Hello Everyone,
You all seem to know what you're talking about here. I have been taking private lessons for a few years and later this year I will be taking a 4th grade exam for singing...
We have done a lot of vocal work, not too worried there, but need to improve my technical skills. Has anyone taken 4th grade singing here and can tell me more about it? Also, what is the point of taking this exam? In which way does it help?
Cheers
Gibster
Hey there
I did my 8th grade singing exam last year and passed with honours so i think i mught be able to give u a few pointers! 1st of all... good on you for doing this exam! its tough, but i think i prefered practicing for voice about 100x more than i liked piano or flute...
The 4th grade is generally quite a big step up from 1, 2 and 3, as it is the first of your intermediate exams. The singing exams not only make a nice big impression on your CV, but they are vital to improving technique and losing bad habits, so that generally you are a better singer (and better pitcher) for the rest of your life. The point of doing classical pieces are that these pieces are specifically chosen to show off the different aspects of a persons voice (e.g the high lyric notes of a soprano or the gravelly low notes of a bass etc). they need quite a bit of practise to nail them, but when you do, its such a huge achievment that examiners generally lavish the praise on your report (another one for your CV)...
other than that, you probably already know how many songs you have to sing, i cant quite remember how many for 4th but i know that they generally only ask you to sing one of your extra pieces, and if you've been doing really well they might only ask for a bit of it
finally, even if you cant summon up the energy to practise every day, make sure that you try and do your exercises once a day, as you have to know these off by heart and the major/minor shifts can be a bit tricky...
oh and you also have to do aural (clapping, singing the tunme etc) and a nice bit of sight singing! get your teacher to work on this really early cos its like 20% of your mark!
the examiner also asks you general knowledge q's about your pieces but they arent too hard in 4th grade
good luck and keep singing!!
ps. if u have any other questions PM me and ill get bak 2 u!