Just before Easter this year, Violet, my first great grandchild, came into this world. Weighing in at 2.4 kilograms or, if you prefer, 5 pounds and 5 ounces, she is a bundle of pure perfection. Her eyes gazing up into mine as she nestles in my arms, at peace in this moment, give no indication of all the turmoil and travail of the preceding nine months.
That nine-month gestation period, followed by a final few days of intense hard work culminating in a successful delivery mirrors another process which has been running in parallel in my professional life.
In the spring of 2017 ABRSM dropped a bombshell, announcing changes to the format of their Grades 1 to 5 theory exams. While stating clearly that the syllabus remains unchanged, they have removed two questions from Grade 5 papers which together were worth 25%. As a consequence, a greater emphasis is now placed on other question styles as a means of testing knowledge. Some question formats have also been changed.
Leaving aside the pros and cons of those changes, the announcement galvanised me into action. Back in 2006 I published Pass Grade 5 Theory – All You Need in One Volume. As one reviewer said at the time, it did ‘what it said on the tin’ – providing all instruction needed along with plentiful exercises, in a single volume, to enable a student to work toward and pass the ABRSM Grade 5 Theory exam with, significantly, no prior knowledge of music theory. At the time there was no other product like it on the market and it has proven very popular. My own awareness of changes both in educational theory and practice and in social norms has now coalesced with the exam format changes, spurring me on to revise, update and augment the original book.
Coming out of near-complete retirement (apart from a few piano pupils), I have had to rediscover the discipline of sitting at my desk and applying myself for extended periods of time. There have been technical challenges caused by software compatibility issues. I have needed to relearn the details of how to use Sibelius to format the music examples in the way I want.
The process of structuring the content of the new book has been one of organic evolution and growth, much like that of the developing baby in their mother's womb. First, I broke down the content of the original edition into individual building blocks. Information and ideas which were not in the first edition were added into the mix, including some which are not on the syllabus but seem to me to provide a more coherent and better-structured approach to certain topics. In addition to the core material the new edition therefore contains:
- An extended unit on orchestral instruments
- More detail on different voices and their relationship with one another; although no longer directly examined, information and exercises are still provided for the different scoring patterns and clefs used by vocalists
- An explanation of the structure and use of the circle of 5ths
- Greater detail on common ornaments
- A new section on primary triads and their uses in cadential progressions
- New explanations of each type of cadence along with a description of the kind of closure or continuation each signals: a brief description of the interrupted cadence is included for the sake of completeness although outside current syllabus requirements
- The natural minor scale (a common feature of lower-grade practical exams in recent years but not currently included in the ABRSM theory syllabus) is used to start the teaching of the relationship between any major key and its relative minor. It is then a short hop to the melodic minor, the descending form of which is the natural minor scale with no changes, followed by the harmonic minor.
With those individual building blocks assembled the next stage was to link them together, deciding:
- In what order the material should be presented
- In what style the material should be presented
- What should be covered in a particular unit.
Behind the theory
Those structuring decisions have been informed by changes in teaching methods and in society in general which have occurred over the past 12 years. Generally, teaching material in all disciplines is now presented in small bite-size pieces with visual breaks and a greater use of diagrams in texts. Students live in a world of soundbites and tweets, Instagram and other similar social media. The new edition reflects that as follows:
- Performance directions are grouped according to meaning and highlighted in call-out boxes with a picture attached to aid memory
- Material presented in the first edition as large single units are now split into several smaller units.
- More diagrams are used in explanations
- Material for memorisation is highlighted in call-out clouds
- Concepts are reinforced throughout with exercises at the end of over half the units, testing the student by posing questions about a short extract of music.
As the culmination of the book, the final unit gives an overview of how all the topics which the student has mastered come together in the process of composition. Several pages of manuscript paper are provided for the notation of their own masterpieces. Although ABRSM Grade 5 Theory candidates are no longer required to set words to music or compose a melody, I make no apology for devoting several pages to this. After all, surely that kind of creativity is ultimately the point of mastering the theoretical knowledge?
The whole process has been a rollercoaster experience – moments of excitement, even elation, when I crack a particular technological or formatting issue interspersed with intense frustration as I forgo for a time all those lovely retirement activities (especially gardening and sailing now spring has arrived).
And so, after about nine months’ gestation and considerable labour, the new edition has come into existence. Like any new mother, I reckon the pain and challenge have been worth it – and current users of the first edition who have had a preview of the new one agree.
Dorothy Dingle is the author and publisher of Pass Grade 5 Theory – All you need in one volume, available from most major music retailers, or at www.dinglemusic.com
