MODERN PIANO

Our Graded Modern Piano Programme offers the student the excitement and rigour of achieving full piano mastery and formal piano certification in the context of modern day genres and styles.

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ANZCA MODERN PIANO GRADED EXAMINATIONS

The Australian and New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited (ANZCA) Music Examinations offers the cutting-edge and most forward-looking Modern Pianoforte graded examinations that develops not just musical literacy but holistic and deep musicianship. This programme not only trains candidates to read and interpret scores, it further develops advanced improvisational, creative and compositional skills in students.

The ANZCA Examination Board provides:

- World class music examinations in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

- BOTH Modern and Classical examinations.

- A complete suite of world-class graded courses from introductory, preliminary, preparatory grades, to grades 1- 8 and leading to Full Diplomas.

Click to watch the performance video of an ANZCA student

The Modern Pianoforte Syllabus :

In Modern Pianoforte, ANZCA offers very unique features not found in traditional music exam boards:

The student is developed in modern musical genres within listed pieces like Rock, Blues, Boogie, Latin, Pop, etc. This helps to capture the imagination of children of today. They get more inspired to play, they want to play and practice because they can identify with the music so much more.

The student is required to do creative improvisation in their pieces in order to display deep musicianship skills instead of just merely ‘following the notes’. Anyone can follow notes after much repetitive drilling, but not everyone can improvise.

The student can choose from a very wide range of modern repertoire outside of listed pieces, ranging from songs from the Sound of Music, Beatles, Disney hits, Standard Jazz pieces and so on. This is extremely exciting as the student is now moving on to a very high level of musicianship where improvisation is a must, not an option.

The same robustness and highest level of classical note-reading, scales, technical work, aural efficiency, etc. is retained. In fact, it is even more challenging than the ABRSM syllabus – but yet children on the ANZCA programme score higher marks because of the relevance of the music that they are playing.

Advantages and Benefits

ANZCA music board is the first music examination board in the world to truly recognise the value of creative improvisation, invention and compositional skills in music education. Traditional boards focus solely on 100% rote-learning and pure memorisation – there is absolutely no room for any form of improvisation or invention.

If music is truly a creative endeavour, then the modes of assessment must drive the student towards more than just ‘memorising’ set pieces. The student must be able to not just create technically perfect pieces, but be able to improvise and invent their own compositions – that is one of the highest hallmarks of deep musicianship as opposed to musical literacy. If there is enough drilling and practice, anyone can memorise a set repertoire and ‘take the grades’, but not everyone can demonstrate musicianship through just rote learning.

The Northwood Training Method

The ANZCA Modern Pianoforte syllabus requires highly qualified music coaches who are equally skilled in both traditional notation and classical approaches as well as creative improvisation in modern music.

All Northwood Music coaches are specially trained in both these methods and thus can offer the very best in developing deep musicianship.

We regularly champion this method of music teaching in workshops, seminars and clinics around Singapore. Many students who have embarked on this approach have never looked back!

Like all other boards, the ANZCA board is fully recognized and accepted by the Ministry of Education, Singapore.

Debunking myths

There are many music examination boards in the world, eg. ABRSM, Trinity Guildhall, London College, ANZCA, etc. Each board has its own ‘characteristics’.

This is the official reply from the Curriculum Planning and Development Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore:

“MOE is not an authority that accords recognition to qualifications. The Music Unit in MOE-CPDD does not endorse any particular music examination board certifications.

The listing of grade requirement from the examination boards to enrol for ‘O’ and ‘A’ level Music /Music Elective Programme course is a guide to understand the pre-requisite music skill/knowledge required for the various GCE music examinations.

We recognise that there are equivalent certifications and/or music experience (e.g. Music CCA) that will assist students to meet the pre-requisites.

The teachers in the schools are encouraged to make their assessment based on what they have seen and heard from the students (rather than to depend on paper qualification alone) to determine whether the students are ready to sit for the GCE Music courses.”

What does this mean for the candidate?

It simply means this: You can have a grade 8 from any board in the world – at the end of the day, you will still be subject to actual assessments and auditions to test your musicianship. This means if you are just memorising examination pieces and ‘taking the grades’, you cannot expect to go very far. This is because everyone else is doing the same. You must demonstrate more than just ‘playing exam pieces’.

Comparison between ANZCA and ABRSM(eg. grade 1 level)
The table below shows how ANZCA is at least 8 times more challenging than ABRSM syllabus.

ABRSM grade 1	ANZCA grade 1
melodic minors: optional	melodic minors: compulsory
harmonic minors: nil	harmonic minors: compulsory
broken chords: 1 octave	arpeggios: one and half octaves
triad conversion: nil	triad conversion is required
interval identification: nil	interval identification: 3rds, 5ths, 8ths
General Knowledge of composer, title, signs and terms in the piece: nil	General Knowledge of composer, title, signs, terms, time signature, key, notes and rests of pieces is expected
Sight reading: 4 bars. Single hand	Sight reading: 8 bars. Double hands.
Pieces: 3 set pieces. Repertoire choice generally limited to set book.	Pieces. 3 set pieces. Repertoire is UNLIMITED.

How do our students fare?

For examinations, 100% of our students score either Honours or First Class Honours grades.

Quote from Dr Robert Keane, senior examiner, ANZCA, M.Music, PhD.:
“Northwood prepares its students really well. They demonstrate the ability to go beyond the written score and creatively handle improvisation confidently. Well done!’