Popular Music Theory Grade 7

Popular Music Theory Grade 7

Popular Music Theory Grade 7 will teach you how to handle tricky notation challenges such as transposition and less-common time signatures. You'll also identify the differences between modes and complex chords, and rewrite scores for transposing instruments.

Key Skills at Grade 7

What you'll learn at Grade 7:

• Complex music notation, time signatures and note values
• Complex elements of popular music harmony
• Instrumental components, specialist notation, techniques and stylistic traits
• How to analyse, identify and modify music notation, harmony, stylistic traits and
• instrumental characteristics within a multi-instrumental score
• How to interpret a score to make a range of appropriate harmony choices for improvised music and interpret improvisational directions while demonstrating stylistic awareness

What You're Marked On

Your Popular Music Theory Grade 7 exam lasts 180 minutes and is split into four key sections.

At Grade 7 you will cover the following aspects of music notation:

• Understanding rhythm: 32nd and 64th notes, and equivalent rests
• Rhythmic values: halving rhythmic values, doubling rhythmic values, working with less-common time signatures
• Understanding pitch: enharmonic transpositions
• Transposing and re-writing scores across different instruments and clefs
• Understanding time signatures: 5/4, 6/4, 7/4

At Grade 7 you will cover the following aspects of popular music harmony:

• Identifying compound intervals
• Understanding modes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian
• Recognising modes and modal differences, and writing out modes in notation
• Transposing melodies: 2nds, 4ths, 6ths
• Chord identification: diatonic 11 and 13

At Grade 7 you will cover the following aspects of band knowledge:

• Understanding scores with up to eight different instruments
• Understanding instrument-specific techniques
• Re-writing a score for transposing instruments
• Chordal analysis and stylistics traits of band and brass instruments
• Interpreting a score for up to eight players
• Understating improvisation techniques across instrumental disciplines

At Grade 7 you will cover the following aspects of band analysis:

• Understanding scores with up to eight different instruments
• Understanding the use of improvisation techniques
• Genre- specific techniques: style and content
• Understanding of stylistic traits across varied instruments
• Understanding the harmonic content in band scores
• Understanding score writing

Your Grade 7 exam lasts 180 minutes. Candidates are asked to arrive at least 15 minutes before their exam starts.

Get Started Today!

You can start working towards your Grade 7 exam now! Simply buy or Grade 6 - 8 Guidebook and corresponding Grade 7 Workbook book below and start preparing alongside your music teacher.

If you don't have a music teacher that can help you with music theory, you can quickly find the perfect teacher nearest to you with our handy find a music teacher map.

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