This guide is to help parents, both musical and non-musical, of children taking music exams.

In the UK the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) is the main examination body for graded music exams. Learning music on any instrument is immensely rewarding and beneficial to both children and adults. It is a lifelong skill that continues to give pleasure. It is also not an easy journey.

Music exams, and in particular ABRSM music exams aim to provide milestones along the way - an intermediate goal to enable musicians to progress farther and faster.That's the theory - but as a very wise musical colleague once said to me, exams just measure progress, they don't produce it. Music exams are not the be all and end all of the joy of music making, but success breeds success and the beam of joy on a child's face when presented with their hard-earned grade one certificate is worth the hours of practice that preceded it.

 Having prepared and successfully entered children for ABRSM exams as a piano teacher, accompanied many brass and woodwind candidates for fellow teachers, prepared my own children as a parent, and also taken ABRSM exams in Piano, Violin, Clarinet and Bassoon, I have experienced the system in all its many and varied forms.

This is what you need to know:

A music exam tests a variety of skills, and the pupil needs to be fully prepared in all of them to have the best opportunity of achieving the highest marks.  In very basic terms these are the four skills which your child will be examined in.

1. Pieces - these are the bulk of the examination.  Three pieces, one chosen form each of list A, list B and list C in the current ABRSM syllabus for your instrument.  For instruments other than the piano the first two pieces will be with a piano accompaniment and the third piece will be an unaccompanied study.  

2. Scales and Arpeggios - often the bane of many a musicians life, these have to be learned from memory.  They are an opportunity for certain marks if well known and well practised as they are much less subjective than a musical performance of a piece.  Learning scales is not something that can be accomplished at the last minute.  Many teachers commence scales for the next grade long before beginning to look at pieces.  They are the building blocks for musical competence, and need to be looked upon as akin to learning your times tables - not fun, and not something you can just work out intuitively or leave to native wit and cunning.  They need to be cemented into your musical memory and having done so you will find them popping up all over the place in pieces of music!  They help coordination and control of breathing for wind players, and bowing control for string players.  Go on, learn them properly!

3. Aural Tests - This is an area which is often overlooked in exam preparation.  Ideally learning to listen and differentiate pitch, rhythms and musical changes is a skill that should be built up gradually throughout lessons over time, and not just shoved in as a last minute extra the week before the exam.  Ask your child's teacher how they teach for aural tests.  CDs and practice books are available to supplement, and are particularly useful for the higher grades when the pianistic demands of playing the tests often defeat a non-specialist piano player.

4. Sight Reading - In the exam the candidate gets 30 seconds to look at a piece of music and try out any sections they wish before being asked to play the piece in its entirety.  The key to achieving a good mark in this test is to keep going!  Imagine you are playing in a band - if you play a wrong note and keep going the band carries on.  If you stop, hesitate, go back and correct the ensemble falls apart.  Use the 30 seconds to find any difficult notes, try out anything that looks awkward or to check the key signature and where any sharps and flats occur in the piece.

 The Associated Board has a very clear and strict marking scheme for music exams.  For many children it is the first experience of an environment where they coudl genuinely fail.  Often schools are so desperate to reward all for participating that there is a genuine look of bewilderment on childrens faces in music lessons when told that something is actually 'wrong'.

The marking scheme works like this:

The exam is marked out of 150, with 100 marks (66%) required to pass.

100-119 = Pass

120-129 = Merit

130-150 = Distinction

The 150 marks are divided between the four disciplines as follows:

Piece A - 30 marks (pass = 20)

Piece B - 30 marks (pass = 20)

Piece C - 30 marks (pass = 20)

Scales and Arpeggios - 21 Marks (pass = 14)

Sight Reading - 21 Marks (pass = 14)

Aural Tests - 18 Marks (pass = 12)

The key to good preparation for a music exam is to find a good teacher with whom your child has a good relationship, and whom you trust to guide you all appropriately.

Having said that there are a number of simple supportive things that you can do as a parent to help the process along.

1. Show an interest - listen to your child practice and make the environment in which they play an appealing one. Children who are banished to the shed or bottom of the garden in their early formative squawks (and they do exist!) are unlikely to see music making as a positive thing. Have them play to you in the kitchen whilst you cook, clap encouragement, give praise, and show appreciation. Tell them how much you love to hear them play, and the practice will flow that much more easily.
2. Keep the instrument accessible.  If it is shut up out of sight in a case under the stairs it won't come to mind nearly as easily as if it is on view all the time.  Can the clarinet, flute or violin live out somewhere safe?  On top of the sideboard?  We have ours on top of the piano.  Then no precious time is wasted fiddling about putting things together.  Larger instruments require more tolerance - the euphonium and bassoon take up a corner of the living room.  See it as a different interior design statement!
3. Check who the exam is really for. It needs to be something the child wants to do, not for the gratification of the teacher or parent. After all it is the child who will have to put the work in, and place themselves in the stressful exam environment. How unfair to inflict that upon and unwilling performing seal...
4. Little and often - a scale a day, and five minutes every morning before school is far more effective than an hour the night before a lesson, or the morning of the exam. Learning an instrument is a lot to do with repetitive training of muscles and brain so that previously uncomfortable or difficult movements become coordinated and effortless. There is no shortcut to this. Some fortunate souls arrive at this position more rapidly than others - perhaps their brains are more receptive or more helpfully wired. For the rest of us there is no substitute for repetition!
5. Steal a few minutes here and there. Childrens lives are increasingly busy and scheduled. Kids come lessons saying they haven't practised because they don't have time. Parents seem to think that a couple of times a week will be enough for real progress to be made. The more you put in the more you get out. as with anything in life. Music lessons are not cheap, so see each five minutes of practise you can schedule in as an extra return on your investment! What about the time in the car? Smaller instruments can fit their scale practise in on the way to and from other activities. My clarinettist learnt most of his grade 3 scales on the way to and from the swimming pool. More difficult for the euphonium player to do likewise, but at least we only had one lot of practice to fit in when we got home!
6. Sight reading - playing is playing. Even tootling about on the instrument has a value. Clearly if all the child is doing is making a raucous noise an never looking at pieces or scales progress will be limited, but what about getting a book of well know tunes and letting the child 'have a go'? That's sight reading, and it is a vital skill and worth up to 21 marks in the exam! Ask your child's teacher to recommend a book or check out some of the ideas on this hub.
7. Aural tests - cds and practice books have their place in the run up to an exam, but in between listening to music of any sort is valuable if it is being listened to with a discerning ear. Singing along and gaining confidence in singing is very useful. So is beating the time - pretending to conduct. Is the piece in 2, 3 or 4? Can I march to it? Does it make me want to Waltz? What does it make me think of? What mood is it - is it major or minor? No need for formal practice tests if you have the radio on in the car...

Exactly how the exam will work will depend a little on where you take it. Some teachers enter children at an examination centre in a major town. In that case you will travel to a venue, often a church hall or similar building which will be unfamiliar to you. Other teachers who have a lot of pupils entered at the same time arrnage for an examiner to come to their home. This has the advantage of a location which is both convenient and familar. In either case the exam structure and marking scheme will be identical.

• Arrive about 10 minutes before your exam time so that you can get ready in plenty of time and warm up.
• Do not try a new reed or any other new items on exam day unless absolutely necessary. Keep everything as normal and familiar as possible.
• Have your music ready and organised, and be ready to tell the examiner what you are going to play. If you need a prompt write it down, so you can start off confidently in the exam.
• For intrumentalists your teacher can help you to tune up with the piano in the exam room up to Grade 5. After that you must do it yourself. Once tuned your teacher will leave the room unless they are accompanying you on the piano. Your accompanist will come into the room with you at the start of the exam - you must have a live accompanist - you are not allowed to play with a CD backing.
• After instrumentalists have played their first two pieces the accompanist will leave the room. You may then be asked what you woudl like to do next and can choose from your remaining piece, aurals, sight reading or scales.
• The examiner will not give any feedback on your performance during the exam. You can expect a response such as 'thank you' after you have played, but do not be put off if you do not get effusive praise. They will record their comments on the mark sheet which you will receive later, rather than giving them to you during the exam.
• If you are asked for a scale or aural test which you are not expecting then by all means say so - it could be that the examiner has made a mistake, which can be corrected straightaway.
• Smile! The examiner is there to listen to your performance, not to try to catch you out. Enjoy it as an opportunity to show off all your hard work to someone new. And don't worry - even if something should go wrong you never have to see the examiner again!
• Results - you will not get your result on the day.  They usually take two to three weeks to come through.  They will come to your teacher who will contact you.  You will get a mark sheet with the breakdown of marks for each element of your exam.  This includes comments on each of your performances to explain what the examiner thought when arriving at your marks.  You will also get a certificate to record you success!

 Remember - this is not a vital life skill like learning to swim.  This is a hobby.  If it turns into a passion or a career later on all well and good, but for now it should be fun, together with an opportunity for the child to gradually learn the benefits of diligence and structured practice.

You can take a horse to water... I have lost count of the number of times I have looked at my children's instruments and wished that by me playing the pieces I could somehow train the clarinet to play it properly.  Of course it is all by their own efforts, and that is what makes it so nervewracking, but such a fantastic achievement when they stand up tall on the day and play thier little socks off.

The most diligent and conscientious children will often get the most nervous, and tension can lead to errors in pieces which they have seemed to know inside out.  Remember, they have been entered for the exam because they are a musician of that standard (assuming you have a competent and reputable teacher).  They are no better or worse a musician the day after the exam than the day before, whether they got a distinction or failed the whole thing - the exam just measured how they played on that day.  Whatever the result accept it without criticism or recrimination.  Seek advice if appropriate from the child's teacher on any areas that should be worked on, and then move on and build confidence for the next time.

It is important to keep things in perspective.  A high mark obtained in a music exam is evidence of excellent preparation and a good performance.  is does not necessarily mean that a child is destined for a professional career or that their results will continue at that level.  Progress comes in uneven bursts and as the grades progress, so a higher level of musical maturity and interpretation is expected.  Musical learning is not a race.  The child who achieves grade 8 at the age of 11 may end up a much lesser musician than her counterpart who took her time and got there many years later having grown into the maturity of the music.

Enjoy your music making, and enjoy your children!  Good luck!