Welcome to my blog, and today I will be writing about “How I passed the ABRSM Grade 5 Theory with Distinction” in my thirties :-)
Just a few notes before i start:
I’m not a piano teacher nor any teacher of any subject. My full time job is to work in a bank in London. Playing piano is just my side thing to do
This is not something I write about to show off how I did it or how great a result I got. I really just wanted to share with you how I manage it while having a full time job and being a busy mum and hopefully you find it useful
I’m going to write another blog on how my journey of this has helped my daughter Lili in her studies. If you’re interested please subscribe to my blog;-)
HOW I STARTED LEARNING PIANO AS A CHILD
When I was about 6 or 7 years old, my Dad asked me if I wanted to learn any music instruments and they would support me. So I chose Piano. Then my dad found me a teacher and she comes to our flat once a week to teach me.
I did this probably for a year, then my piano teacher had to relocate to another part of the City and for her it’s too far to travel to teach me. This is in the early 90s back in China, there’s no zoom, and I think my Dad got a bit tired supervising all of this and I don't think I was very keen or find it very enjoyable learning and playing piano so then we just stopped. I mean a year of study I probably is just a basic starter level. This is like a pre Grade 1 level.
HOW I STARTED LEARNING PIANO AS AN ADULT
Let’s fast forward to 2015. I’m not a child anymore and I have a 2 year old daughter and she started going to full time nursery when she was about 10 months old and I went back to full time work.
But then I wanted to do something in my spare time. My husband at that time practiced Chinese Wingchun twice a week, one at Chinatown and one at Greenwich so he encouraged me that I should do something for myself like 1 or 2 nights a week and he will take care of Lili. I decided to pick up learning Piano again. I would consider myself almost a beginner as I can't really remember what I learnt as a child. I think I know where Middle C is on the keyboard and the notes of CDEFG but that’s it.
So I signed up for a Piano Group lesson at Liverpool street and started learning piano with 5 or 6 people. It was great fun and great social. The way they teach is completely different to how you would learn as a traditional ABRSM exam and it’s more about having fun and playing the instrument at an early stage where you can play it with other players. What I meant by that is for example, we will learn some blue jazz chores and some pop song chord progression and just apply that straight away and have fun.
The teacher is originally from Russia and his wife is French who also teaches Piano. And the group of us are all beginners and come from different backgrounds. So me, Chinese, another young guy from Hungary working in a hedge fund(and he’s always late), there’s a Japanese guy who is an expat working in London and a girl from Canada, who is doing a secondment year in london.
I was there learning for about 1 year and I had to find another teacher to teach me. Two reasons, (1) the teacher is going to relocate again to west London. I guess close to the learners at any hedge fund who want to learn piano (2) my group is too small and many of the people have quit. So I found another private teacher in Stradford and started learning with her.
When I started with her I was in pre-Grade/ Grade 1. Then between 2016 and 2018 I became a Grade 4, which I didn't do the practical exam but I did the Theory Grade 5 exam with a distinction.
HOW I PREPARED AND PASSED MY THEORY EXAM WITH DISTINCTION
I would assume you have gone through the grade 1-5 theory either with a teacher or by yourself and you’re at a revision stage. I did it back in 2018 so the format and contents probably has changed but this is how i did it back then.
Step 1: I would summarise all the learning points in my notebook. I would also summarise all the performance directions. My first language is not english but Music Theory performance directions majority are Italian, and some are German and French.
Step 2: Active Recall; this is key to prepare my Grade 5 theory exam while I was working full time. What I meant by “Active Recall” is that you can make the prettiest notes on step 1 (learning points and performance directions) but you need to test yourself that you understand them and can apply them and can answer questions. But before you do loads of pass exam papers I actively recall all my notes.
For example, for step 1 on all the theory learning points, I would close my notes and I would draw a “circle of fifth” on a blank paper and explain to me what that means;
Another example, can I mathematically work indifferent major minor and augmented and diminished keys, once you know and can recall the rule you can answer any time of related questions, for example,concepts of ornaments, simple and compound time, irregular time signatures
For step 2 you can use any type of flash card apps to practice, and that’s a perfect way to active recall it and a lot of the flashcard is free and it has the logic to memorise which cards you memorised well and which ones you don’t and make sure you practice them and pass them.
Step 3, which is the final step, is that you have to actively recall what you have learnt and just apply them in the past exam paper. I think I timed myself as well just to see my time management and I practiced different years just to get familiar with the format and different types of questions which is equally important before you go into your exams.
CLOSING
So that’s how I prepared for my Theory exam while I was working full time and just used my spare time to prepare and practice. I think the results are pretty good as a distinction. During my exam day that was quite an experience. I was sitting the exam with all age groups, but most of them are young kids. I did it because I think as a child I learnt piano without thinking about theories. But as an adult I do see the benefit of understanding the theory while you learn how to read notes and how to play a song. And for me i think music theory is pretty much maths and science rather than art.
When I did this - everything was just for my own interests and benefits but years later my daughter also started learning piano and I do think the fact that I studied the instrument myself and understood the theory side of the music is a bonus and I will explain it in another blog.
Thanks for reading and I will see you in my next blog.
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