Welcome back! Humoresque has been on holiday since 30th July. Humoresque hopes you’ve all had a wonderful summer, and that you’re looking forward to this new term.
Our Showcases are coming up next month, and after that we’ll be looking forward to Advent and Christmas. These are great musical celebrations, so look out for Humoresque’s recommendations on what to play, learn or listen to.
And some of you may have exams to prepare for…
All exams are landmark achievements. Of course, you can achieve a high level of competence and skill without taking an exam. Many people prefer not to take music grade exams, and some music teachers prefer not to enter their pupils for grade exams. Instead, they teach a wide variety of musical repertoire, with – hopefully! – a clear progression path for the student.
I don’t force my pupils to take exams. If they don’t want to, I respect that, although I may try to put some arguments to them, ideas they may not have thought about. And quite often, people change their minds when they hear those ideas. So, I’m largely in favour of students taking grade exams in music, both the practical ones and the theory ones.
When you pass an exam, in any subject or practical discipline, you are awarded a certificate. Why? To prove you passed! To prove you reached at least the minimum standard required by whichever board or professional body set the syllabus and the requirements to pass the test.
Music grade exams are set by different boards (Humoresque had a good look at these in July), and each board issues certificates. These used to come in the post, and they were often elaborate and beautiful, with raised gold lettering, embossed designs and flourishes, royal crests, vibrant colours and fancy fonts.
Things have changed! Certificates are now issued digitally, to be printed or stored on a device. Or, of course, both.
So here I’m going to ask you to do something – or, rather, not to do something. If you receive an email inviting you to download and/or print your certificate, please don’t. Or at least, talk to me first. I love presenting your certificates at the Showcase. And (go on, admit it!) you love it too! If you absolutely have to have it before then, perhaps to show to a potential employer or university admissions person, please talk to me and we’ll arrange it.
Apart from the Presentation of Certificates at the Showcase, there are two other good reasons for you to leave it to me to print your certificate:
- I have bought proper certificate paper to print them on. And they look so nice!
- In the case of Trinity’s certificates, I always add the “Presented by…” information. ABRSM still have this information, but Trinity removed it years ago, to the considerable dismay of music teachers everywhere. Which is why I add it back!
Here are some certificates from yesteryear, and some current ones. They are all ABRSM, since I didn’t use Trinity until fairly recently. I was brought up entirely on ABRSM practical and theory content and exams. You won’t be able to make out the elegant embossing, but you can see how things have changed over the years – even since 2024!
The names on the certificates have all been redacted.
If you have certificates from any music exam board which look different from those I’ve shown you, I’d love to see them. I’m aware there’s an enormous gap from 1970 to 2003 and from 2003 to 2024, so if you have certificates which come within those years, please send photos or scans.
Humoresque will redact any names for you and include the scans in our next edition.
I’d love to know what you think of all this. You can put a comment in the box below this post, or you can email me directly. I read and respond to everything.
Humoresque is available to anyone who might be interested. You don’t have to be one of my pupils, or even learning music. If you know anyone who might be interested in subscribing to Humoresque, please let me know. I will only need their name and their email address. Thanks.
Humoresque = a whimsical or fanciful piece of music. Be whimsical, be fanciful, but play in time!
This is Humoresque Number 17