They don't do them, do they ?

I've been trying to find syllabuses and that on the Internet but have found every instrument apart from keyoard

EDIT: Topic title was supposed to be AB in capitals, meaning Associated Board

I'm not sure that they do them to be honest. Think LCM do though. Have you looked there?

No not yet, thanks very much

And Trinity here...

They will be doing music medals for keyboard very soon. Maybe they'll see if that takes off. Hopefully within a year or two they might decide it's a good idea for an individual to pursue it.

I've seen the Trinity one before thanks. LCM do it, thanks very much for that. Its a shame that AB don't do it, I've never done an exam with any other board before. You don't happen to know what the main differences between them are, do you ?



Sounds good, thanks very much

Well all are good exam boards from my experience. I did my piano grades with Guildhall, and the AB and found that they were equally good. With Trinity, you have a viva voce section - where they ask you questions about aspects of the pieces you are playing. There are slightly fewer scales on Trinity and you have the choice of playing your own composed piece instead of one of the pieces. So, each board has it's best bits - but equally as good in my opinion.

Saying that, I think that at the minute, for violin, Trinity are doing some really fun pieces which have kept me busy for a while now!

Thats very helpful, thanks again

I get my keyboard pupils to do Trinity exams. I like the fact that the piece from the C list has to be played creatively - it's great to be add your own ideas to what has already been printed.

Ooh, that sounds like fun! So they embellish the piece, like the jazz exams with the AB?

Yes, compose intros/outros and embellish bits with fancy scales, thirds, sixths, counter melodies and such like. It's fun!

It really does sound fun! A refreshing change I am very intrigued now. Is this for every grade?

I think joyjoy might be about to add another instrument to her repertoire...

Interesting - I have just had a couple of examiner's reports from TCL keyboard exams saying that the intros the students composed for the list C pieces were 'not necessary'. Never had this before - have you??

Liz

I think you're beginning to know me to well! I have thought about it for a while actually, secretly!

I have been a keyboard player/teacher for many many years now and have always used guildhall untill recently where i have encountered many many problems with them! After reviewing the boards new syllabus (starting in 2007) along with the LCM all my students have decided to use LCM.

And yes i agree with whoever applauded the list c option- it is a great opportunity to use the sequencer/composer functions on the keyboard and its great to get the students to start being creative and arrange the songs in their own personal way with the addition of extra notes/harmonies/intros etc.
Yet another reason to use LCM instead of Guildhall. I find LCM are much freer and allow the person to use the keyboard for what it is rather than trying to convert it to a piano!