Trinity College London is one of the most renowned music institutes in the world, offering exams and graded qualifications that assess a student's musicality, technical proficiency, interpretation, and musicianship. They are available for various instruments, including piano, guitar, violin, flute, vocals, and more.
Grades available for certification:
Grade 1 - 9
Available Certifications
Initial
Basic Keyboard Techniques: Learn to play simple melodies using basic finger positions.
Introduction to Rhythms: Develop timing and rhythm with easy note values and steady beats.
Pulse Control: Maintain consistent tempo in performances using simple backing tracks.
Grade 1
Hand Coordination: Develop coordination between both hands, focusing on simple chord progressions and melodies.
Basic Chord Knowledge: Play basic triads and root-position chords in rhythm with backing tracks.
Playing in Time: Improve timing, ensuring even note durations and accurate rhythm performance.
Grade 2
Chord and Melody Integration: Play melodies while accompanying yourself with simple chord progressions.
Rhythmic Development: Learn to play syncopated rhythms and introduce basic dynamic control.
Improvisation and Playback: Begin to develop improvisational skills over simple chord changes or playback melodies.
Grade 3
Complex Chord Progressions: Play more complex chord progressions, including inversions and extended chords.
Articulation and Dynamics: Use a wider dynamic range and articulation techniques like staccato and legato.
Improvisation Skills: Improvise using simple scales or arpeggios, or perform playback tests with accuracy.
Grade 4
Syncopation and Rhythmic Precision: Handle syncopated rhythms and more challenging time signatures with accuracy.
Chordal Textures: Play fuller, more textured chordal arrangements, utilizing both hands efficiently.
Advanced Playback/Improvisation: Perform more complex playback or improvisation exercises, focusing on rhythm and melody integration
Grade 5
Extended Chord Vocabulary: Incorporate more advanced chords, including 7th chords and slash chords, into performances.
Aural and Rhythmic Skills: Develop strong aural skills to identify rhythmic patterns and harmonies during playback or improvisation.
Expression and Dynamics: Focus on dynamic variation and emotional expression within performances, adding musicality.
Grade 6
Advanced Technical Skills: Execute more technically demanding pieces, including complex rhythms and rapid chord changes.
Melodic and Harmonic Independence: Show greater independence between hands, managing intricate melody and harmony simultaneously.
Improvisation Mastery: Improvise fluently over varied styles and chord progressions, demonstrating creativity and technical control.
Grade 7
Triplets and Bluesy Fills: Master triplet rhythms against straight quavers, and add bluesy fills into performances.
Left-Hand Independence: Develop strong left-hand independence to manage bass lines while performing complex right-hand melodies.
Aural Skills and Improvisation: Demonstrate advanced aural skills in playback or improvisation, incorporating syncopation and diverse musical genres
Grade 8
Mastery of Complex Arrangements: Perform intricate, technically demanding pieces with precision, fluidity, and expression.
Advanced Rhythm and Timing: Demonstrate complete control over complex rhythms, time signatures, and syncopation.
Improvisational Fluency: Deliver professional-level improvisations, utilizing advanced harmonic concepts, scales, and stylistic nuances.
Initial Grade
Basic Playing Techniques: Learn fundamental techniques like single-note riffs and power chord riffs.
Basic Rhythm Control: Develop a steady sense of rhythm and timing, using simple rhythms.
Performance Skills: Gain confidence by performing short, simple songs with backing tracks.
Session Skills: Begin to develop playback or basic improvisation skills in response to a backing track.
Grade 1
Articulation and Picking: Focus on picking precision and articulation, ensuring clean note execution.
Power Chords: Play basic power chords in time with a backing track, building strength in fretting and picking.
Improvisation or Playback: Begin improvising over simple progressions or playback melodies accurately.
Song Performance: Perform 3 songs, including a technical focus (TF) song, that demonstrates specific skills like articulation or riff playing.
Grade 2
Chord Progressions: Improve the ability to transition smoothly between chords, including power chords and open chords.
Syncopated Rhythms: Play songs with more complex syncopated rhythms and improve timing.
String Bending and Vibrato: Start introducing articulation techniques like basic string bending and vibrato to add expression.
Session Skills: Perform playback or improvisation exercises at a higher level of complexity, focusing on accuracy and timing.
Grade 3
Advanced Chord Playing: Learn more challenging chord shapes, including minor and 7th chords, and apply them in songs.
Lead Guitar Techniques: Introduce more lead techniques like slides and hammer-ons/pull-offs for playing simple solos.
Improvisation Development: Further develop improvisation skills, incorporating basic scales and patterns in solos.
Performance Confidence: Build stage presence by performing songs that include rhythm and lead parts, maintaining consistent timing and expression.
Grade 4
Rhythm Complexity: Handle more complex strumming and picking patterns, with faster tempos and syncopation.
Fingerstyle: Begin learning fingerpicking techniques for songs that require more intricate playing styles.
Soloing Skills: Expand on solo techniques with more advanced articulations such as bends and vibrato, adding dynamics to solos.
Session Skills: Playback or improvise over tracks with more complex rhythms and melodies, showing musical awareness.
Grade 5
Barre Chords Mastery: Develop fluency in playing barre chords across the neck, improving finger strength and control.
Lead Techniques: Incorporate more advanced techniques like faster string bending, vibrato control, and legato playing into solos.
Improvisation Fluency: Improvise confidently over backing tracks using pentatonic scales and modes, creating more melodic solos.
Complex Rhythm Playing: Perform songs with intricate rhythms, integrating both rhythm and lead elements seamlessly.
Grade 6
Extended Techniques: Master advanced techniques such as alternate picking, legato, and tapping.
Complex Rhythms: Tackle songs in odd time signatures or with syncopated rhythms, showing a strong sense of timing and groove.
Improvisation Mastery: Use a wider variety of scales and modes in improvisation, creating dynamic and expressive solos.
Personal Arrangements: Begin to arrange and perform personal versions of songs, showcasing creativity and musicianship.
Grade 7
Advanced Soloing: Execute technically challenging solos, incorporating techniques like sweep picking, string skipping, and fast alternate picking.
Modal Improvisation: Improvise using modal scales and advanced chord progressions, demonstrating a deep understanding of music theory.
Complex Time Signatures: Perform confidently in odd time signatures and rhythmically challenging songs, maintaining precision.
Stage Presence: Develop professional-level stage presence by delivering high-energy, expressive performances that captivate the audience.
Grade 8
Mastery of Techniques: Showcase mastery of advanced guitar techniques such as two-hand tapping, harmonics, and fast alternate picking.
Full Fretboard Fluency: Demonstrate complete control over the entire fretboard, incorporating complex scales, arpeggios, and modes into solos.
Complex Rhythmic Structures: Perform and improvise in songs with challenging time signatures and syncopations, maintaining tight timing.
Professional-Level Performance: Exhibit professional-level performance skills, delivering technically demanding songs with accuracy, expression, and musicality.
Initial
Foundation in Technique: Introduction to fundamental guitar skills, such as basic picking and strumming techniques.
Playing Basics: Perform simple, beginner-level pieces focusing on basic rhythm and timing.
Aural Development: Introduction to hearing and replicating basic pitches and rhythms, helping establish a sense of pulse and timing.
Grade 1
Melodic and Rhythmic Accuracy: Focus on simple melodic playing, maintaining steady rhythm and accuracy in timing.
Basic Chord Knowledge: Learn and apply open chord shapes, facilitating smooth transitions between chords.
Supporting Tests: Start developing aural skills by recognizing and responding to simple rhythmic patterns and intervals.
Grade 2
Increased Complexity in Pieces: Play pieces with slightly more intricate rhythms, incorporating syncopation and timing variation.
Extended Chord Shapes: Introduction to minor and simple seventh chords, expanding harmonic vocabulary.
Sight-Reading Fundamentals: Begin sight-reading simple rhythms and melodies, enhancing reading fluency.
Grade 3
Expressive Playing: Play pieces with basic dynamics, improving control over volume and tone for musical expression.
Technical Range Expansion: Introduction to major and minor scales and basic triad arpeggios.
Improvisation Introduction: Start basic improvisation over simple chord progressions, focusing on timing and melody.
Grade 4
Enhanced Technical Skills: Perform pieces requiring a broader dynamic range and basic fingerpicking patterns.
Chord Mastery: Mastery of open chords and beginning barre chord exercises, providing greater harmonic versatility.
Aural and Rhythmic Awareness: Practice rhythm dictation and more complex playback, strengthening ear training skills.
Grade 5
Intermediate-Level Repertoire: Perform pieces that require stylistic interpretation across different genres.
Technical Versatility: Gain fluency in major and minor pentatonic scales, introducing blues scales for genre versatility.
Advanced Sight-Reading and Improvisation: Develop confidence in sight-reading and improvising with rhythmically complex passages.
Grade 6
Expressive Performance: Execute pieces that demand control over advanced dynamics, articulation, and tempo shifts.
Scales and Techniques: Focus on modal scales (such as Dorian and Mixolydian) and advanced picking patterns, enhancing technical fluidity.
Improvisational Proficiency: Create structured solos within more complex harmonic frameworks, emphasizing phrasing and timing.
Grade 7
Professional-Level Techniques: Perform advanced pieces with intricate rhythmic structures, requiring accuracy in both timing and phrasing.
Mastery of Scales: Incorporate advanced scales, such as harmonic minor and chromatic scales, into technical practice.
Musicianship Development: Strengthen high-level sight-reading and improvisation, focusing on musicality and stylistic accuracy.
Grade 8
Mastery in Performance: Deliver interpretative, professional-level performances that showcase technical proficiency and expressive depth.
Full Technical Command: Demonstrate expertise in all scales, arpeggios, and chord forms, including advanced harmonic techniques.
Advanced Musicianship: Execute complex sight-reading, aural dictation, and improvisation, suitable for professional and performance-level contexts.
Initial
Basic Vocal Techniques: Introduction to fundamental vocal techniques such as breath control, pitch accuracy, and posture.
Rhythm and Timing: Ability to follow and execute simple rhythms using quarter and half notes, essential for basic playback.
Expressive Performance: Sing simple songs with basic dynamics (soft and loud), focusing on clear diction and timing.
Grade 1
Vocal Range Expansion: Start exploring vocal range and flexibility, improving control over different registers.
Articulation and Phrasing: Focus on clarity of words and musical phrasing to convey emotion, while maintaining steady pitch.
Rhythm and Playback: Further development of rhythm skills, singing with a strong sense of pulse and engaging in basic playback exercises.
Grade 2
Increased Vocal Control: Strengthen breath support and projection, preparing for more demanding songs.
Expressive Techniques: Introduction to simple dynamics such as crescendos and decrescendos to add expression to performances.
Rhythm and Improvisation: Enhanced ability to perform more complex rhythms and start exploring basic vocal improvisation within simple structures.
Grade 3
Improved Vocal Technique: Use vibrato and refined breath control for longer phrases, ensuring consistent pitch and tone.
Style and Expression: Develop emotional connection with songs, learning how to communicate the story behind the lyrics through expressive vocal techniques.
Complex Rhythmic Skills: Handle more varied rhythmic patterns, incorporating syncopation and complex beats into performances.
Grade 4
Vocal Flexibility: Further develop flexibility and agility in vocal performance, handling faster runs and jumps between notes.
Stage Presence: Build confidence and develop stagecraft by performing with greater projection, engagement, and stylistic nuance.
Advanced Rhythmic Awareness: Master more intricate rhythmic patterns, both in playback and improvisation, fostering greater confidence in timing and rhythm.
Grade 5
Advanced Breath Control: Master long phrases and quick note transitions with smooth and controlled breath support.
Diverse Genre Performance: Interpret songs from a variety of genres (e.g., rock, pop, jazz) with an understanding of stylistic differences.
Complex Improvisation: Engage in improvisational exercises with more creative freedom, focusing on melody and rhythm while maintaining the stylistic integrity of the song.
Grade 6
Vocal Mastery: Achieve advanced tone and pitch control across a broader range of dynamics and registers, incorporating techniques such as falsetto, belting, and smooth register transitions.
Interpretive Depth: Delve into songs with deeper emotional complexity, using vocal color and dynamics to enhance storytelling.
Rhythmic and Melodic Improvisation: Display creativity in vocal improvisation, handling advanced rhythmic and melodic challenges in playback and improvisation tests.
Grade 7
Advanced Vocal Techniques: Refine use of complex vocal techniques like vibrato control, vocal runs, and intricate dynamic shifts across songs.
Genre Versatility: Perform songs across a wide range of genres, with full stylistic understanding and expressive delivery.
Creative Improvisation: Apply sophisticated improvisation skills, incorporating advanced rhythmic ideas and melodic exploration into performances.
Grade 8
Professional-Level Vocal Proficiency: Achieve mastery over a range of advanced vocal techniques, including sustained high notes, complex runs, and powerful belting.
Interpretation and Expression: Deliver emotionally charged and technically polished performances, demonstrating personal artistic interpretation in every genre.
Expert Improvisation: Execute highly creative and technically challenging improvisations, showing confidence and expertise in both rhythm and melody, suitable for professional-level performances.
Modes of Examination
Online Digital Mode, Physical Mode
