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ABRSM Curriculum
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music provides international, comprehensive examinations that score based on musical qualifications and assessments. All eight levels of the ABRSM have the same four characteristics: set pieces, scales, sight reading, and aural.
Sight-Reading
Learning scales and arpeggios helps you to develop reliable muscle memory for common finger movements and to improve your tone control across the full note range. It also helps you to improve your pitch and interval awareness, and to become familiar with keys and their related patterns. It also helps to build an understanding of keys, which gives you confidence when sight-reading, learning new pieces, and performing. You can also develop many aspects of technique through scales practice, including familiarity with the physicality of your instrument.
Graded Exams
ABRSM exams are music exams rather than instrumental or singing exams. Examiners assess the quality of the music-making, not how it's achieved. For this reason, we don't restrict examiners to assessing only their own instrument but require them to examine all instruments. There are no age restrictions and students can start with any grade or skip grades if they want to.
Scales and Apeggios
Learning scales and arpeggios helps you to develop reliable muscle memory for common finger movements and improves your tone control across the full note range. It helps you to develop your pitch and interval awareness, and become familiar with keys and their related patterns. It also helps to build an understanding of keys, giving you confidence when sight-reading, learning new pieces and performing. You can develop many aspects of technique through scales practice, including: familiarity with the physicality of your instrument
Exam Pieces
Mastering the art of performing a wide range of music is an essential part of music learning. In preparing for our exams, you can choose from a broad list of pieces chosen for your grade, each presenting you with an opportunity to develop new skills.
Aural Skills
Aural skills enable you to assess your own sound and balance with others, keep in time and play with a sense of rhythm and pulse. These skills also help you play in tune, develop your musical memory and spot any mistakes. Listening lies at the heart of all good music-making. Developing aural awareness is fundamental to musical training because having a ‘musical ear’ impacts on all aspects of musicianship. Singing, both silently in the head and out loud, is one of the best ways to develop the ‘musical ear’. Developing good aural skills is an important part of any music education, and the ability to hear how music works helps students with all aspects of their learning.
Music Theory
ABRSM’s Music Theory exams aim to give students a thorough understanding of the building blocks of music, starting with the basics of rhythm and notes, and going on to cover harmony and counterpoint, composition, and a broad knowledge of western music, including composers and their works, structure, style and period.
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