Does My Child Need To Sit Exams?

Does My Child Need To Sit Exams?

It's coming to the time of year that we start asking parents and students if they want to enroll in any music exams. One of the most common questions I get asked by parents is '' Are music exams worth it? ''. The answer to this is very subjective depending on what each parent hopes for their child to gain from sitting an exam.

If the parent means '' Will the exam push my child to practice more in order to achieve a great mark and improve their ability '' then yes, from experience there are large spikes in weekly practice leading into an exam (especially when they are a few weeks out) and they will come out a better player after covering course material.

If the parent means '' Will the exam make my child a better player '' in short, Yes. The exams are designed to be progressive and require the students to display adequate skill in performance, technical ability and musical understanding. If the parent means '' Does not sitting exams mean my child can't be a good player?'' Absolutely not! Some of the greatest musicians and performers of all time have little to no training but still play at a globally top level from hours of practice alone.

This is why we practice a holistic approach to our lessons. So we can not only cater to the kids and parents who want to study the AMEB syllabus but also to the kids who just want to learn as many Led Zeppelin or John Mayer albums as they can. Personally for myself a big reason I didn't want to do guitar lessons as an adolescent was that every trial class I went to I was given a tiresome 'one size fits all' approach to learning.

In closing, I do believe exams are great and I highly encourage them to all of our students to test themselves but I don't believe they need them to be considered a good musician.