Scottish Music Exam Accordion Grades 1 to 5 book (Publisher: Taigh na Teud)

Scottish Music Exam Accordion Grades 1 to 5 bookAs an English accordionist I have to admit to a certain amount of envy that Scotland possesses an examination body, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, that treats folk music more seriously. For the most part I am impressed with the content and layout of these five books.

At every grade there are three sections: Airs. Dance Tunes and Recent Compositions and students are required to select at least one tune from a choice of between five and twelve in each section. The melodies are clearly written with chords and tempi though there is no guidance to articulation or dynamics (something which is often neglected by box players). Each exam requires scales and arpeggios and they are listed at the back of each syllabus. The repertoire is, as expected, either traditional or in the case of the section Recent Compositions, written in the Scottish traditional idiom. I was pleased to see that from Grade Two onwards, articulation is tested on all the scales and arpeggios.

On the negative side, I wondered if students might have enjoyed the challenge of tunes in other commonly used time signatures such as 9/8 and 3/2, otherwise they are all in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 and 6/8. I didn’t feel there was enough differentiation of the levels between the music from Grade 1 to 3 with regard to either the melodies or the harmonies. For example in Grade 1 there are pieces with E minors, 7ths with counterbasses and jumps from Em to G major (on the left hand) which I felt Grade 1 students might struggle with.

But my main criticism is to do with the choice of tunes in the three sections at every grade. There isn’t sufficient equality of complexity and so I was able to find soft options at every level and section and this should be addressed by cutting these choices to achieve the same standard of difficulty.

More attention should be paid to the scales and arpeggios so that they are reflected in the exam pieces to make them relevant. For example in Grade 3 the E minor scale and arpeggio are required yet no tunes were included in that key and the same applies in Grade 4 with G minor, F# minor, Eb and Bb major.

I hope that one of our musical institutions in England might follow this example and create a similar folk accordion syllabus. There is an accordion revival south of the Border and we are ready for the challenge!

Paul Hutchinson

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland website: rsc