At last, we can now announce the debut session of the RSAMD Scottish Traditional Music Graded Exams and the launch of the exams’ new website: http://gradedexams.rsamd.ac.uk .

The debut session will offer exams for fiddle and accordion and will take place as part of the RSAMD Fèis (22 - 28 October 2007) at RSAMD premises, 100 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G2 3DB. Tutors, classroom teachers and parents are welcome to log onto the site to download syllabus materials and other programme information now.

As a tool for tutors and learners of all ages and abilities comparable in its grading to classical music exams, our exams programme provides:

· an escalator for young, aspiring traditional musicians who wish to widen their scope of opportunities;
· a basis for professional development among traditional Scottish music educators and non-specialist teachers
looking to gain further experience of traditional Scottish music;
· a firmer establishment of traditional music tuition in Scotland’s educational curricula; and
· parity of esteem with the classical idiom.

Although we would ideally like to see exam venues throughout Scotland in order to cater to young musicians in Aberdeenshire, the North Highlands and Islands, the Borders, etc, our commitment to specialist assessment and our as-yet lack of great infrastructure means that we will have to start small and build up our activities over time to reflect demand.

So for now, Scottish Traditional Music Graded Exams will consist of syllabuses for fiddle, accordion and Scottish harp, Grades 1-5, and will take place at RSAMD premises in Glasgow.

We are committed to developing our programme to include higher grades, syllabuses for other instruments and song traditions and additional exam centres across Scotland. This will take time and external sponsorship, and will most likely emerge on the basis of future co-operation between the exams programme and RSAMD YouthWorks Music as
we work together to produce professional development resources for music teachers.

In the meantime, we are offering exams by videoconference link to the Western and Northern Isles, and would be glad to hear from teachers or music service managers in these areas who would like to arrange v/c exams co-inciding with the October session.

Although tutors and candidates will find the Scottish harp syllabus available on our website, the October session will not feature exams for harp because a number of tunes in its repertoire are as yet unpublished. We will be working in partnership with a publisher during autumn and winter of 2007/08, however, in order to ensure that all harp repertoire is publicly accessible in time for the planned Spring 2008 session and thereafter.

The deadline for entries for the October 2007 session for fiddle and accordion is Monday 24 September 2007, so please do take a tour of the new website ( http://gradedexams.rsamd.ac.uk  ) when you can.