RSL (Rockschool) vs ABRSM vs Trinity vs LCM. A Classical Piano Exam Board Comparison.
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- Rockshool (or 'RSL', the parent brand) recently entered into the classical music space with a complete Debut-to-grade-8 syllabus. Seemed like a good time to compare and contrast the different classical exam boards we have here in the UK.
Wondering which piano exam board to go with? Or maybe curious to know more about the one your teacher recommended? Hopefully my ramblings over the course of this 16 minute video are useful to you!
A couple of erratums in this video:
03:48 I got the dates the wrong way round - LCM formed in 1887 and ABRSM formed in 1890.
08:59 I said Trinity print 12 pieces in their core book. Actually, it's 9.
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I have taught most of these boards. Personally I feel as a teacher, that RSL is a more modern slick approach. Especially in terms of the improvisation options and the way that free choice pieces are allowed. You can check with RSL by emailing them. I have found it very simple. The pieces I find are so much more inspiring, containing film music and more jazz options. the recording downloads even with the hard copy book are fantastic for students to analyse. Also you can bring in some pieces from the contemporary syllabus too!
Thank you for a comprehensive unbiased review. It was really helpful.
Thanks for watching!
I did ABRSM for 3 grades, but I switched to Trinity for Grade 4 because of the nicer, wide range of pieces!
Thank you this was really helpful
Thank you for this interesting review on the music exam boards. When I learnt piano in the 1960's/70's ABRSM was the only exam board I had heard of. A grade 5 theory pass was definitely required by them back then in order to proceed beyond grade 5 practical. I stopped lessons after grade 7 at age 17. Fast forward to 2020 - I took up piano lessons (initially online) with a local teacher during the first Covid lockdown, and have continued up until the present. My current teacher uses (and is also an examiner for) the LCM board. While I had no intention of taking further exams in my rusty state, and at my advanced age, I was encouraged to do so. I took grade 8 (LCM performance/recital) in 2021, and I am pretty sure that I had to produce my grade 5 theory certificate (vintage 1978) as part of the submission. The options for the exam were either to perform 4 pieces from the grade 8 syllabus and finish with a discussion about them OR perform 5 pieces from the grade 8 syllabus but no discussion (I took the second option), so this differs slightly to the information in your presentation.
I appreciate that your review is to compare grades 1-8 of the examining boards, and this has been really helpful to me, as I had previously read older online reviews indicating that the LCM standard was considered to be lower than ABRSM. I haven't found this to be the case, and your review bears this out. I know of at least one piece of music which is considered grade 7 by LCM but grade 8 by ABRSM. Maybe their criteria for marking is different....no idea. I took the DipLCM (recital) exam in 2023, and definitely had to provide my grade 5 theory certificate for that. LCM will also accept an 'O' level music pass instead of the grade 5 theory - I believe ABRSM will do likewise.
As others have commented, LCM definitely hold exams in other countries. I know that my teacher spends many hours outside of studio teaching time marking online submissions from overseas.
Once again, thank you for your review. After seeing so much negativity about the LCM board when I first started researching, I had been vaguely wondering whether my grade 8 and diploma were really worth the paper they were written on, so it is good to see that your analysis matches my experience.
While Trinity doesn't require a passed theory exam above grade 5, music theory is one of the components in the supporting tests. Having gone through rigorous music education up to the academic level and now learning guitar from scratch I find Trinity's approach more musician-friendly (focus on performance and offering short studies in place of scales and arpeggios, having said that I don't remember playing scales and such on flute exams ever) however knowledge of some music theory and history is indeed helpful in understanding the pieces, context and how to play them. And, having purchased the set of workbooks for music theory from Trinity I find them really good for vocabulary building for non-English speakers putting aside educational value if one was starting from scratch. I have been encouraged to take Trinity exams by my teacher as they were friendly, and it's a nice way to see when one is against a set of criteria. Having looked at ABRSM as well (some people think it's for "serious" learners) I don't think I'd go with them. I prefer the flexibility of the exam structure of Trinity, repertoire and the offerings of higher level qualifications past grade 8.
This is a great comment. I hope viewers of the video also take the time to read it!
An excellent unbiased and balanced review between the above boards. Having taught ABRSM consistently for over 20 years, it is refreshing to hear another perspective. I encourage my students to follow the disciplines that ABRSM offer but also encourage them to find popular and recognisable pieces to add to their repertoire. Variety and diversity is vital to developing a balanced musician. Thank you
Thanks, Nimai! Sounds like you and I are quite like-minded 🙂
Trinity's digital exams are not performance only as they make candidates play a selection of scales, arpeggios and exercises as well three pieces, not four.
Very interesting to compare the four bodies, thank you for making this video.
I'd like to share my experience: in 2012 I took Rockschool's Grade 4 Drum Kit. The exam was £50 and I was given a date/time in a letter, which I couldn't make because of work commitments. Paid another £10 to reschedule and was given another random date/time, so I harassed my boss for a couple of hours off work to attend the exam. It was that or pay yet another tenner to re-enter the exam time/date lottery!
The exam was enjoyable and I pleased to Pass with Merit... however the examiner's handwriting was so bad (appeared to be written in a hurry) that I couldn't fully understand the report. So aside from the pass, I didn't really get any legible feedback on my performance.
The experience put me off pursuing further grades. The exam books are very expensive and exams themselves aren't cheap, especially if you have to reschedule like I did (RSL gave me no idea beforehand of when the exam could be, so I couldn't pre-book time off work). However, copies of out-of-date materials are really cheap and very useful to study out of. For instance, I found some ancient ABRSM snare drum books in a charity shop, which I've happily studied but I have no desire to actually take further exams.
Thanks for sharing your personal experience - I was interested to read it. Sorry to hear you had difficulty reading the examiner's notes. Did you try passing them to anyone else to see if they could decipher?
Ultimately, the fact that you felt that you, "didn't really get any legible feedback" is critical... I think it has to be of utmost priority for any and all of the exam boards to not just focus on the commercial aspect of their business, but understand that what they are doing is providing a service: they provide a human with skill and experience to listen to a performer and then provide objective and valuable feedback so that the performer can, similarly, learn and improve in the future. The second that the examiner puts in less than 100% effort themselves and/or writes so poorly that their comments can't be understood, the entire business model is undermined.
Best of luck with your future learning - sounds like you're a very self-motivated individual!
This was super interesting because I'm a piano teacher and I use mainly ABRSM for exams but more recently have been recommending LCM due to increasing numbers of unhelpful feedbacks on students reports. It felt like ABRSM used to help students and want them to pass candidates previously but that's definitely changed. If students are nervous I advise them to use LCM. But for myself I've just taken up the ukulele and didn't know what exam board to choose I had heard of Rock school for guitarists before so I choose that but for the next grade I really want to continue with Rock School but if it is deemed the easier exam board should I switch to LCM which is more classical with it's syllabus and it's technically different from Rock school which is more chordal? - I've thoroughly loved learning the Rock school syllabus up to this point which I think when learning is really important
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, Jennifer! I'm glad you found my comparison interesting and I hope others will read what you have to say.
All 4 exam boards are available in Malaysia. Trinity accepts original composition as one of the exam pieces. Trinity certainly has 12 core pieces not 9 and accompaniment syllabus from Grades 5-8.
LCM currently holds exams in many countries around the world, China and the far East.
A very good comparison. I know that RSL do not use instrument specific examiners unlike the other 3 boards. In fact most of their examiners seem to be guitarists who quite likely don't even play piano!
ABRSM also doesn’t use instrument specific instrumentalist. I was very surprised by this!
Hi, I'm from India and like Trinity's curiculum for classical guitar and am exploring my options.
All the 4 boards are present in India.
RSL is happening in India
All 4 are available in India
RSL is happening in INDIA..😊
The 5th choice: Yamaha
LCM in malaysia which i sat my practical G7 on 2004...the actual year in malaysia i hv no idea
Are UCAS points no longer available for Grade 5?
Hi!
I've been considering going back to Piano classes (after a 12 years gap) basically for fun and personal fulfillment. A Conservatory that I visited recently told me they hold a RockSchool department and that it would suit me in case I would like to get a Certificate attesting my skills. (Which actually I would!)
However, I just looked at RSL Syllabus and compared it to the other exams. And for the exact same grade range, RSL seems easier. Is it only my impression or is this actually the case? Do you have any comments on that?
I also think that rsl is more easier cuz I could play it easily
If you haven't already gone back to piano classes, I would say go for it! I restarted after a 40 year gap, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it
Hi, do you think that it would matter if I did used different examining bodies for different instruments? For example, RSL for piano and trinity for vocals.
Can we switch from one institute to the other without having to restart from 1st grade?
Absolutely. There's no pre-requisite from any of the exam boards to have completed their previous grades. Any of them will happily take your money! The only caveat to that is ABRSM who will require that you have passed their Grade 5 Theory exam before they'll let you take practical grades 6, 7 & 8.
@@EscapeTheBoxPiano THANK YOU SO MUCH THIS HELPS A LOT !!
Correction: Trinity have 12 core pieces :)
What if candidates finish RSL or LSM performance grades, do they have to pass their teory grade 5?
no, they dont have to
My teacher asked for my grade 5 theory certificate before sending my submission for LCM grade 8 piano, and I had to produce it again when I went on to do my diploma.
LCM in South aFRICA