Trombone grade 2 - what does it look like?

[loveyouradvice]

Hi my daughter has an utterly lovely but somewhat inexperienced trombone teacher.

She's about to do her first grade - 2 - in 3 weeks. She's practising hard but we are being fairly relaxed about it.

Does anyone know what order things happen in? Her teacher thought most likely:

3 pieces - then accompanist goes
2 scale and 2 arpeggios
musicality test at the piano

All over in about 10 minutes

All guidance much appreciated - we've not done any music grades before just drama ones. So top tips would be great!

Huge thanks

Hi. Normally it goes like this...

2 accompanied pieces - then pianist leaves
1 un-accompanied piece
Scales
Aural/Sight reading.

Just make sure you arrive about 15mins early, and she can play the pieces without stopping!

Listen to the tuning, and put some dynamics in.

Good luck! I have presumed it is an Associated Board exam. Trinity is very similar except she may be doing improvisation or musical knowledge instead of aural and/or sight reading.

There are a few videos on YouTube of actual ABRSM grade exams - not trombone, but piano and maybe violin, and the general format is similar, so you get to see what the examiners are like, what the aural tests are, where they do the scales, etc. You can also find videos of people playing exams pieces, which might have trombone ones, to get an idea of expected standard.

I think you can choose the order yourself, it doesn't matter to the examiner.But most children will do Scales, pieces, Aural, then Right reading.

You can choose the order yourself, but generally an instrument that will have piano accompaniment will do the accompanied pieces first. The accompanist leaves after the 2nd piece and the examiner should give the option of aural tests (for all w/wind & brass) or piece 3. If they choose to carry on playing they should then have the choice of aural again after piece 3.

that's great - thanks! Feeling more confident... happens in just one week now

Doies her trombone teacher not remember taking their grade exams? Don't seem to have altered much since I did mine 30 odd years ago!!!