Hiya,

Just out of interest, does anyone know whether the board are planning on taking the jazz exams to post grade 5?

I asked the Chief Examiner this last session and the answer was not at the moment. Trinity offer a Jazz syllabus post G5 as do LCM. From what I can gather Trinity has only one improvised piece.

That's not strictly true. They are working on Grade 6, 7, and 8 for Jazz Piano. There is no firm publication date yet though. (I asked the Syllabus department a few weeks ago, as I'd seen talk about it on other websites.)

I'm trying out a few Gr 7 pieces with LCM (to do by the end of 2008) and hopefully I'll do Gr 8 with AB next year.

I can't remember the exact wording but I probably asked about Woodwind. It's interesting that they are working on the Piano ones though.

You're right!

2. Are there any plans to take the Jazz exams to Grade 8 on the wind instruments?

Not at the moment - but this may of course change and we are always responsive to suggestions.

She wrote this on 14 December. I remember reading this ages ago and knew that work on the piano syllabus had already started. Hopefully more instruments at the higher grades will be introduced after.

At the end of the day for the woodwind it will depend on how long they take to get organised. If they don't admit to them soon they may find that those who are G5 have already looked at other boards.

Good point. It's demand and supply. If they don't supply the exams we the consumers want, then we'll certainly go elsewhere. They don't do theory diplomata, so I did one with Trinity. If they haven't sorted out the higher grade jazz piano exams by early next, I'll do Gr 8 elsewhere.

Over the past 10 years of jazz exams, many people must have reached Gr 5 and then wondered what to do next. It would be interesting to know the figures. It must take a while to formulate a good syllabus, so they need to get cracking!

If AB do introduce grades 6, 7 and 8 in jazz (apologies if this has been addressed on another thread) I'm wondering about the standard.

I've just done grade 1 jazz piano after a long break from playing. My teacher tells me that the jazz grades don't necessarily correspond with the classical grades in terms of difficulty i.e. grade 1 jazz is more demanding than grade 1 classical. Having experience playing other instruments at a much higher level, I tend to agree with her. Or maybe it's just a question of maturity? My teacher says her young pianists struggle a bit with the jazz grades - even the really good ones - particularly with the improvisation side of things. For this reason, if they want to do jazz, she usually starts them a few grades behind their classical grade.

Does this mean Grade 8 jazz will be more demanding than grade 8 classical...or just different. ?

'I'm no teacher and can only go on daughter's experience of woodwind. I'd say the head is definately easier technically than in classical exams but the improvisation is and quite rightly so the challenge. I suspect how confident you are with the improvisation will be the deciding factor as to whether they are easier or not.

I've heard it said that the jazz grades are more difficult than the classical ones. but I think it all depends on your point of view and where your strengths lie. I have a student who struggles with reading notation (he can do it, but slowly - sight reading is a nightmare). He has really taken to improvisation and is loving the fact that he can do the quick study by ear instead. I can see that he is going to do very well with the jazz syllabus, but would struggle terribly with classical grades. Maybe the reason us more-mature-classically-trained types find the jazz stuff hard is because we are not used to improvising and approaching the material from a more aurally based angle. From the technical playing point of view, I really don't think the pieces are harder.

This has been an ongoing question regarding higher grades for Jazz. I think the ABRSM have held off the higher grades for a number of reasons including the general levels of interest and support for this subject. Costs involved in putting the publications together for a subject which as yet is not financially viable for them. Increasingly i have had to cancel an entry for a candidate when their has not been enough interest in my local area to warrant having an examiner sent.

The best way forward i feel and i intend to e-mail the Board today regarding this is to amalgamate both classical and jazz exams into the same exam centre/period rather than having them as two seperate events. LCM exams have done this very successfully and it would save them a lot of extra work in planning for two seperate events.

For those who do wish to study jazz beyond grade 5, have a look at the LCM Jazz syllabus which goes from grade 1 to diploma level.

No I agree that the pieces aren't harder, but the improvisation is more challenging, surely? And even the scales as the dorian/mix and pentatonic scales feel less 'natural' to the ear?

One way or t'other I think it's great that there are opportunities for musicians who rely more on their ear to shine. I didn't really struggle with the classical grades, but as a child I felt a real sense of frustration, like I was always 'underperforming'. I knew I was very musical so I couldn't understand why I seemed less able to (for example) read difficult rhythms I could play perfectly well if they were played to me or why I could harmonise melodies and transpose by ear really easily, but found it difficult (and still do) to write it down.

Discovering the jazz syllabus has convinced me that there is a place for musicians like me!

that's worrying! If you and the student are going to be spending all that time and energy on something you want to know that they are going to be able to do the exam at the end. I think part of the problem in demand is that there aren't the higher grades - now if you could enter music college after doing a grade 8 jazz exam that would give all the jazz exams more status. Jazz does have this problem historically of being looked down on a bit by classical musicians, however the more I study it the more difficult I think it is. It makes you know and understand a lot of theory too and is a better test of overall musicianship. Another thread talks about cramming to pass grade 5 - I don't think that would be possible with the jazz exams.