The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama’s Scottish Traditional Music Graded Exams project was launched in the summer of 2007 when its website went live (http://gradedexams.rsamd.ac.uk ) and its first session for fiddle and accordion took place on 22 October.

Entries are now being taken for our next scheduled session for fiddle, accordion and harp from Tuesday 25 to Friday 28 March 2008. Exams for fiddle and accordion will take place at RSAMD premises, 100 Renfrew St, Glasgow, G2 3DB. Exams for harp will take place at Merchiston Castle School, Colinton, Edinburgh, on Friday the 28th, which co-incides with the first day of the Edinburgh International Harp Festival (www.harpfestival.co.uk). We particularly hope that harp players will take advantage of the occasion and limber up for the Festival with a graded exam or ungraded assessment by a specialist harp examiner.

The deadline for entry to the Spring 2008 session is Friday 5 March 2008. If you are a classroom teacher or instrumental instructor, please do consider entering pupils for this upcoming session. For details, go to http://gradedexams.rsamd.ac.uk

All exams are validated by the Academic Board of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

And don’t forget – schools can contact us for special visits and exams by videoconference at any time of year, not just during our twice-annual Glasgow sessions!