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Hi LisaE good for you for doing this and thanks for sharing your experience in such detail! It gives me great confidence for my April exam. (RCM 4). I'm sure you did very well. How long did the whole thing take?

My week point is the ear tests as well. I found a 2'cd set at the Music store that has clapping, interval, and melody playback exercises. It also comes with a book showing all the exercises. It was $30 but it has Alot of exercises (55 sets or something like that) and I thought I would give it a try. It seems pretty good to me. If you're interested I can get you the exact title.

Wow already working on the next grade! Good for you!

Thanks Zoe. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes. Probably more like 10. That was what surprised me the most. Bear in mind this is only Grade 1, so only one study. Grade 3 and up have 2 and presumably the pieces are longer and sight reading, etc. more involved.

Is the CD/book set specifically RCM stuff or just general? Either way, I would be very interested in the title - sounds very useful. My issue is my memory (at my advanced age - turned 50 on Sat. - LOL). As soon as I start clapping back, I forget the second part of the exercise. Maybe the brain cells will reconnect eventually - one can only hope!!

Onward and upward - we'll have to compare notes in April!

Hi, LisaE.

Congrats on getting through it. Nerve wracking at our age indeed (I'm 54). A couple of questions:

1. Do you get a warm-up somewhere or do you just go in and start cold? I might get through it as you did with a false start or two but I think I'd need more than that.

2. Roughly what tempo did you play the pieces at in relation to the suggested tempo in the book? When practicing did you ever measure yourself (ie play along with a metronome?)

Best of luck with Grade 2 and please keep us (me) posted.

Cheers,
Brian.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations on taking your exam.

Hi again LisaE,

Wow that is fast. I dont imagine my exam will be much longer. Right now i have a 3 page piece, two 1 page pieces, and 2 one page studies. There is more technical requirements to know but i think they just pick and choose a few.

when I try to clap back I can get lost too. My teacher suggested I just memorize the tune and try to clap back. Sometimes this works and sometimes not because then I start thinking of actual notes. Maybe that will help you a bit.

So the book is called Comprehensive Ear Training Professional Series. By Carol Schlosar (Frederic Harris music). On the back it says preparation for examinations of The Royal Conservatory of Music and the National Music Certificate Program. This book comes with 2 CDs and 56 sessions. Each session has 2 rhythm clap back exercises, 6 intervals, and 3 melody playback pieces. There are some worksheets in the back too to write your answers. It is $31.95.

I guess you can also get a Student Series which comes with 1 cd and about 24-32 exercises. If I remember correctly it was about half the cost of the first series I mentioned. I think you can get just the book or just the cd. But for me I needed to have somebody else play the tunes. When I played these on my own I get them all right but at lessons only about 50% of them. I just started using them so time will tell if this will help me. But I figured I need all the help I can get!! (I'll be 45 this year!) You need the book to check your answers as only the exercises are on the cd. So far so good though. I though it was well done. Each session is on a different track so you can rewind and listen again very easily. I copied these to my phone so I can do this with headphones even away from the piano.

Oh yes I forgot to say Happy Birthday to you!!

Thanks Zoe. I think I will look into that CD/book for sure. I think it would help me a lot. I'm really hoping ear training is a practice and time thing and not a simple lack of ability to hear things in that way!

Brian, they do NOT give you chance to warm up (at least not in my exam). So here I am starting cold with repertoire pieces on an older grand piano when I normally practice on my Clavinova digital at home and an upright at lessons. On the program form you have to fill out listing which pieces you are doing, you can choose the order in which you do the tests: (1) repertoire, studies, technical or (2) technical, studies, repertoire. They always do sight reading/ear training at the end. In retrospect, I maybe should have done the technical (scales) first, then I would have gotten the feel of the piano. As it was, there was a key in the left hand that I pressed too lightly - twice - and no sound came out, so it sounded like I missed a note. I did the repertoire first because I know I get MUCH more nervous the longer I play (that's what happened at the Xmas recital) rather than calmer, and the pieces are worth a lot more than the scales.

As for tempo, I did practice with a metronome and did the List A and B pieces at the proper tempo, because they were pretty slow. I know Teapot and the Study should have been quite a bit faster, but thought I'd err on the side of caution and try to get more accuracy and take the hit on speed. I'll have to wait for the marks to see how that panned out!

Well, I just got my mark - only took 9 days, not 3-4 weeks as listed, thank goodness. I got a mark of 83, which is FIRST CLASS HONOURS!!!! Soooooo happy!!!!!!! Hopefully that will ease my nerves a bit for the Grade 2 exam. Really motivated for tonight's practice now!!

Congrats!

Guess I should listen to Some Wise People here at PW!! But I already knew that!

Congratulations LisaE! I am so happy for you! Bring on Grade 2!

I am doing grade 1 now, one song from each list, but the ETUDES book never arrived, an older version gr 1 did instead.

Welcome to the forums, Michael. Where did you order the books from? Can you get it replaced?

For this and reasons like it, unless you are intentionally trying to buy used copies of these books, it may be better to order directly from the official RCM bookstore. Based on my experience, this doesn't solve all of the problem, since I've place two orders and there were errors on both orders (books not sent), however RCM resolved both of the errors within a week for no additional cost.

The older version has a few overlaps, but most are different. I listened to a tube playlist of ETUDES 1 and found that I didn't like it, so I'll keep the new older Repitory book. Thrift books was where.
What I wanted was instruction in hand independence like the girl on pianoTV said ETUDES was good for, then I listened longer and had to buy Imitations and Inventions, that was difficult to locate. But it is on the way.

Wow! Very old thread.


Actually, I have to relate my experience, which wasn't great unfortunately. I ordered some books from RCM last year and they were delivered very fast as I was in Toronto at the time. Then later in the year they changed their provider and when I ordered (still from Toronto) it took ages. I called them because I needed to have the delivery before leaving Canada and they said they will send it. Well, they did but one book was missing. Their excuse was that near the beginning of the school year their demand is much higher and supplies low (couldn't they plan for that and stock up?). I was quite angry but since I really wanted to have the whole series I just went to a music store and bought the missing book again.

The RCM series itself is fantastic but unfortunately their cost cutting is impacting customers negatively.

My last order was from the RCM site, but only because they had the August back to school discount (20%). I also ordered a theory book. So I saved a few dollars, but it took a little over 2 weeks to receive after placing order. Thankfully, the order wasn't messed up.

Amazon usually has a higher price than the RCM site. In the past, I've picked up the books at a local piano store since they sell for the nearly the same price as the RCM site. The only reason I didn't go there again is because of the 20% discount. I think RCM has that once a year.

Go to sheetmusicplus.com they have sales all the time and I’ve always found their shipping to be quick.

I did buy the 2015 Syllabus from RCM, no problem. A local seller is so far on the other side of town I hate going there but got Repitory 1&2.
Taking the test is another matter entirely. It may never happen. What I like is how the music is graded, especially the technicals,

I wonder how the folks who started this thread did?