Drumming Grades.. Your Thoughts?

[Skin1301]

Hi All,

My first post on drummerworld.com.

I am thinking about trying to become graded, I've been playing around 13 years in local bands round local haunts and its maybe time I took playing a little bit more seriously and had something to give to other people, who don't know me, to gauge my ability with.

My problem is though I dont know anything about grading, I've seen a few people on youtube performing some grade 8 pieces, and think that is probably something acheivable but how and where would I do something like that? I cant find any locations on the net at all.

What are your thoughts? Is it even worth doing?

I'm from Manchester, UK.

Any help would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks.

Skin.

[RICHY-18]

deffo worth it. i havnt regrett doing mine:)

[NUTHA JASON]

you have to buy a grade book and then once you've worked through it you book an exam at a local center... the details are in the book.

grades are a good way of getting your reading up. i did mine because i;m a drum teacher and it made no sense teaching forgrades if i had no experience of them myself.

j

[Class A Drummer]

you have to buy a grade book and then once you've worked through it you book an exam at a local center... the details are in the book.

grades are a good way of getting your reading up. i did mine because i;m a drum teacher and it made no sense teaching forgrades if i had no experience of them myself.

j

Even though i live in the U.S, im wondering, what is the point of it?

Do you get anything for completing each grade level? or is it just a way to gauge your progress?

[kjsm]

Even though i live in the U.S, im wondering, what is the point of it?

Do you get anything for completing each grade level? or is it just a way to gauge your progress?

it's a qualification - something in print to say you're studied and practised up to x-level, it goes essentially 1-8, 8 being a semi(or pro?) level where all you then need is a teaching qualificaiotn and you're qualified to take private lessons recognized at least nationally, if inot internationally. american universityties for example are familiar with the system. but iot is a UK Canada and mainly far east trend. very popular in china and japanl

[RICHY-18]

Even though i live in the U.S, im wondering, what is the point of it?

Do you get anything for completing each grade level? or is it just a way to gauge your progress?


Its a good way to get your reading up!! it feels great when you recieve it, and its something to put on your C.V. and over here we get UCAS points for them (all to do with Uni).. no negative reason not to do it....:) haha

[drumbandit]

There is already a pretty good thread about grades.

I enjoy doing them more than anything and they've helped me read, improvise and stay in time so it's all good. I'm doing 6 now, skipping 7 then planning on doing 8 before the end of school.

Tom

[Class A Drummer]

There is already a pretty good thread about grades.

I enjoy doing them more than anything and they've helped me read, improvise and stay in time so it's all good. I'm doing 6 now, skipping 7 then planning on doing 8 before the end of school.

Tom

Why skip 7? Isn't it important?

[k3ng]

Grades are great. Every instrument has them so why not drums? It's not only a good form of qualification (like any other qualification on paper) it's also a good way to gauge your abilities.

As for locations and material, you could check out trinity guildhall or rockschool. They have quite a good drum syllabus working. You could also check the London College of Music. I've read through their syllabus before, but I don't know how good it is or how many test locations they have.

[Mediocrefunkybeat]

Why skip 7? Isn't it important?

Basically 8 is the ultimate goal of the system, so if you feel you can skip a grade, people often do. Grade 7 is usually the grade that is skipped, because it isn't much above 6 and isn't much lower than 8 - why spend money learning the syllabus for 7 when you can go straight to 8? All the knowledge you gain in 7 is needed in 8, so it's not like you're skipping anything.

When I used to sing, I went straight to 5 and then was going to go straight to 8 before I stopped. Never happened due to circumstances out of my control, but grade skipping is quite common.

[drumbandit]

Yeah just what MFB said, it's really common to skip. Also because I'll either be in Canada or Uni I won't have time to do 7 and 8.

Has anyone done the 'debut' grade before grade 1? I did that and haven't heard of anyone else doing it.

Tom

[Skin1301]

Hi All,

Thanks alot for all your comments, thats helped me alot.

Definatly going to do the grades now.

Cheers

Skin

[deadbirdsoup]

Yeah just what MFB said, it's really common to skip. Also because I'll either be in Canada or Uni I won't have time to do 7 and 8.

Has anyone done the 'debut' grade before grade 1? I did that and haven't heard of anyone else doing it.

Tom


I did Grade 1, quite a while back now, I may still have been in primary school!

I am sitting Grade 8 in two weeks, but still have quite a bit to get through, slightly paniking! Anyone had experience with the new Trinity Guildhall pieces?

[Trench.one]

I've done all my grades for Pipe band snare drum years ago, I think I did the first couple for kit in High school.
Never really thought about carrying on with them but as I'm teaching more now it would certainly help with what to teach. My teaching is fairly relaxed never worked towards grades but it would definitely focus things.

[thewill]

drum grades have helped me a lot my teacher and i basically just do them and playing along to songs etc

talking of skipping its good bacuase you dont have to put all the effort into a grade if your a higher standard than it

i skipped to grade 4 staright away then skipped 5 doing six then skipping seven for 8

also yeah in britain ucas points are useful and getting a distinciton in grade 8 is like gettinga b at a level or something like that

[SharkyBait911]

Grades are brill they make you noticed all over the world if you say im grade 8 they will know your a good drummer and grade 8 is an A-Level in drums and it goes down to A* in gcse right down to C in gcse

[ZootELoops]

I wonder why this isnt as popular in the states? I'd be curious (even if i dont exam) to learn and follow the grading curriculum. Can anyone forward links? Google didnt turn up much for my immediate interest.

[drumbandit]

I've got my grade 6 tomorrow wish me luck !

Another good thing about grades is that you can gain UCAS points for applying to University with 6 , 7 and grade 8.

Tom

[yan]

I've got my grade 6 tomorrow wish me luck !

Another good thing about grades is that you can gain UCAS points for applying to University with 6 , 7 and grade 8.

Tom

GOOD LUCK..! Tell us about it..
I'm hoping to do grade 6 as well, but in May 09. By the way, which songs are you doing?

[Oregan1]

I use Rockschool. It was one of my modules in college.
I did my guitar grade 5 exam 3 years ago. Was going to do grade
7 the following year but couldn't because of RSI. So the year after I skipped
on to 8.

This year I'm going for grade 4 drums.
it seems easy enough. My exams in march.

I find the grade exams to be a lot of fun.
also, while the certificate itself isn't a big thing (sure you could
throw it on a CD, it would certainly be good for someone interested
in teaching) I find that the technical excersises, even the songs,
are great for improving your playing, timing and technique.

I would definately consider doing an exam
Check out the rockschool syllabus here.

www.rockschool.co.uk

all the best
Kieran

[iainp999]

Hi there,

Sounds like you're in the same position I was around 3 months ago. I had played in bands etc. for a number of years but never had a lesson in my life. I decided to get some lessons, but also to do the Trinity Guildhall grading, mainly as I like something to focus on and gauge progress against.

I've not taken any of the exams yet, so I can't comment on those, but I am studying the rudiments, notation etc. for grade 4 now (I just started on the Trinity book a couple of weeks ago).

I'd never bothered with rudiments or notation before, but I'm really enjoying things so far, and I suppose that is the main thing!

HTH,
Iain

[DrumEatDrum]

I've never heard of this concept in my life.

wow.

[Funky Crêpe]

i have done the eight, and i would be much better without doing the actual grade. You spend so much time doing useless stuff, some is good and you should learn it, but i would advise against doing the actual GRADE. There is a lot of time wasted on doing some of the stuff......well unless you want t have a pretty certificate.
all the best

[jonescrusher]

i have done the eight, and i would be much better without doing the actual grade. You spend so much time doing useless stuff, some is good and you should learn it, but i would advise against doing the actual GRADE. There is a lot of time wasted on doing some of the stuff......well unless you want t have a pretty certificate.
all the best

Can you explain? The whole point of doing all the different parts of the exam is to make sure you're all-round musicianship is tested.

[Funky Crêpe]

Can you explain? The whole point of doing all the different parts of the exam is to make sure you're all-round musicianship is tested.

well, it's hard to remember any parts. But there are definatly parts in the grades that help you, that greatly help you......but learning certain pieces off by heart is a waste of time. emmmmmm, like in one song i did for grade eight, there was a brush part that you would never ever play, it just did'nt fit.......you should be able to play the whole piece, but you should'nt stress for months trying to piece it all together. But the actual pieces do help. this is just my opinion of course.....yours??