Exam update : Week of 7/21/2013

Exam update: Week of 7/21/2013

Part of my reason for doing this blog is to document my experiences on the way to taking the AGO Professional Certification Exams, so I'm going to be keeping track of my progress through weekly updates. Due to the nature of my position, I have other duties besides practicing the organ, so some weeks I get a lot of practice, and other weeks I get little to none. For this reason, weekly updates will probably be quite variable.

The Date: The Service Playing Exam can be taken any time between October and March of 2013-14, and I'm setting an arbitrary test time of somewhere in November.

Materials:

I've selected my repertoire for Prelude, Offertory, and Postlude. Buxtehude, Schroeder, and Mendelssohn. I will be trying to find some information on authentic performance practice.

I've selected my hymn that I will transpose (selected from the Revised Examination Hymn Booklet 2011) and have gone with Germany because I suppose I'm sentimental about my times with Sinfonia back in college. It's in the key of A-flat Major, so I've been practicing transposing it to B-flat, A, G, and G-flat. I'm more familiar with transposing up because I've had some time practicing substituting alto and mezzo-soprano clefs in that configuration. The toughest for me was the G-flat transposition but they're all feeling pretty comfortable now. It must be practiced to a state, however, where it can be done with complete ease.

There are two additional hymns yet to be selected.

I still require another Anthem selection.

I need to pick two Psalms.


I'm pretty sure that with my repertoire and transpositions practiced, I could walk in with little preparation and achieve a passing grade on the exam with my current know-how. However, with the goal of mastery, I want to know if there's anything I might be missing. The guild offers a package of preparatory materials for this particular test and I plan to see if there's anything to be picked up there. Unfortunately, since we've been working on our bathrooms, I'm pretty low on cash at the moment, so I don't know how soon I'll be able to get these materials. We'll see what happens.