I've recently been introduced to the graded exams in piano accompaniment available through Trinity, and I thought they might be of interest to a few people on here .

Accompaniment exams are available in grades from 5 to 8; and then ATCL, LTCL and FTCL. The whole system is quite flexible: the syllabus for each grade requires one to accompany a musician playing two pieces on either voice, violin, cello, flute or clarinet; and to play one solo item. The grade one has to accompany goes up with the accompaniment grades, as one would expect. There are also a few other bits and pieces: musicianship tests, similar to those on the AB practical musicianship syllabus; sight reading; etc.

The accompaniment syllabus is available here if anyone wants a look .

I'm hatching a plan to do an LTCL in accompaniment next year, after LRSM piano - with the victim violinist who I'll be accompanying later this year in his LTCL, so I was thinking of trading accompaniments with him . Conveniently enough, and the reason I'm looking at LTCL rather than ATCL, we can play one of the two required violin pieces as I accompanied him playing it in his ATCL violin. Furthermore, I can play one of the required solo works as I did it for my DipABRSM. That means we just need to work on one piece - the Berkeley Sonatine for Violin and Piano, Op. 17.

PS. please ignore this .

Sounds great Something to look at in the future...

Don't worry, I've already forgotton about it

It'd be an excuse for you to meet up with a certain flautist .

Wonder how this fits in with the merger? They are still working on some tihings and this may be one of the delayed subjects.

I think LCM do accompaniment exams too?

Sounds like an interesting syllabus... you'll have to let us know how negotiations with your LTCL friend go, YAP

Does the person accompanied have to do a solo too? Or just the accompanist? I'm guessing the latter, assuming it's simply an examination of the accompanist and not a "duet" examination as it were?

I would love to do an accompaniment exam Sadly though, I don't know of anyone else who would be interested

You might have to do what other instrumentalists do who want a pianist to accompany them: pay them for their services. Or, do a trade, if they need an accompanist too . Where do you live? There might be someone on the forum who's interested.

Good question. The accompaniment diplomata are unchanged, because they're still offering Trinity diplomata and Guildhall diplomata; but with the new Trinity-Guildhall exams, I wouldn't know about the graded exams. Might be worth an email.



Will do .



Just the pianist. The solo piece is from a book of orchestral-reduction-style pieces that Trinity publish specifically for the grades, the idea being that accompanists need to be able to play concerto reductions and suchlike. For the LTCL, it's a selection of repertoire from the LTCL syllabus; it just so happened that I played one of them for my DipABRSM .

Ahh I see. Sounds like a good aim to have, and gaining a diploma with a lot of rep you've already learned has to be a bonus

My accompanying skills aren't up to it, but if there are any pianists in the south-east who want to try the accompaniment exams, PM me - I can provide a ready-made accompanee programme for any of the grades (especially if you promise to play Mozart and Finzi )

I'm in Blackpool........... anyone interested?? The "trade" idea sounds good to me

My LGSM is in accompaniment. I did it in the early 1970s after having lessons at the Guildhall once a week, and they provided the soloists. I had to accompany part of the Mendelssohn Violin concerto, 2 voice solos (can't remember which ones), and I can't remember which third piece I did. I also had to do a theory paper.