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Music grades: what's your average (pass, merit, distinction)

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For meee:

Theory, Taken in December 2007 when I was in year 7 at school: Merit (88 Marks)

Piano:
Grade 3: Taken in year 4, merit
Grade 4: Taken in year 5, merit
Grade 5: Taken in year 6, merit
Grade 6: Taken in year 7, pass

I lost motivation on piano so haven't taken any more grades, wish I carried on though, Could have gotten to grade 8 by year 9. :mad:

Oboe:
Grade 2: Taken in year 7, Distinction
Grade 3: Taken in year 8, Distinction
Grade 5: Taken in year 9, Distinction
Grade 7: Taken this March in year 11, Pass :mad:

but I used a really bad reed so my oboe wasn't working very well. :rant:

Hoping to get to grade 8 by next March!

I prefer ABRSM, and tbf, scales are a doss once you can do them and they are really useful for technique.

Reply 21

username782284

Had a merit in everything apart from my grade 4 piano (which I failed) and my grade 7 trombone which I got a distinction.

ABRSM, although I have a gd3 viola from trinity guildhall. did it when I was 9 and I don't have the certificate anymore so don't have a clue what I got.

Reply 22

Slosh

Out of the 3 instruments I claim I can play I've only got grades on the Tenor Trombone. Got a merit on grade 2, distinction on grade 4, then just a pass on grade 5, and haven't done any grades since. But that was 9 years ago and only 2 years after I started, so i'm hopefully better than that :P

Reply 23

NickiMinaj

I haven't done Trinity but one my friends has done both and apparently its easier than ABRSM.
I've done ABRSM Piano up to Grade 7, I've decided that i'm not gonna do grade 8 :L
And obviously theory, but only up until Grade 5.
:smile:

Reply 24

Laura823

All flute:
Grade 3: pass
Grade 4: pass
Grade 5: merit
Grade 6: merit

And that's it. Definitely not as impressive as a lot of the people here!

Reply 25

silverflash101

I started playing the violin when I was six, and I'm now twelve.

Violin
Grade 1 - Merit
Grade 2 - Merit
Grade 3 - Skipped
Grade 4 - Merit
Grade 5 - Merit (128)
Grade 6 - Distinction (134, full marks on aural, 27 on all of the pieces.) :biggrin:

I started working on the grade 7 pieces about two weeks ago.

Singing
Skipped grade 1 and 2
Grade 3 - Distinction
Grade 4 - Merit (I had a terrible cold that day.)

I can't remember what I got for grade 5 theory.

Reply 26

savtrombone

Tenor Trombone (All Trinity Exams)
Grade 1: Distinction
Grade 2: Distinction
Grade 3: Distinction
Grade 4: Distinction
Skipped Grades 5,6 +7
Grade 8: Distinction (i only dropped a few marks in this exam)

ATCL Trinity Diploma - 79% (1 mark of a distintion)

Singing (Both ABRSM exams)
Skipped Grades 1,2,3,4,5 + 6
Grade 7: Distinction
Grade 8: Waiting For Results, but hopefully a distinction

I Just took my grade 5 Piano (ABRSM), as well but am only looking for a pass, i'm pretty uncoordinated :/

I definitely prefer trinity, although i dont think its fair to say that they're "easier" than ABRSM exams, because they're just not!
scales aren't difficult to play, only to memorise, and Trinity have recognised this, there is a difference in knowing your scales perfectly well and having memorised them :/ its not often, as a professional musician that you are just asked to play a random scale from memory with out any music anyway!

i agree music shouldn't be just about scoring points, but i think this system is also vital for when you want to take music to the next level, music colleges cant audition absolutely everyone, and exams are a good way to narrow candidates down

RANT OVER!

Reply 27

iheartdjokovic

Hmm well I've got merits in Grade 5 theory and Grade 1 cello and passes in Grade 2-6 cello... slightly shameful judging by the rest of this thread! I tend to get somewhere in the high teens though... I'm hoping for a merit in Grade 7 cello next week though! Oh, and I got about 105 in Grade 1 piano at the age of about 6 and then quit straight away, haha.

Reply 28

Tochai

Merits at grade 4 and 6 bass, passed my grade 8 by one mark. The examiner was a real bell end though, apparently he failed a grade one drums student and one of the things he wrote was "insufficient pressure on high hat pedal", as if that had nothing to do with the fact that the kid was probably about eight years old and couldn't reach.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 29

Sparky:)

wow you lot are amazing...

for me
Eb Tenor Horn
Grade 1- pass
Grade 2- pass
Grade 3- Merit

Keyboard
Grade 1- distinction
Grade 2- Distinction
Grade 3- distinction

with examiners some of them can be real meanies, but usually they dance along :smile:

Reply 30

christielovesyou

I've only done a few Grade 5s, but I'm aiming to do Grade 8 Singing, Grade 7 Violin (maybe, seeing I don't have regular lessons anymore and am kinda lacking in motivation) and Grade 5 Piano sometime within the next year or so.

Grade 5 Theory - Distinction (96% :biggrin:

)
Grade 5 Violin - Merit
Grade 5 Singing - Pass :frown:

I was really torn up about my singing results - did it in March this year just as a bridge between having done no singing exams and doing Grade 7 or 8 in June, but then I was nervous, the examiner was overly harsh and gave EVERYONE ridiculously low marks, I got my solfa wrong in the sight-singing and that threw me off so I froze up and couldn't relocate where I was...It was a bit of a disaster, everyone was confident I was going to get a Distinction. Not a nice feeling but safe to say it's given me a reality check and a kick up the bum about working hard for my Grade 8! :wink:

I do ABRSM.

I also got an 85% Merit in my NYCoS Gold Award (just got the results this morning!) which is basically a Grade 5 equivalent which combines a theory exam and an aural/sight-singing exam. It can be used instead of Grade 5 Theory for sitting Grades 6-8 but I've got my G5 Theory anyway so it doesn't really matter...

Reply 31

Anonymouso

Grade 1 - Distinction
Grade 3 - Pass
Grade 5 - Merit

So basically my average depends on how my Grade 6 goes this Autumn... Also, I've done all my exams so far with ABRSM but I'm gonna do the next ones with Trinity (coz I can't sing :P)

Reply 32

Slowbro93

Well my average for piano (up to grade 5) was a merit and for violin (up to grade 2) was a merit.

I am thinking of getting back into grades for piano and seeing if I can get to a grade 8, but with the prospect of moving from London, I don't know if that can happen :sadnod:

Reply 33

Gob Bluth

Original post by Chaofan88

Violin
Grade 1: distinction
Grade 2: distinction
Grade 3: distinction
Grade 4: merit
Grade 5: merit

So my average is distinction (although perhaps not for long). Not going to lie, I was dissapointed with my merit even though I knew I performed pretty badly in the exam. I'll just have to make up fot it with distinctions in grades 6-8 :tongue:

Also, do you prefer ABRSM or Trinity, and have you found any differences in diffulty level?

I think i had the same, followed by 3 passes. So a gradual decline combined with progress you could say aha.

Reply 34

drummer

Do you ABRSM guys enjoy doing Grades? Would it be beneficial to enter these exams, I'm just a bit skeptical.

Reply 35

TheBambiHeart

Clarinet

Grade 4 - Merit
Grade 5 Skipped
Grade 6 - Merit
Grade 7 - Distinction
Grade 8 - Distinction

Theory

Grade 5 - Distinction

Piano

Grade 5 - Distinction
Grade 6 - Merit
Grade 7 - Distinction

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 36

TheBambiHeart

Original post by drummer

Do you ABRSM guys enjoy doing Grades? Would it be beneficial to enter these exams, I'm just a bit skeptical.

At the TIME, exams are horrible of course :tongue:

They can be a bit stressy (although I am the biggest worrier anyway...) but if you work hard, it pays off :smile:

You feel such a sense of accomplishment :smile:

They are very beneficial for getting into uni and stuff. They get you tariff points (I think that's what they're called. I've never really paid attention to them) and the more you get, the more chance you have of getting into university. If that's what you're planning on doing, of course. Sorry I don't know your situation :smile:

I did Trinity in my clarinet and ABRSM in theory and piano. Neither are easier than the other. If anything Trinity pieces can be harder and it gives you a much wider scope on repertoire :smile:

But then again the aural is harder is ABRSM, I think. Both good though :smile:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 37

drummer

Original post by TheBambiHeart

At the TIME, exams are horrible of course :tongue:

They can be a bit stressy (although I am the biggest worrier anyway...) but if you work hard, it pays off :smile:

You feel such a sense of accomplishment :smile:

I did Trinity in my clarinet and ABRSM in theory and piano. Neither are easier than the other. If anything Trinity pieces can be harder and it gives you a much wider scope on repertoire :smile:

But then again the aural is harder is ABRSM, I think. Both good though :smile:

Thank you. I went through Trinity Grade 8 drums but not the official examination. My piano teacher seems to not want to do grades for pieces but got me to buy graded sight reading books and scales. Maybe I'll try out for grades on the piano if I am confident enough :tongue:

, ABRSM is hard!

Reply 38

Starsong

I'm completely awful at playing anything, so my flute grades are shiiite. All Trinity as far as I can remember.

Grade 1: merit
skipped grade 2 (I have no idea why - my teacher was odd)
Grade 3: pass

I stopped after that, I'm much better at listening to music :biggrin:

Reply 39

username943595

Wow, you people are so good!!!

I do ABRSM exams.

I'm currently waiting for the Grade 6 2013-2014 Piano book to arrive :P

Piano: (I skipped Grade 1,2 as my teacher thought they were easy for me)

Grade 3: Merit
Grade 4: Pass
Grade 5: Pass

Theory:

Grade 2: Distinction!! :biggrin: