
Luckily it's all in the major key.
If it's minor I would have problem...
3rd part is about style and period and clapping the rhythm
I was pretty confident about this part since I listened quite widely to various periods.
Just weeks before the exam, I started to listen to Class 92.4 every morning and try to identify the style / period before the DJ speaks of the composer.

The Actual Day
I didn't had enough sleep as the previous night I didn't sleep well at all.
But luckily during noon time, I had a power nap and that refreshes my concentration.

When I arrived at the exam center, I was pretty nervous.
Then I told myself to calm down and mentally rehearse the scales etc.
Soon I went into the room and greeted the examiner.
The examiner was a male pianist professor from UK who has performed in Wigmore Hall etc.

Well I was given a choice whether to start with the set pieces or the scales.
I chose to do the scales 1st.
Well unfortunately I did have some mistakes in the scales but not to the extend of breaking down.
But I guess my speed for the scale more or less covers for it?
I was playing pretty fast and with good articulation.

Then I went on to do my set pieces starting in the ABC order.
I did the Winter Largo pretty well with the planned dynamics and color.
The March by Tchaikovsky is supposed to be my most practised piece but I ended up making mistakes....
Argh...
The 3rd piece by Ponce I had to read off the score totally.
The previous 2 piece though I read off the score when I played, I can actually play w/o score. But for this piece I can't.
Luckily I did what I learn from the master class with Flavio Cuchhi (an Italian guitarist) to divide the score into phrases and sections and decide what to play on those sections the dynamics etc..
In the end I manage to deliver the piece to a considerable standard and just 1 small mistake.

Next came the sight reading.
The examiner gave me quite a lot of time to go thru'
In fact I felt that I was give too much time haha.
I noted the key signature which was in A minor, and the time signature 3/4 waltz timing.
Then I recognise the various chords in each measure.
Followed that I even had to time to note the dynamics marking.
I played according to the dynamics marking and only make one small mistake on an accidental part which I had missed out deciphering the chords.
All in all I think I did pretty well for my sight reading.

Then came the aural
I had no problem with the echoing the theme part and to sight sing the 6 notes.
But then came the most shocking part of the exam.
The examiner played a piece and ask me to identify the tonality major/minor and the style/period.
I actually can't answer....
I stood there trying to recall the tonality but in the end had to make a guess to be minor based on my gut feeling as it doesn't sound like major at all.
He asked me towards the end did it change to major?
I had to make a wild guess this time and said yes.
Then the next problem is style: I was deciding between classical and baroque.
It doesn't have a simple accompaniment so I guess it was a baroque piece.
Finally when he ask me to clap the rhythm, I had another shock.
After I clapped, he told me to clap the rhythm not the pulse...
What's the difference?
After several attempt and getting panick... I finally guessed that I could be clapping the + beats too.
So I decide to clap less beats and he accepted that answer...
When he ask me the time signature, I had paused to count again.
Luckily this is the last part of the exams, if not I would be very demoralised.

Then the exam ended; me quite disappointed with myself.

Results
The results was released online in 1-2 weeks after the exams and received the certificate with the comment sheet 3 weeks+.
Like what I expected, I just scraped thru' the aural.
The examiner's comment was exactly what I described clapping the pulse instead of the rhythm.

My Vivaldi's winter scored pretty well: 28/30 with good comments on the dynamics and articulation.
Well after all I arranged the piece to be closer to the original score and I added in lots of ornaments like what the piece should be like.
The other 2 pieces was mediocre.
Scales and Sight Reading was quite good.
Overall I got a merit for this grade.
Lucky me.

A Private Lesson with Flavio Cucchi

I had the opportunity to arrange a private lesson with Flavio Cucchi, an Italian guitarist professor, when he came here for a concert.
I learn quite a lot from this lesson.

I waited for him as it was the lunch time.
When he arrived finally, he was very polite and nice.
He asked what guitar I was using, and was very surprised that I made the guitar myself.
He asked to try and the guitar and test the various tone colours of the guitar.
He just said it's very nice.
I guess it did live to his expectations.

Then we started the lesson.
I played to him the Suite in A minor by Manuel Maria Ponce.
When I did the prelude then the first thing he commented was the tempo.
What I thought was acceptable was really not acceptable.
The prelude is divided into 3 sections, a freely intro, a 2nd more a tempo section which consists of broken chords progression and a conclusion.
I did the first section very freely and he said it's wasn't really supposed to be that free.
Even freedom has a structure to it that timing / tempo still need to be kept.
That's really penny for thought.
But I did what he asked me too and it did really sounded much better.

Anyway I had a weakness that is being unable to read off the score.
I did memorise the entire suite and never look at the score since.
So I discover that I need to be able to do both, memorised and yet being able to read the score at the same time.
We worked out the entire prelude in terms of dynamics and colors.

For the 2nd movement, he advise me to divide the score into phrases.
I never realise the phrase was such before until he pointed out.
It was very enlightening.

For the 3rd movement, again was the rhythm problem.
He said I was playing too freely and I never realised it until I did counting.
Again the piece sounded much better.

We only began the 4th movement when time was up...
Sigh well but I did learn a lot from the 1 hour session.
Well it's not something I didn't know before but more of reminder of something I had overlooked.

Well with that analysis of score breaking up into phrases, I apply it to my learning of new scores and discover that it really helps.