Iván Rolón
If you have prior musical knowledge and experience, you can choose to take a leveling test before starting the piano and music theory course.
This test is designed to measure the level of theoretical/practical mastery acquired, design a personalized work proposal, and determine the most appropriate material for the start of classes. If you wish to consult the contents and criteria of the levels, I invite you to visit the following link.
The placement test has three stages:
Asynchronous theory: through a self-assessment form, designed to evaluate the knowledge acquired, as well as identification, analysis, and auditory recognition skills of musical elements. The form has 8 parts of 10 questions each. Each one of the parts corresponds to the contents of the levels of the basic (A1, A2, A3, and A4), intermediate (B1, B2, B3, and B4), and advanced (C1 and C2) cycles. You can complete the activity at any time using the send option. The criterion for the level recommendation of this stage will correspond to the instance until which a result of correct answers of 60% or more has been reached.
Asynchronous practice: once the self-assessment form has been sent, the student will be sent a document with detailed and exemplified activities according to the level reached in the theoretical stage, which includes:
Sending an audio or video recording performing a work of the student's choice.
Sending an audio or video recording of an imposed work chosen by the teacher.
Sending an image of a rhythmic and rhythmic-melodic dictation exercise resolved from a sent audio.
Sending an image of the score of your own musical composition according to the instructions set forth or in free mode, and the home audio or video recording of your performance.
This document also includes explanatory material to prepare for the test of the third stage.
The maximum period for sending the activities of the second stage is one month from the date of shipment of the consignments. In this instance and during this period, you can still tell me that you prefer not to continue the test and instead take a first trial class free of charge. The sending of the activities of the second stage implies the agreement to carry out the test.
Synchronous practice: after the activities requested in the second stage have been sent or the deadline has expired, you will receive an invitation to participate in the third stage of the test and the invoice. This instance will be held in the time range and modality chosen to continue the classes and includes the following activities:
Rhythmic reading: prepared and/or at first sight.
Melodic reading: prepared and/or at first sight.
Execution of a work of choice, the imposed work, and/or the own composition.
Analysis and execution at first sight.
After completing the tests, you will receive the detailed test result in writing with the recommended level to start the classes, a personalized work proposal, and the contract.
The level recommendation is made based on a general evaluation of the performance in the three stages of the test.
The evaluation criteria in the asynchronous and synchronous practical activities will be:
Degree of technical and expressive difficulty of the work to be chosen and adapted to the student's level.
Technical and expressive solvency and accurate reading of the score in the work of choice, the imposed work, the own composition, and the work at first sight.
Adjustment to the instructions in the musical composition and/or degree of technical and expressive difficulty and creativity of the compositions in free mode.
Performance in solving rhythmic and melodic exercises and dictations consigned and/or at first sight.
The relevance and explanation of the elements of analysis.
Based on these criteria, the proposed activities will be evaluated on a scale of 5 to 1, where:
5: corresponds to an activity not delivered or carried out with insufficient performance.
4: corresponds to sufficient performance.
3: corresponds to satisfactory performance.
2: corresponds to good performance.
1: corresponds to excellent performance.
On the other hand, regular students, after completing all the activities proposed in each stage, can choose to take a level completion test.
This test includes the same stages as the leveling test, which can be adapted to the modality in which the classes are carried out. The theoretical stage can be carried out using a self-assessment form or in a face-to-face modality. The composition activity can be done asynchronously or in class with the help of the teacher. The presentation of works, rhythmic and melodic reading and dictations, and analysis activities can be agreed upon asynchronously or face-to-face. Some exercises, however, will be carried out exclusively in synchronous mode (face-to-face or online).
After completing the level completion test, you will receive the detailed result in writing along with a performance evaluation during the classes and recommendations to continue.
This test is not mandatory, nor does it restrict continuity with the following stages.
The intention of both the leveling test and the level completion test is formative since it offers the student the possibility of testing their knowledge and skills, receiving corrections, self-correcting, having an overview of their strengths and weaknesses, receiving suggestions, and reflecting on the appropriate strategies to continue. This does not imply that there is no evaluative instance in each of the encounters and interactions. However, the formalization of this instance through a test can provide additional advantages and a greater depth of this process.
The current rates for the leveling and level completion tests are the following:
To request a leveling test, I invite you to complete the registration form that you will find in the following link, indicating that you wish to do it. After that, I will send you the self-assessment form as soon as possible to start the first stage of it.
The programming of the synchronous stages of the test, free trial classes, fixed schedules of regular classes, and class recovery is subject to availability. If at the time of sending your query through the registration form I do not have available times, you can authorize me to keep your data on a waiting list. When vacancies occur, I will make them available according to the chronological order in the list.
Your data is protected. If you wish, you can read the privacy policy and the imprint.
If you have questions, do not hesitate to contact me.