I've booked myself in for my first ever music exam, using the Trinity Rock and Pop guitar syllabus.
The pieces are self-explanatory - practice the tab, play the piece. But the "session skills" improvisation section isn't entirely clear what's required.
For those who aren't familiar with this, one is presented with a chord sheet and expected to play along with a backing track based on the chord sheet.
From viewing a few of their videos online I *think* it's acceptable to play rhythm for twice round, and then improvise a solo for the rest of the time. Probably about two minutes in total.
I'm not sure how long I'll have to study the chord chart before playing. I've read 30 seconds mentioned somewhere.
Anyone done one of these and care to describe the process?
Thanks.
Comments
The test will play through the whole way once for you to practise with . The second time they’ll mark you .
You can play chords for a bit for the improv, but it’s not as clear cut as play chords twice then solo, as the length of the piece is dictated by the Grade your taking ( what are you taking ?). You can totally get away with soloing over the whole thing . Worth getting the correct session skills book and having a go the playback test, too. I find this easier than the improvising test.
Hope that helps.
I booked grade 7 on the basis that I could do the pieces (Black Dog, Sultans Of Swing, Voodoo Chile). But the improv is far tougher at grade 7 than 6. I have been working through the examples in the book, there’s a lot of jazz in 7/8 and 5/4 time. I don’t mind 5/4 but 7/8 is a pig! Often two changes to the bar too.
For example the first piece goes Fm9 Bbm6 Abmaj7 Gm7 C7 Fm9 Eb9 Db9 C7(b9) C7. All in 7/8. And thats just the first eight bars! Not impossible but tricky to get right having only 30 seconds prep time.
The book covers grades 6-8 and I started with the grade 6 improvs which are significantly more straightforward. So I would l play the chords through and then go for some soloing as I described above. By grade 7 the time sigs and chord changes have become so complex I don’t think it’s reasonable to be able to play a rhythm part. So I might solo all the way through, composing it properly so it starts off simple and becomes more complex towards the end.
Having said that, there are also some “boogie-woogie” style pieces which are in 4/4 with much more straightforward chord progressions. So I will probably start off with a lively rhythm part and then move on to a solo after once or twice round. It’s just the jazz ones which are pigs!
I guess I was just looking to confirm I hadn’t got the wrong end of the stick as to how to do this part of the exam. Should probably get a teacher but I’m too stubborn, I want to do it just from my own efforts!
The chord sequence shared a lot of similarities to the examples in the book - there’s always a lot of relative minor action, and even though I’m not an expert on this, I’m pretty sure they modulate around the circle of fifths a few times to end up on something only distantly related to the starting point. This started on Amaj7 and ended up on Cm7. Then they always throw in a little lead break where you’ve got to come up with a coherent solution to resolving things back to the beginning!
As you say, completely out of character with the rest of the syllabus. If I wanted to be a jazzer I’d do a jazz exam! And very little explanation of how to approach the test. It’s bascially cross fingers and do he best you can!
I suppose it could be harder if it wasn’t jazz, they could give you some whacky Frank Zappa inspired piece in several compound time signatures or play over or Dream Theatre epic , or the chord changes of a Steely Dan song .
Fortunately, the Grade 8 improvising tests aren’t really any harder than 7, so if you do the next grade you know what you’re getting yourself into!
I got 16/20 for the improv, so it seems my approach was the correct one on the day. With some help from @guitarmangler - so thanks!
Overall score was 92/100 so rather chuffed with that.
After a rest period I'm tempted by grade 8...
If anyone wants any help with the Trinity exams, drop me a line, I think I've got the hang of the format now.
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Sultans Of Swing:
Voodoo Child:
Black Dog:
I actually started with grade 4, having never done a guitar exam before, I wanted to be sure I’d pass, and didn’t want the stress of the exam to mess me up, so I did 4 in spring and I’ve just done and passed my grade 6 (I gave 5 a miss once I was confident of the format of the exam). I found this thread while looking for tips on the improv section, like you I think it’s easy up to 5 but there’s not a lot of detail about what they are looking for from 6 onward, so your posts were really helpful... I still think that trying to resolve keys during that ‘solo’ section is a total bugger, but I managed 15 marks for my improv piece at g6. I’m going to spend a bit more time before I do 7 working on the playback stuff as I wonder if that might be a better option, but there’s not a lot of info about how accurate you need to be to get marks.
Anyway, this is plenty for now.
TLDR: thanks @modellista for your helpful videos and posts