PIANO EXAMS KEIKO CAN HELP YOU WORK TOWARDS:

The Royal schools of Music (ABRSM) – website: www.abrsm.ac.uk
Trinity College London – website: www.trinitycollege.com
NZMEB (New Zealand Music Examination Board) – website: www.nzmeb.org

ABRSM and Trinity are British examination boards and are both widely recognised throughout the world. The difficulty of the pieces for each grade and the quality of assessment are more or less the same between the two. However, there are some differences in how the exams are structured, which may determine who you would prefer to go for.

There are eight grades in both ABRSM and Trinity practical exams, Grade 1 being the lowest and Grade 8 the highest. In these exams, students are to play three pieces, do some technical work such as scales and arpeggios, and take supporting tests. The exam time ranges from 10+ minutes to around 25 minutes, depending on the grade.

In order to take ABRSM practical exam Grade 6 and above, students must have passed ABRSM Grade 5 (or above) in Music Theory, Practical Musicianship or any Jazz subject. For details, go here: www.abrsm.org/prerequisite (Trinity practical exams do not have such prerequisites.)

Below are opportunities for pre-grade students who would like to take an exam or a test before they sit their first grade exam:

Prep Test (ABRSM) – this is not an exam and is not assessed so no pass or fail. Students are given a certificate at the end of the test which includes positive and helpful feedback from the examiner. For more info, go here: http://nz.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/other-assessments/prep-test#

Initial Exam (Trinity) – this is an exam which is assessed and the structure of this exam is the same as Trinity grade exams (see more explanations on the Trinity exams below).

Three pieces are to be played in both ABRSM and Trinity practical exams. For each grade, there is a list of pieces that students can choose from. Here is a difference between ABRSM and Trinity:

ABRSM – pieces are categorised into three lists: List A (baroque and classical periods), List B (classical and romantic periods) and List C (contemporary and modern music). Students are to choose one piece from each list.

Trinity – up to Grade 4 – students can choose any three pieces from the syllabus, as long as the pieces they have chosen are contrasting with each other. From Grade 5, pieces are categorised into Group A and Group B, from which students are to choose at least one piece, e.g. two pieces from List A and one piece from List B.

Students are required to play scales and arpeggios (or broken chords for lower grades) in both ABRSM and Trinity exams.

ABRSM – starting with six keys at Grade 1 – one new key is added to the next grade up, up to Grade 4. From Grade 5, students are required to practise all keys.

Trinity – students are to play four keys (two major keys and two minor keys) up to Grade 7. For Grade 8, students are to play six keys. In addition to scales and arpeggios, there are two exercises, i.e. short pieces, to be played in the Trinity exams. Students are given six short pieces, 1a & 1b, 2a & 2b and 3a & 3c, and they have to choose and prepare one exercise from each category, three exercises in total, e.g. 1b, 2a and 3a. Out of the three, students only have to play two in the exam; they can choose which exercise to play first and then the examiner will select one of the remaining two prepared exercises to be performed.

ABRSM – students must do sight reading and aural tests.

Trinity – there are four options from which students have to choose two. The options are: sight reading, aural, improvisation and musical knowledge. However, from Grade 6, students must do sight reading as well as aural or improvisation.

Overall, it seems that there is more flexibility and freedom in Trinity exams than ABRSM exams. However, it is hard to say which is better than the other, as there are virtues in both. Some teachers prefer Trinity to ABRSM, and vice versa.

NZMEB (New Zealand Music Examinations Board) has the same syllabus as AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board). NZMEB exams are more challenging and require a lot more preparation than ABRSM or Trinity ones. Because of the amount of practice and preparation that are required, these exams are likely to result in producing musicians with more solid musical knowledge and skills. NZMEB is not so widely recognised as Trinity or ABRSM yet but the number of students taking NZMEB exams is growing in New Zealand.

In NZMEB exams, students play four pieces in total, one piece each from List A to List D, plus two more pieces in their “study list” which are not assessed. Their syllabus has more choice of pieces than that of ABRSM or Trinity and provides very long lists of pieces that students can choose from. Apart from playing their pieces, students must play scales, arpeggios (or broken chords for lower grades) and chord progressions, as well as take Musicianship tests and Musical Knowledge test.