Making Money from Teaching Music

Taking Guitar Exams - Do they help you?

Over the past twenty years of teaching guitar, preparing candidates for exams and working as an examiner for the RGT in the UK.  I have often pondered what impact taking guitar examinations has on someone's rate of learning, and can it in some way damage a player’s creative approach to playing?

I have become very sceptical in the past about examinations in other areas of education, especially when children are subject to the process of testing that the education system in this country uses.

The idea that all things should be measured is has been taken from the world of business and the time management philosophy of Denning to the classroom, as if everything is under scientific scrutiny. Well, from the world of the arts and music we have a message for you; not all things can be measured, welcome to the alternative world of the creative.

As musicians and artists we are only too aware of the small things that happen which have a profound influence on us; a small idea that literally transforms our lives and our playing. I am reminded of the pre-enlightenment age of revelation where something can just suddenly be known. Often in music you will simply ‘know’ what to do without knowing why or how. The education system that we have is very left brained, focusing on ‘facts’, but my lasting memories of education and the moments that had most impact were subtle things which were life changing for me.

So, back to the world of examinations and to the experience of the years of teaching, and what can be drawn from this. I recently looked at the pupils of mine that did well and in some way great or small became ‘successful’. I can safely say that all of these took the guitar grades, not all to Grade 8, but certainly to the upper grades, and the ones that never took a grade did not fare so well.

The first thing to consider is that to take the grades you need to have a mind-set that is organised, focused and dedicated to put in the practice to achieve the standards required. Of course these are also the requirements for you to achieve anything in the world of music.

Look deeper into the way that examinations affect pupils and you might see that a person is acquiring a particular way of thinking which is becoming prescribed. This is not in my opinion always for the better, and needs to be balanced with creative experimentation. However , the structure of examinations can give the pupil a goal, this is a practical nature of the discipline; preparation and organisation, but one needs to make the journey important and not its arrival.

So for my pupils the ‘journey’ remains the most important aspect, and grades seem to help with this.

When it comes to the diplomas then I am not so sure how valuable they are from a playing point of view.  At this point, the pupil is cutting their own way through the music jungle armed with the tools that they have picked up along the way.So if the higher exams help with them to become teachers then so be it;  but again I am not so sure. Creativity is often traded off against ideas that come in as training.

Make sure that if you or your pupils decide not to take examinations, then it is not because of laziness but you have something else that acts as a driver. There are lots of people out there playing, and you need to be in the top five per cent if you want to achieve something