Trinity drums grade exams

[W0t]

My son has been learning the drums with a private tutor who has recommended the trinity drums course. We applied and attended Grade 1 to find we’ve applied for the wrong exam, the Rock and Pop drums Grade1. I don’t think the tutor realised he was doing the classical drums book either. Not sure how it happened. The nearest exam centre is 50 miles away, next exam date is now June. Is this our only option? Just wondering the best way to salvage son’s confidence in carrying on.

W0t I have answered this to your other post on the old thread:

Oh no W=t that's a shame. Please move on to Grade 2! Nobody will ever care whether he has Grade 1 and it's more important that your son advances. Just tell him these things happen, it really is of no importance and in a few years he will laugh at it. If you go for the June exam, he will waste the next months in keeping up the Grade 1 pieces. Of course he could start new pieces but there will be the need to refresh the Grade 1 pieces prior to the exam. What a bore for him. Move on smile

Ah, thank you. I posted in the wrong thread there, apologies. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. My immediate response was one of disappointment. Moving on makes much more sense. Have been reading that the playing/experiential learning is the key thing. Learning from this :-). Thank you for the clarity. Do appreciate it.

My husband teaches drums and percussion and he says he's nearly been caught out in the same way. You could look at the Guildhall School of Music syllabus and see if there's a centre nearer to you.
I agree with Drummer - your son has achieved grade 1 standard, regardless of whether he took the exam or not, so definitely encourage him to move on to grade 2 or even grade 3; there's no reason to think you have to take each grade in turn, and grade 2 is a common one to miss in a lot of instruments.

If it helps, ask the Tutor to give him a mock test and write him a feedback sheet! The head of woodwind did this for DS a few years back when a G3 exam date clashed with a school trip. (the music centre had cancelled our exam date!)
Also, DS has only ever done exams at grade 1 and grade 4 in drums, whereas his actual level is around grade7! He did grade 6 and 8 for bass guitar.

Ah, that’s useful feedback, thank you. The tutor is young and this is his first grade student. Has taught before but not done grades. So it is useful experience for the tutor as well. Grades do add a bit of pressure I guess - for good or bad, I’m not sure. My son did improve with the prospect of knowing he would be tested, and his progression was noticeable. It’s like it gave him an objective within his practising. Playing sounded more and more confident within the last few weeks. He also has a violin grade 1 coming up in two weeks. He started to do this at school two years ago, was interested in being part of the strings group. And he has stuck at it since, enjoying being with his friends. So hopefully this exam experience will go well for him the week after next.