By: Staff
Known as the leader in guitar and bass exam qualifications around the world, over the years the Registry of Guitar Tutors has continued to expand it’s internationally recognized curriculum of exams and syllabi. One popular innovation, developed initially for the RGT rock guitar exams, was the option of taking a ‘Performance Award.’
Performance Awards can be taken at an exam centre, or alternatively candidates can submit an audio recording or video of themselves playing. These new qualifications, which are based entirely on the performance of pieces, rapidly proved so popular that RGT expanded them to cover acoustic and electric guitar, and now the range has been expanded again to include bass guitar.
There are three types of Bass Guitar Performance Awards:
1. ‘Live’ – Where the candidates performs the pieces live at an exam venue.
2. ‘Filmed’ – Where the candidate submits a DVD of themselves playing the pieces.
3. ‘Recorded’ – Where the candidate sends in, or uploads, an audio recording of themselves playing the pieces.
The last two options are particularly helpful for teachers who have students who find it hard to take time out to travel to an exam venue, or for those who get overly nervous in an exam-room situation, or for those in remote locations – as this assessment method cuts out the need to travel.
As well, for anyone on a tight budget, entry fees for Performance Awards are lower than for the equivalent grade exam.
For bass guitar Preliminary Level to Level 5 Performance Awards, candidates perform two bass patterns (from the appropriate level RGT Bass Patterns CD/booklet) and improvise a bassline over one track from the appropriate level of the RGT book/CD series Improvising Bass Guitar.
For Levels 6 to 8, improvising basslines over two tracks is required.
Performance Awards are accredited by LCM Exams and certificated by the University of West London.
Exam syllabus/information booklets for the new bass guitar performance awards can be freely downloaded from the RGT website at the Bass Performance Award Page. As well, information on other performance awards can be found at the Rock Guitar Performance Awards, Acoustic Guitar Performance Awards and the Electric Guitar Performance Awards pages.
