Trinity aural test: how it works and how to prepare

What the Trinity aural test is

A face-to-face Trinity exam combines pieces, technical work and two supporting tests. From Initial to Grade 5 you choose any two of sight reading, aural, improvisation and musical knowledge; from Grade 6 to Grade 8 sight reading is compulsory and the second test is aural or improvisation. So aural is always your choice, which makes it worth choosing if listening is a strength.

The whole test is built around a single example. You hear it a number of times as the test goes on, and each question focuses on something different: the pulse, the dynamics and articulation, the notes, the key or the changes. From Grade 3 you also get a printed copy of the music for the question about changes.

Aural belongs to face-to-face exams only, because digital exams have no supporting tests. The format has been the same since January 2017. Candidates with hearing loss can request an alternative aural awareness test when booking, and drum kit candidates can take a separate unpitched version.

How the aural test is marked

A Trinity exam is out of 100: 66 for the three pieces, 14 for technical work and 20 for the two supporting tests, so aural is worth 10 marks. There are no marks per question. The examiner gives one mark for the whole test, judging how accurately you heard the music and how quickly and surely you answered.

• Distinction: 9–10
• Merit: 8
• Pass: 6–7
• Below pass: 1–5

Aural and your overall result

The exam as a whole needs 60 to pass, 75 for Merit and 87 for Distinction, and you don't have to pass every section. A secure aural mark still makes a real difference, because 10 marks can move a result from one band to the next. Since the speed and confidence of your answers count, practise replying as soon as each question is asked.

The test grade by grade

The questions grow steadily from grade to grade, and each grade keeps the shape of the one before. Here they are in brief.

• Initial: a four-bar melody in a major key and 2/4. Clap along with the beat when the melody is played for the third time, making the first beat of each bar stronger; say whether it was forte or piano and legato or staccato; pick the highest or lowest of the first three notes.
• Grade 1: 2/4 or 3/4. Pulse; dynamics and articulation; compare the last note of the opening two bars with the first: higher or lower? Then say where the change comes when the melody is played again.
• Grade 2: minor keys appear. Pulse; say how the dynamics change as the melody goes on; legato or staccato; the last note against the first; where the change is and whether it affected the rhythm or the pitch.
• Grade 3: 3/4 or 4/4, with the pulse clapped on the second playing; major or minor; the interval between the first two notes by number, from a 2nd to a 6th; then, with the copy, the bar and type of one change.
• Grade 4: the piece now has harmony, in 4/4 or 6/8. Pulse; major or minor, and whether the final cadence is perfect or imperfect; the interval between the first two notes by its full name, up to a major sixth; the bars of a rhythm change and a pitch change.
• Grade 5: eight bars in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 or 6/8. Pulse and time signature; a question on how the tonality changes, and the final cadence, which may be perfect, plagal, imperfect or interrupted; an interval from the melody, up to a major seventh or an octave; the bars of two changes in the melody.
• Grade 6: major keys only. Time signature, with comments on the dynamics and articulation; two more features of the piece that you choose; the key the first four bars modulate to, which is the subdominant, dominant or relative minor; locate and describe two changes.
• Grade 7: major or minor keys, with the same kinds of question; the modulation may now go to the relative major or minor, and there are three changes to find.
• Grade 8: 12 to 16 bars, possibly in 5/8. Time signature, dynamics and articulation after a single hearing; three more features; three changes. There is no modulation question.

How to practise

Because everything rests on one piece, train yourself to listen for one thing per playing. Feel the pulse first, then listen for the dynamics and touch, then for the notes and the key. Trying to catch everything on the first hearing is the quickest way to miss the detail that is actually asked.

Build a vocabulary for describing music and use it in short, complete sentences that say what happens and where, such as “quiet at the start, then a gradual crescendo to a loud ending”. From Grade 6 you pick some of the features to discuss yourself, so prepare a few you can always talk about, such as texture, character, style or structure.

For the questions with a printed copy, practise following a score while music plays, keeping your place bar by bar. From Grade 3, practise naming intervals by ear too, starting with the ones between the first two notes of simple tunes.

Common mistakes

• Clapping on the wrong playing: the pulse is clapped on the third playing up to Grade 2 and on the second at Grades 3 to 5.
• Clapping evenly without making the strong beats stand out.
• Giving one word for dynamics that change. At Grade 2 and from Grade 6, describe how they change and where.
• Losing your place in the copy and guessing the bar of a change.
• Mixing up the relative minor with the dominant or subdominant in the modulation question; our modulation guide shows how to tell them apart.
• Long pauses before answering, when the mark takes into account how promptly and confidently you respond.

How our trainer helps

Our trainer builds each test the Trinity way, around one piece composed by our engine for your grade and played on a sampled grand piano several times as the questions go by. Clap the pulse into your microphone and we check that it is steady and that the strong beats stand out. Everything is analysed on your device.

Spoken or typed comments on the dynamics, articulation and other features are marked against the piece's answer key, and you see what you missed. A few details differ from the exam at present: our Grade 5 pieces end with a perfect or imperfect cadence, although you still choose from all four types; Grade 8 pieces don't yet use 5/8; and we ask about particular features rather than leaving the choice to you.

Full mocks finish with an estimated mark out of 10 on Trinity's bands, plus the questions that cost you most. It is an estimate, not an examiner's mark. Practise free every day without signing up, and see pricing for full mocks and unlimited practice.

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