Trinity or ABRSM

[PinotAndPlaydough]

DD has been having violin lessons for two years and was getting ready to take grade 1 ABRSM. Unfortunately her teacher has moved away, we’ve had to find someone new very last minute. My daughter also has ASD and will only have lessons in our home and really needs a teacher that understands her. I think we’ve found someone but unfortunately she teaches using trinity. I should have checked this before we even started lesson but it didn’t even enter my head!
Anyway, people with experience of trinity, can you give some advice?

1. Is it as good as ABRSM?
2. Is it going take forever for her to learn new pieces? We were on the verge of booking her exam!

I’m slightly gutted, she’s put so much time into practicing her pieces and now we have the choice of starting over or looking for a new teacher who “gets” her. Obviously she’s only grade 1 is this a minor hiccup that I’m getting too worked up over?

Yes, it's as good as ABRSM. Higher up grades give exactly the same UCAS points.

You could just miss Grade 1 out and start work on Grade 2 with the new teacher? There is no requirement to do all the grades.

Good point I never thought about skipping a grade!

Honestly, for strings there's absolutely no point in doing Grade 1 (or 2 or 3 for that matter).

Could you tell me why cingolimamam? I’m the least musical person ever and have been totally guided by the teachers so far.

DD switched from ABRSM to Trinity after grade 2 (clarinet), she's now done grade 3 about a year ago, grade 4 was cancelled in the summer and she's skipped straight to grade 5/grade 6 (working on both sets of pieces, apparently).

The Trinity syllabus seems on a par with ABRSM on the whole, and has the benefit of not needing to complete a separate grade 5 theory exam to progress beyond grade 5.

I think the lower grades have purpose for younger kids. My kids were just as thrilled with 1,2,3 as they were with 4,5,6. More so actually, becuase they were much younger when they did 1,2,3 and were really pleased to get them.

I'm sure a trinity teacher can enter a child for an abrsm grade 1. Anyone can book an exam - you could do it yourself. Any music teacher could easily prepare a little kid for a grade 1 ABRSM. You could do the ABRSM grade 1 and then carry on with trinity 2 or whatever.

OP, because violin is arguably the toughest instrument to learn, and there is SO MUCH to get right that is specific to the violin: the position of the left arm and shoulder, the bow hold and the bow arm, posture, - this is all before they've played a note. Then there's bowing, fingering, intonation, which for many young players takes time to develop. Remember, unlike, say, a piano, where you can just go over and play a note, with violin, you have to find the note, iykwim. There's just a tremendous amount of technique at the very beginning, and generally speaking I don't feel it's helpful to do early grades for string players.

I'm not anti-exam, and for some children it can be motivating and focusing, and they get a sense of accomplishment. But really not necessary, and they can actively impede a musician's development.

I'm sure teacher would be able to support her to take g1 ABRSM if you wanted. Or if it's been dragging on a while with lockdown, there's no need to do any g1 as pp said. I think main thing with new teacher would be to get to know each other, have some fun and learn some new music. I'd take the g1 music to first lesson, then she has something to show teacher where she's at, and talk to teacher after a week or three about the best way forwards. It shouldn't be a deal breaker either way.

I taught violin, piano and singing and I also advised the ABRSM on singing exams at one stage. I think you should just get her teacher to enter her for the Trinity Grade 1 as it’s not a big deal which board she prepares for, but remember exams are only useful as a confidence tool and there’s more to learning an instrument than just bagging grades.

It really doesn't matter. I would say Trinity is slightly easier but generally either are good.

I'm a violinist (I perform rather than teach tho)