Today, we will be challenging ourselves to sight-read all the sight-reading exams there are for ABRSM. So for the exam, you have to play your practiced pieces, but they also need to test you on your sight-reading. So basically, there's Grade 1 - 8. Within Grade 1 - 8, there's two sight-reading pieces. - So we can just rotate between each one.
- Mm-hmm. ...the last three, there's only one of each. So we'll just do scissors, paper, rock at the end to decide who gets to have two chances. If you can sight-read through from top to bottom with no mistakes, that's 1 point. If you make one error, whether it be a rhythmic error, you know, wrong note, no points. You get banished to the practice realm. You will never be able to be on your phone again, it will be confiscated. - You will have to practice 40 hours a day.
- That's brutal. Two sharps, D major, let's go. Bonus points for boogieing! Alright, I'm not even gonna look, I'm gonna go straight into it. Wow, dynamics! Nice! - Oooh!
- Ooh, it's starting to look hard. Dotted rhythm now! Nice! Risoluto! My "risoluto" is strong. Next one. Oh, I played a wrong note! - Did I hear a D when it shouldn't have been a D?
- Oh, no! - That's all right.
- It's all right. - I'll give you that one.
- Yeah, yeah. Got too into it. Oh damn, 6/8! Oh, ooh... - Ohh, compound time!
- Okay okay okay. Oh, my god. Okay, I'm nervous now. - I don't think we can dance as much anymore.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah... Oooh, nice! - I was getting a bit nervous there.
- I know! I'm not gonna do much dancing this time, so... - Actually, I...
- Oooh! No, I was like, do I start on third? Nah... I'll go easy. Eddy: You went half time! Ohh, let's go! Let's go! Messed up. - Let's go!
- Nooo! - Very common mistake.
- Ohh. - Dammit.
- You kind of... - ...switched your crotchet beat to a quaver beat. Yeah.
- To a quaver, I just messed up. All right, lost a point. - Grade 4 sucks. Yeah.
- So 4 to 3. You gotta focus now. - Oh my god.
- Alright, have fun. Oh, that bar...! - I almost messed up!
- I felt it! I felt it, that was like... It's the C natural, F sharp. Ooh, dude! - Oh, GG. Good luck, compound time.
- Ooh la la la la la! Okay. I might need a bit more like... - Move this way a bit.
- Alright. Nice. I liked your phrasing to the top C. There you go! - One could argue you were...
- "Grazioso." ...slightly leaning forward in your tempo. It was still good. Still good! - Grade 6!
- Oh, my god. Dude, it's getting... It's like, jumping a lot. - Ooh!
- Brett: Nice! Oh, my god! Whoa!! 2/4. That's like... - Scherzando is pretty fast, man.
- Yeah. Let's go. Brett: A bit dodgy! Played the right notes. I rushed it. You rushed a bit, though. Yeah. I can feel your, um... - ...heart get faster.
- The... kick in. Yeah, adrenaline's coming in, right? Nah, but I think you... Yeah. It counts as right in my books. Grade 7! Oh my god! - It's 7/8, bro!
- Brett: Yeah! - Just 'cause it's Grade 7 doesn't mean you have to do 7/8!
- 7/8! Dude. Alright. F*** it! That's not right. Ahhh!!! No no no no! Alright. I lost that one, but I wanna play it again. I wanna finish it. My brain wasn't working. Yeah. Gonna speed up. Ah, whatever. Good luck. - What? Dude, that's...
- I mean, that... I think you played like, a C natural. Something here. Does the adjudicator pass that? I remember thinking you played a... Well, it was a wrong note, but then I was like, maybe you were just flat, so I'll give you a point. - Oh yeah, true. Yeah.
- I'll turn a blind eye to that. - We've disguised that as intonation.
- Yeah. Oh, god. Double stops. What is 12/8? Damn. Alright. Nah, this is easy. I'm a prodigy. Famous last words. - Dude, such weird accidentals!
- Yeah. - They don't even sound good.
- It's on purpose. Dude, those two notes, - the G natural.
- Examiner, if you're gonna put in random troll accidentals to throw people off... - At least make it sound nice.
- I feel like if you try to hear the melody, - you will screw up.
- Yeah. They're doing it on purpose. - Ah, whatever. Dammit.
- You got trolled by Lullaby. My turn— That's not, that's harder! That's harder! Can I just... I can scroll for you. - Yeah okay, maybe scroll...
- Or I can mess you up on purpose. - Yeah, scroll for me like... Yeah, okay.
- If I remember, yeah, sure. "Quasi cadenza." Oh. So I can... do what I want? How do they judge that then? They probably have like a... What do you call it, parameters for "quasi." - And if you like too much cadenza, you're out.
- So if I'm like... Yeah, okay okay. Dude. I was losing gas at the end! Damn, you're one up now! - Alright, do the scissors, paper, rock, yeah?
- Yeah, scissors, paper, rock. If you win scissors, paper, rock, - you can do the... First, so you have one more chance.
- I have one more chance. - Alright. Scissors, paper, rock!
- Scissors, paper, rock! (both) Scissors, paper, rock! Nah, you can get another chance. - You can do the last one.
- Oh, nice! Alright, Brett's being very gracious, and decided to give me two. - So I have a chance, 'cause I'm one behind.
- That's right. Nah, I gotta focus. Oh my god, this is messed up. - It wasn't long enough, no?
- What? Did what I did for Grade 4! You derped the pattern. It's the three... Wow. It's not that hard. I just got nervous, dude. That's what I mean, it kicks in. Why do they want sul pont? Ooh, did I read the instructions? "Natural." It's so weird. Why do I get the weird key ones, dude? Yours didn't have weird keys, I swear. Let's go! Okay. B flat! If this was Squid Game, we'd both be eliminated. Like ten times. It's like... This music is like, you've lost or something. Yeah...! - You know like, in Nintendo when you lose,
- "You died!" - it's just like...
- Yeah. - Wow.
- That's weird. - Oh my... god.
- Whoa! - Whoa...!
- Dude, that's a whole Bach sonata! You can't sight-read that! Who the hell can sight-read this?! - Dude, that's basically a Bach prelude!
- Yeah! You know what? - They even called it Prelude and Sarabande.
- I'm just gonna try. - Alright. Just go as far as you can.
- I'm just gonna try. Let's go! That doesn't count! That doesn't count, that doesn't count! That doesn't count, that doesn't count! I wasn't... My brain farted. Was that second-last bar really necessary? - Which one?
- The pizz to arco. Yeah, yeah...! - Why?! Do you think like, the person sight-reading is like, just...
- You would never have that in real-life pieces. ...gonna catch them off guard? - Dammit.
- Yay, I win. - Only 'cause I messed up the first go.
- Yeah. Now you know how I feel... ...for the Grade 4! I panicked at Grade 4. 'Cause my actual run-through just now, - I don't think I messed up. It was just like...
- Nah, I don't think you... I think I just get like, in my head. - Like, the moment I've realized I lost, then I'm like...
- Yeah. - I can sight-read it.
- Yeah. - But when I'm... Yeah, it's the pressure.
- It's the pressure! Alright, Brett wins. Yay! That's right, guys. Remember... Sight-reading is a good skill sometimes. Practice it when you can. And, you know, to all those musicians out there doing these exams, best of luck. We get the pressure. Though actually, in a real exam though... You don't just get no marks if you make one mistake. - No yeah, the marker... Yeah, yeah.
- Just keep going. And also, to be fair, they'd probably give them more time. - Yes.
- We kinda just... Yeah, we didn't even look at it. In a real exam, you have like... - 30 seconds, a minute to look through it.
- I think you get a good minute. The adjudicator will give you a good, solid minute. Just to go through your time signature, key signature, rhythm, tempo markings, fingerings. - You wanna do that.
- And you play one or two wrong notes, - they don't care that much. It's more the general performance.
- They don't care. Yes. On that note, accent the like button, legato the subscribe button. Sight-read the... tickets to our virtual tour, - Yeah, sight-read tickets to our virtual tour in the description below,
- in the description box. and we'll see you guys in our concert. Bye-bye.
