AMEB aural tests: a grade-by-grade guide

Where aural fits in an AMEB exam

A comprehensive exam has three sections: technical work; studies and pieces; and aural tests, sight-reading and general knowledge. The aural requirements are the same for every instrument and for voice, so a cellist and a pianist at the same grade prepare the same tests. In the piano Preliminary exam there is no sight-reading, so Section III is aural tests and general knowledge only.

Not every AMEB exam includes aural. In the For Leisure exams for piano, saxophone and singing you choose aural tests or sight-reading, while repertoire exams, the Certificate of Performance and the AMusA and LMusA diplomas have no aural tests at all.

From Grade 1 every test is played twice. In the pitch tests, a boy whose voice is breaking may whistle rather than sing or hum. The aural requirements in the 2026 Manual of Syllabuses are unchanged from 2025.

How aural counts in your result

AMEB does not publish a separate mark for the aural tests. The whole practical exam receives one grading, from A+ (High Distinction) down to D (Not Satisfactory), and the examiner's report gives the result with written feedback.

The descriptors for the B and C gradings allow for one section being weaker than another, so a shaky aural does not automatically sink an otherwise good exam. But the examiner weighs everything you do, and AMEB does not say how much aural counts, so it pays to prepare it as seriously as your pieces.

The aural tests grade by grade

AMEB aural is mostly about doing: clapping, singing and humming. Questions that you answer in words, such as duple or triple, triads and cadences, grow from Grade 3 onwards.

• Preliminary: clap the beat in two or three time and keep going after the music stops; repeat a two-bar rhythm by clapping, tapping, humming or singing; echo a short phrase one note at a time; say which of two notes is higher or lower.
• Grade 1: hear a short phrase that stops before the end, then sing the key note it is heading for; clap or tap back a short passage; sing back a short phrase.
• Grade 2: clap or tap back a passage; sing back a phrase; sing the higher or lower of two notes played together, a major third or a perfect fifth apart.
• Grade 3: clap back a passage and say whether it is in duple or triple time; sing back a phrase; sing either note of any two notes played together; after the key note, sing and name the second, third, fourth or fifth note of the major scale.
• Grades 4 and 5: clap back and say duple or triple; sing any interval of the major scale after the key note and name it in full, such as “major third”; sing the higher or lower part of a short two-part progression from memory, with two intervals at Grade 4 and three at Grade 5; sing the middle note of a major or minor triad at Grade 4, and all three notes at Grade 5.
• Grade 6: intervals from the major or harmonic minor scale; the position of a major triad; a two-part progression of four intervals; perfect and plagal cadences in a short piece in a major key.
• Grade 7: whether a triad is major or minor, and its position; perfect, plagal and interrupted cadences; memorise a printed two-bar phrase in about a minute, then sing or play it; sing either part of a two-part phrase of up to six notes.
• Grade 8: name major, minor and diminished triads, with the position of the major and minor ones; the four principal cadences, usually taken to mean perfect, plagal, imperfect and interrupted; memorise three or four printed bars in about a minute and a half; sing, hum or play the lower line of a two-part phrase that includes some passing notes.

How to practise AMEB aural

Because most AMEB tests ask you to sing or clap, practise them out loud every day. Ten minutes is enough if it is regular: a minute or two of clapping, a few phrases to sing back, then one listening task such as intervals, triads or cadences.

Make the key note your home base. Hum it before you sing, return to it in your head between notes, and measure intervals from it by singing up the scale until you reach the second note. For the two-part tests, practise following one line while ignoring the other; singing the lower line of simple duets or hymn tunes is ideal.

For the memory tests at Grades 7 and 8, practise reading a short phrase silently, hearing it in your head and singing it without your instrument. Fix the shape first, meaning where it rises, its highest note and how it ends, then fill in the rhythm.

• Triads: after you hear the chord, sing it from the bottom up; the middle note is the second one you reach.
• Cadences: if the last chord is the key chord, decide whether the chord before it was V (perfect) or IV (plagal); our cadence guide covers all four types.

Common mistakes

• Stopping the beat when the music stops in the Preliminary time test, when the task is to keep going steadily.
• Naming an interval by number at Grades 4 to 6, when the full name such as major, minor or perfect is expected.
• Singing the tune instead of the part you were asked for in the two-part tests. Decide which line you will follow before the playing starts.
• Mixing up perfect and plagal cadences. Both end on the key chord, so the clue is the chord before it.
• Rushing the memory test. Use the full study time and sing the phrase through silently before you start.
• Leaving aural until the last few weeks because it has no separate mark.

How our trainer helps

Our trainer plays every AMEB test on a sampled grand piano, twice from Grade 1 as in the exam, and creates each phrase, chord and cadence with its own engine rather than copying a book; our methodology explains how. It listens on your device, checking your singing and humming note by note and your clapping for rhythm and a steady beat.

For the questions you would answer in words, you pick from the options, and after every item you see what was played and a technique for hearing it. Full mocks run all the tests of your grade in order. Because AMEB gives no aural mark, a mock ends with an indicative readiness level of Secure, Sound, Developing or Needs work rather than a mark or a letter grade, and it is our estimate, not an examiner's judgement. Daily practice is free without signing up, and pricing explains the options for full mocks and unlimited practice.

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