# Grade exams statistics.



## Jaws

I fully expect someone who thinks that when they have passed grade 8 they will be a professional standard orchestral musician to call me an internet troll again somewhere in this thread as this is what usually happens, but here goes anyway.

I looked at the ABRSM website and got the statistics for grade 8 passes for 5 years 2005 to 2009 inclusive, in the UK.

In 2009, 8700 people passed grade 8 and 2542 got a distinction 

2008 passed 8792 with distinction 2550

2007 passed 8643 with distinction 2469

2006 passed 9098 with distinction 2637

2005 passed 8334 with distinction 2435

I would expect that the numbers for 2010, 2011, and 2012 will be similar. So I think it would be safe to say that since 2005 roughly 65000 people have passed grade 8 in the UK. Also over 15000 people got distinctions.

I think that we can see from this that someone who has passed grade 8 probably ought not to think of themselves as being exceptionally talented. They may well be exceptionally talented but passing grade 8 doesn't on its own indicate that they are. 

Yesterday I had a discussion about the fact that people don't understand what passing grade 8 in the UK actually means. We think that the reason that some people think that they are exceptionally talented when they pass grade 8 is because of the way they are treated at school. 

Instrumental teachers look on a grade 8 pass as being part of the foundations on which to build learning to play an instrument. It is what you do at the start of learning, not what you do at the end. This is why I always describe it as an exam that beginners take. The person who I was talking to yesterday agrees that compared to a high skill professional orchestral musician, someone who has just got to the level where they could pass grade 8 has low skills. Skills that someone at the beginning of learning would have.

People who misunderstand the level of a grade 8 pass even with distinction, by thinking that it is high skills also downgrade the skills that top professional musicians have. Many of them also lose out on significant learning opportunities by not attending live professional orchestral concerts, because they think that they are already the same standard as the professional musicians.


----------



## SuperTonic

Just curious, what is the source for the massive chip in your shoulder regarding amateur musicians?

Seriously, just let it go. It isn't healthy to be this obsessed over something so minor.


----------



## Jaws

SuperTonic said:


> Just curious, what is the source for the massive chip in your shoulder regarding amateur musicians?
> 
> Seriously, just let it go. It isn't healthy to be this obsessed over something so minor.


I don't have a massive chip. I have an aim to make playing music more accessible.

At the moment in the UK orchestras are excluding possible new members. Rather than inviting new members to attend a trial rehearsal or two, possible new members could quite easily be told that they aren't wanted because they haven't passed grade 8.

Amateur orchestras in the UK put on lots of expensive concerts because they believe that because their members have passed grade 8 their orchestra is close to being professional standard.

The cheapest subscriptions are for orchestras that don't do concerts. In the UK we don't have enough of these because anyone starting an orchestra which is asking for new members to have passed grade 8 thinks it is professional standard and professional orchestras do lots of concerts.

Orchestras that don't do concerts are very suitable for people who don't want to practice and those who just want a social experience. The subscriptions for these orchestras can be very affordable. £50 a year, only stopping for public holidays, where an orchestra doing concerts can be as much as £180 a year with 10 weeks of no rehearsals.

If I could start a complete rethink of what people are doing in amateur music in the UK, I have a chance of making it more accessible to more people. We have an ageing population in the UK. We will need more social hobbies for retired people that are affordable.

People who have passed grade 8 often have an overinflated idea of what they can do.

I am an ex instrumental teacher who used to teach pupils who were taking grade exams. I know exactly what people can and cannot do when they pass grade 8. Grade 8 is a foundation for learning a musical instrument the beginning not the end. People who believe it is the end of learning and professional standard don't feel that there is any reason to practice as they can already do it all. Some appear to believe that they are exceptionally talented, hence the ABRSM statistics, teachers know that many, many people can easily pass this exam. I find that people who believe that grade 8 is the best that anyone can get to are impossible to teach. There are many members of amateur orchestras in the UK who think like this. This causes very low expectations of what is possible and appears to have caused extremely low standards of amateur music making in the UK. I would very much like to follow the good example of the US and make it possible for all people to make music, not just those who have passed grade 8 and are in full time employment.


----------

