From: Madeleine
Stafford [m_dot_stafford_at_rsamd_dot_ac_dot_uk]
Sent: 20 November 2007
12:36
Subject: RSAMD Scottish
Traditional Music Graded Exams - November 2007 - Looking ahead to Spring
2008
We had a successful debut
exam session on Monday 22 October 2007, taking place as part of Fčis RSAMD. Amid all sorts of concerts, tuition for
young people in piping, Gaelic song, fiddling, harp-playing and more, candidates
from as far afield as Shetland came to take graded exams in Scots fiddle and
accordion.
We also held a number of
graded exams for eager young fiddle players in St Louis, Missouri,
USA. Both sessions went
well.
We are now looking ahead to
our next scheduled session for fiddle, accordion and harp from Tuesday 25 to Friday 28 March
2008. The last day of this
upcoming session co-incides with the Edinburgh International Harp Festival
taking place in Merchiston, Edinburgh (www.harpfestival.co.uk), so we
particularly hope that harp players will take advantage of the occasion and
limber up for the Festival with a graded exam or ungraded assessment by a
specialist harp examiner.
Some
changes
There are just a few recent
changes in syllabuses and guidelines to mention:
- In an effort to make our
exams accessible and provide as wide a definition as possible of what we mean
by ‘fiddling’, candidates for the fiddle exams are free to play the violin,
viola or cello in the exam or assessment.
- We now offer a Performance
Assessment as well as graded exams.
The Performance Assessment is ungraded and unmarked and the candidate
receives a certificate with written feedback on the day. See our Performance Assessment page in
the Syllabuses section of our website (http://gradedexams.rsamd.ac.uk) for
more details.
- Remember, if you are too
far away to make it to Glasgow, we can arrange either exams by
videoconference or for an examiner to come to your school. In the latter case we would need a
minimum of approximately 10-12 candidates in one discipline to make it
viable. If you only have a few,
why not pool candidates from schools in your catchment area together to make
it work? Please get in touch with
us in the first instance to discuss
arrangements.
- Our online PAM guidelines
now include specimens with sample pulse marks and phrasing brackets to
facilitate more effective preparation.
- We are working with the
publisher Taigh na Teud of Skye (www.scotlandsmusic.com) to produce
complete sets of supporting test specimens, printed downloads of selected
tunes and, in time, printed collections of Scottish Traditional Music Graded
Exams repertoire. Test specimens
and printed downloads should be available by early January 2008.
As always, please get in
touch with feedback on the exams whenever you wish. We look forward to seeing you in March
2008.
Josh
Dickson
Graded Exams
Manager
http://gradedexams.rsamd.ac.uk
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Regards
Madeleine
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For current news about
the National Centre for Research in the Performing Arts please follow this
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Madeleine
Stafford
Research and Projects Administrator
National Centre for Research
in the Performing Arts
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
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