Grade 8
- Thread starter dbov22
- Start date
Yes.
no i know that, I've been grade 8 level for years, "passed an internal exam" as in the full thing without going to proper examination - drummer's find it harder as scales, notes, keys and chords don't occur in drum kit music!
It gives you something to aim for and to progress towards. While they are not a be all and end all to playing music they are still worth progressing with. Having grade 8 music does not automatically mean you are any good at playing an instrument either.
Yea, progressing through the grades is good for learning, I did that myself. I never sat any exams for it though. Never really had the opportunity for it when I was at school.
Grade exams on the drums sound like a huge waste though. When I joined my Universities orchestra, I was on the Timpanis and learned how to play them right away with absolutely no effort whatsoever. Though they are very easy to play for anyone thats been playing the piano since 5.
They were boring though and I felt like a huge dork stood at the back of the orchestra whacking a pair of big drums with sticks.
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In the grand scheme of things, grade 8 means nothing. I've met grade 8 players who have literally only ever played 24 pieces of music (the three required for examination at each level), and who have learnt their grade 8 pieces by rote. Even asking them to sight read a grade 5 standard piece would leave them in bits.
Likewise, I've met some devastatingly talented instrumentalists who've never touched a grade in their life.
It takes a certain maturity of a student to get grade 8 young, and not turn into a cocky so-and-so who thinks they're gods gift. I've deliberately held off entering some students for their higher exams for a year or two for this reason.
What grades do do though, is offer a sense of forward progress for kids and teenagers. They like to be working towards something, and need medium term goals to aim for. When it comes to adults though, grades can be either very productive, or totally counter productive - and I teach both ways, and grades are definitely not useless.
Last time I looked, you do indeed need grade 5 theory to progress to grade 6 and above with the ABRSM (you don't need it for grade 5).
If you do Trinity Guildhall, I believe you don't need grade 5 theory until you want to do grade 8. Or, you can skip the theory and do a practical musicianship exam, in which you have to sing intervals, improvise, and do various on the spot exercises on your instrument.
My advice - do the theory. Grade 5 is not hard, and the insight it can give you will be valuable in any band or group you wind up playing in, even if you do only ever play drums.
Likewise, I've met some devastatingly talented instrumentalists who've never touched a grade in their life.
It takes a certain maturity of a student to get grade 8 young, and not turn into a cocky so-and-so who thinks they're gods gift. I've deliberately held off entering some students for their higher exams for a year or two for this reason.
What grades do do though, is offer a sense of forward progress for kids and teenagers. They like to be working towards something, and need medium term goals to aim for. When it comes to adults though, grades can be either very productive, or totally counter productive - and I teach both ways, and grades are definitely not useless.
Last time I looked, you do indeed need grade 5 theory to progress to grade 6 and above with the ABRSM (you don't need it for grade 5).
If you do Trinity Guildhall, I believe you don't need grade 5 theory until you want to do grade 8. Or, you can skip the theory and do a practical musicianship exam, in which you have to sing intervals, improvise, and do various on the spot exercises on your instrument.
My advice - do the theory. Grade 5 is not hard, and the insight it can give you will be valuable in any band or group you wind up playing in, even if you do only ever play drums.