I wonder if anyone could help me with this?

It's just a general interest question. I've been thinking lately about graded examinations and how they have become a staple of virtually any type of instrumental learning. There must have been a time when people managed without them and still reached the same standards/built up the same skills that all of a sudden we've been led to believe can't be done without following a standard educational system.

I'm not specifically referring to ABRSM exams, I'm thinking of the wider world- well, probably wider Europe where the classical music tradition originated and the rest of the world at various points in history followed suit.

I'd be particularly interested of any reading people know of I could do around the subject, but if not a straight forward answer would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

Have a look here

Since 1890 by the looks of it!

Are graded music exams a British (and therefore Commonwealth) thing? They don't exist in the US. I don't know about other bits of Europe.

Not strictly true. ABRSM offer exams in the USA in several states, Trinity have offered exams in the USA since the 1930s "on a small scale" and LCM have centres in Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, California and New Jersey. I don't think they're very popular - my American violin teacher had never heard of them either - but it would appear they do exist. Why they haven't caught on on such a big scale as in the UK I don't know.

Sorry, that was bad phrasing on my part. By "don't exist" I meant that there were no US-administered equivalents. (I used to live in the US and did think about taking ABRSM Grade 8 horn but there was only one tiny little centre in the whole city).

I found an interesting article here: Carnegie Hall are developing a nationwide US exam system in partnership with Canada's Toronto RCM and based on their system. This is an attempt to create a consistent system across America rather than the current fragmented progression system which differs between states.

A rather succinct answer - maybe it's partly because of how the USA is structured in terms of different states each having their own rules and systems in a wide variety of areas. There are some administrative and practical differences between the different countries making up the UK but nowhere near on the scale of the US, and of course there are only 4 different areas to conglomerate rather than 50 so the minor differences there are multiplied many times over.

No, as far as I'm aware it's very much a Commonwealth thing: the list of prerequisites for the DipABRSM lists graded exams awarded by institutions in Canada, Australia, South Africa and Ireland (OK, so Ireland's not in the Commonwealth) as alternatives to Grade 8 ABRSM.

Certainly instrumental graded exams don't exist in Russia - the teachers from there who have come round here to teach are very good, but are not accustomed to the graded system for elementary pupils.

Anyone know anything about graded music exams in India? I have a student emigrating in two months, and it would be good to know what provision (if any) there is.

The ABRSM has an International Department and does in fact send examiners to something like 90 different countries. Here in France we have two local representatives - one who takes care of the Paris area and one who takes care of SW France and I think the examiner's tour sometimes goes as far as Nice. I work with both English ex-patriot children and French children

There are some English teachers like myself and dolce@piano who have "exported" the system to France and I think there is a very small number of French teachers who have joined in.

When I first tried to get work teaching music in France I came up against a closed system. The national system is very structured as far as its administration is concerned but there is no structured pedagogical system ? and there are no national standards at all. Roughly the procedure is that pupils are grouped into what are called ?classes? or ?cycles? but the content and level of the same cycle varies enormously from one music school to another. There are virtually no private music teachers. Top notch professionals will come out of the two National Conservatoires. Next in line there are the Regional Conservatoires with their various ?antennes? and Municipal Music Schools and at the bottom of the list there are associative music schools ? I worked for one of these until last year when changes to the administrative system would have meant that I could no longer have any control over the material I chose to teach and could not have entered my pupils for the ABRSM exams. At that point I went self employed ? but it would be going off topic to say more of that.

I have had a lot of success as a teacher simply because in comparison to the French system, what I offer is a form of teaching which enables all children, not just the very musically able, to have a go, to follow a syllabus which is much more structured ?and much more fun- than anything else on offer where I live. It remains very popular and the only grouse I get is that the exam fees are very expensive.

If there had been a French system of any equivalence to the ABRSM exams I think I would have preferred to use it as the majority of my pupils are French ? but then English and American teaching materials are so much better so perhaps not.

If you read Libretto regularly you will see that the ABRSM seems to take more interest in Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth countries and in Japan and, more recently, I think, in China than in Europe This may well be because of the language problems - but I think it is a shame. Where English is widely spoken examiners don?t have problems. Our examiners have varied from some who are very fluent indeed, including being able to talk about music in French - which is nothing like the average tourist French ? and some who have had very little French at all. This can be daunting but on the whole we seem to get through it.

If you live and work outside the UK you begin to see how very English the ABRSM system is ? and certainly where I am it is much appreciated.

http://www.abrsm.org/en/regions/india-pakistan/india/

Alive and kicking it would seem.

I know that Trinity Guildhall do send examiners for grade exams to India, as an examiner I know went last year to do a full week of examining. More than that, I don't know.

Thanks - that's good news. Her mother was pushing me to enter her for Grade 3 this session, and was ready to make her practise extra hard, but she just hasn't covered the work yet. It's good to know she will be able to do it there after they relocate.