I've been asked to give some advice to someone who wants to take a performance course at college level, on drum kit. The college says he has to be equivalent to ABRSM grade 6 to start - the trouble is, there are no ABRSM grades in drum kit! I know there are boards out there who do more rock/pop type things, but can anyone tell me what they are? And what an ABRSM 6 would be equivalent to in that board?

Hi, my son plays drum kit and has taken the Trinity Rock School exams. The link to their site is:
http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/site/?id=742

I don't know whether the college would consider the Trinity grades as equivalent to ABRSM, so can't offer any comment on that.

Hope that helps a bit.



Amber
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I would say that Trinity is a good exam board to do drum kit exams on. I think they are considered pretty much the same level as ABRSM, but there's always some debate on whether this is true or not!

Trinity is generally considered the equivelant of Ab.

In some prospectus' it lists either trinity or Ab grade x.

Trinity have become much more distinguished recently

anywho

I think most drum kit players who take exams do them through Rock School. They offer exams in Guitar, Bass guitar, Drum kit, Voice and pop piano.

Not most, some... Depends on what you want from it...

Kit exams with Trinity, LCM and Rockschool should be roughly the same as the equivalent AB grade...

TG exams on drumkit tend to have more notated music, whereas Rockschool have more improvised sections. Other than that, the styles covered are pretty similar and there is a reasonable choice of pieces for both. Either are good quality exams and should be recognised as such by any music college.

I do Rock School if that helps?