Choosing Your Solo and Ensemble Performance Pieces

Two tests, and they are not alike

Performing needs two different pieces: one ensemble, one solo. There is a published test for each, and students assume the two tests work the same way. They do not. The ensemble test can be run mechanically. Count the performers, check nobody is doubling, check the parts overlap. You reach an answer without an opinion. The solo test cannot be run that way at all, and that catches people out.

What the solo test actually asks

Your part has to take a significant or leading role, and be distinctive and clearly recognisable in its individuality. Read that again and notice what is missing. There is no number in it. Nothing is counted, nothing is measured. Every word asks you to listen and decide.

Five situations, five answers

Playing inside a bigger group

A student wants to use a piece where they play with a full school ensemble behind them. Can that be their solo performance?

• No, a solo has to be played with one accompanist at most
• Yes, as long as a clear solo part runs the whole way through
• Yes, because the more players there are the more impressive it sounds
• No, because that would count as an ensemble performance instead

Counting, and listening

The same component asks you to apply two tests built on completely different principles.

Making the judgement

Put these four into a workable order for deciding whether a piece works as your solo.

• Listen to a recording of the piece without following your part
• Ask whether you could pick your line out without knowing it was yours
• Check that it stays that way for the whole piece, not just the opening
• Say out loud what makes the part distinctive, in one sentence

What is the definition asking?

Which two of these does the solo definition actually turn on?

• Whether your part takes a significant or leading role
• Whether your line is clearly recognisable as an individual part
• How many other performers are in the room
• How many bars your part plays
• Which grade the piece is considered equivalent to

There is no grade standard

Sooner or later somebody asks what grade the piece needs to be. No numeric grade standard is stated anywhere in this specification. There is no Grade 3 equivalent, no benchmark piece, no list. Difficulty is judged qualitatively against the assessment criteria, and the objective for this component is performing with technical control, expression and interpretation. Read that back and it tells you more about choosing a piece than a grade number ever would.

Which words are the test?

Here is the solo requirement broken into pieces. Two of them are the test itself; the rest describe the situation around it. Tap the two.

• The performance lasts at least one minute
• Your part takes a significant or leading role
• The usual accompaniment is one other performer
• Your part is distinctive and clearly recognisable in its individuality
• A larger ensemble is allowed in some cases
• The two performances are different pieces

One piece, judged

A student plays clarinet in a piece with a piano part and a quiet string backing. Their line carries the tune for most of it and drops into the texture for about twenty seconds in the middle. Does it lead? For most of the piece, yes. Could a listener pick it out? They tried it on somebody who did not know the piece, and yes. Does it hold throughout? This is the real question, and they decided the middle section is short enough that the line is still theirs. Notice that the last answer was a decision, not a fact, and that they can say what it rested on. That is what this test asks for.

The solo requirement

A solo performance needs your part to take a _____ or leading role, and to be _____ and clearly recognisable in its _____. The usual accompaniment is one other _____, and a larger ensemble is allowed where a clear solo part runs _____.

One piece, used twice

A student has a piece where they lead throughout and which also has two other independent parts. They want to submit it as their solo and again as their ensemble. What is wrong with that?

• Nothing, because it genuinely satisfies both definitions
• A piece cannot satisfy the solo and the ensemble definitions at the same time
• The two performances have to be different pieces, whatever else is true
• The ensemble performance would be too short

Say what it rests on

A judgement you can put into a sentence is one you can defend. Choose the option in each gap.

The judgement run

Five parts. Does each one work as a solo performance?

Advising a classmate

Somebody asks you to help them settle on their two pieces. Work through it with them.

• They say: I will pick the hardest piece I can just about get through, because that must score highest.
• They settle on a piece where they play one line among several similar ones. They ask whether it works as a solo.
• They find a piece that leads throughout and has three independent parts, and want to use it for both performances.

Write the judgement

Choose any piece you know, real or imagined, and decide whether your part in it would work as a solo performance. Write the judgement and what it rests on.

• Give your decision first, before the reasons
• Use both halves of the test: whether the part leads, and whether it is recognisable
• Say whether it holds for the whole piece
• Do not argue from how hard the piece is, or how many bars you play