Why Take Guitar Exams?
Why Take Guitar Exams?
Guitar exams help develop technical and performance skills in order to help the student achieve their musical ambitions. Guitar exams also give the student a real goal to aim for. I have entered literally hundreds of students into guitar exams. All exams are by an external examination board. The exam boards I currently use are Trinity College of London for electric guitar exams and London College of music for acoustic guitar. Both exam boards offer internationally recognised qualifications.
Trinity College Rock and Pop
On this page I am going to focus on Trinity College Rock and Pop exams. The student will learn real songs, and also have to develop playback and improvisational skills in order to take an exam. For each grade the student will have to play three songs from a set list of eight songs. These songs can be found in the graded songbooks. You can find these by clicking on Amazon, or directly from Trinity College or any good music book retailer. Alternatively at the bottom of this page if you click the image of the required page it will take you to Amazon where you can order the books.
One of the songs from the set list will need to be a technical focus piece. This will involve a technical guitar technique. This could be anything from palm muting to hybrid picking. Each grade gets progressively more difficult. UCAS points can be earned from Grade 6 onwards. There is a Initial grade. Then from grade one up to grade 8.
What songs do I have to play
The repertoire is fantastic ranging from David Bowie, Santana, The Cure, James Brown, Coldplay, U2 and many more. Click the link here to see me playing 20th Century Boy by T Rex on You Tube. Also please subscribe if you enjoy this as there are many more videos of me playing songs from the syllabus. You may also find other videos on my media page by clicking here.
Improvisation and Playback
At each grade there is a requirement to do either Playback or improvisation. If choosing playback a piece of music will be put in front of you that you will not have seen before. You are then given a little time to read through this. The tablature is also under the music score. A piece of music is then played to you. Then you have to play this back after hearing it. Paying close attention to any dynamic markings in the music. This is normally a few lines of music depending on the grade you are sitting. You have two attempts at this the first one is a practise run. The second is the one that you will be marked on.
Improvisation you are shown a chord chart and given a short time to study it. You will then hear a short snippet of the backing track so you can get a feel for the style of the track. The track will then be played again in full. This is your chance to start to improvise over the tack ,this can be chords a lead line or a mixture of both. When using chords try to use more than one chord voicing for the chords to show the examiner a knowledge of chords. The track will then be played in full one more time. This is the time the examiner will mark your improvisation skills.
Which One?
Many students ask which one to do. Playback is what I personally recommend. If you play what you heard and what was written including all the dynamics. Then you are going to pick up most of the points, and hopefully all of the points. Improvisation is more subjective and is down to interpretation from yourself and the examiner. I always tell students to improvise to as many YouTube backing tracks as possible in different keys to prepare for this.
How many points to pass?
The exams all work off the same marking system. 30 marks is given for song 3 as is the technical focus piece.
| Mark band | Song 1 | Song 2 | Song 3 | Session skills | TOTAL |
| TOTAL MARKS AVAILABLE | 25 | 25 | 30 | 20 | 100 |
| Distinction | 22 | 22 | 26 | 17 | 87 |
| Merit | 19 | 19 | 22 | 15 | 75 |
| Pass | 15 | 15 | 18 | 12 | 60 |
| Below Pass 1 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 9 | 45 |
| Below Pass 2 | below 11 | below 11 | below 14 | below 9 | below 45 |
Where can I take these exams?
You can take these exams all over the world as they are internationally recognised qualifications. My students however tend to go to Wolverhampton which is at Graisley Music school or to Shrewsbury which is in the music department od Shrewsbury school. Wolverhampton exams are normally held on a Thursday or Friday and Shrewsbury exams are normally on a Sunday. Hence people going to Shrewsbury. For children at school age this should be classed as off site learning and should not occur an absence as it may result in a recognised qualification.
How much does it cost?
You will need to buy a graded song book for the exam you wish to take these range from arong £13.00 for initial to £17.00 for grade 8. The exam prices vary on the grade you are taking. here is the prices at the present time March 2020
| Exam | Fee (£) |
| Initial | 45.00 |
| Grade 1 | 50.00 |
| Grade 2 | 55.00 |
| Grade 3 | 60.00 |
| Grade 4 | 68.00 |
| Grade 5 | 77.00 |
| Grade 6 | 85.00 |
| Grade 7 | 95.00 |
| Grade 8 | 105.00 |
All exam fees go directly to Trinity College. I earn no commision off Trinity College. Payment must be made via a debit or credit card.
The results normally arrive within a few weeks and a certificate and an exam report arrive later. The exam report will inform you of your strengths and weaknesses as a guitar player. This gives you valuable information on how you can improve your playing. My students have a 100% pass rate. I will not enter anyone for an exam who I do not think will meet the pass rate criteria. The majority of my pupils pass with either distinction or merit.
