Trinity College London Plectrum Guitar Syllabus.

Coldfingers

Is there anyone doing/done or teaching the Trinity College Plectrum Syllabus? Which books/material did you work through before doing the graded exam pieces?

I seem to be a bit of a seasonal guitarist and tend to spend too much time outdoors when we have lighter evenings. Over the past few winters, I've gone through a couple of the different "method " books with varying degrees of success/enjoyment/enthusiasm during the darker months... and this winter I've bought the Trinity exam pieces (though I have no intention of sitting exams).

I'm wondering what people did to build up to these? There doesn't seem to be a Trinity "method" or syllabus book, just the exam pieces - anyone any experience of it or of being taught by a Trinity teacher?

Thanks.

Toms_Dad

I have not foramlly studied the syllabus, but like you I have both books of the exam pieces and have delved into them for pieces to play from time to time.

You don't say what level you are at now, so please feel free to ignore the bits that don't apply.

The first thing to say is that this syllabus does not use TAB, you need to be able to read (or at least decode) notation.  There are a number of ways to do it, but a recommendation from the Justin guitar website is to get a book called 125 easy flute studies.  If you work out one a day with a fretboard diagram, you'll be up to speed quite quickly.

There are a couple of notable method books, Leavitt Modern Guitar Method and Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method.  I have the former, but have to say it's page after page of technical exercises and I found it boring in the extreme.  Mel Bay at least gives you pieces to learn so might be better but I've not used it.

I say just have a go at the pieces, starting with the easy ones first and refer to videos on youtube for how they should sound.  I think learning an instrument is all about having pieces to play, not knowing endless scales and chords.

Another way is to go to the Trinity website and download the syllabus.  As well as the pieces in the exam book there are some alternatives listed, and the books they come from.  These books will give you more material at the right grades for you.  I particularly like Adrian Ingram's book, 25 Graded Pieces for Plectrum Guitar.  Probably out of print but readily available secondhand.

Finally visit Rob Mackillop's website.  There's loads of stuff here for plectrum guitar, and I believe he offers lessons by Skype.

Coldfingers

It looks as though we have a very similar bookshelf!

I made it as far as Chord Etude No. 2 in Leavitt Vol.1 as well as a hand-full of pieces from the "Classical Studies" book. Went through Mel Bay 1 & 2, Hal Leonard 1, a hand-full from Adrian Ingram's "25  Graded Pieces" and also have the 125 flute pieces :-)

I went for the Trinity books this time just so that I'm not re-reading pieces that I already know. When I saw the stacked notes/triads in "The Hungry Ghost", it suddenly dawned on me that these books aren't really teaching books as such, so I'm wondering how teachers who teach to this syllabus guide their students (if that makes sense!).

Toms_Dad

It does, and not having had formal lessons in this stuff, I can't say for sure, but based on my classical guitar tuition, and on what i have learnt from the way my sons have been taught a variety of instruments at school (piano, saxophone and trumpet) I would say that teachers generally teach through giving students appropriately graded pieces.  Through learning these pieces they pick up whatever technique they need "on the fly" as it were.  This saves them from endless boring technical studies, but keeps them progressing and gives them something they can perform.  If they do grades, they have to learn scales as well of course for the exam.  There is a separate book of technical exercises and scale for the Trintiy syllabus by the way,.  I have that too!

The hard part as a solo learner, is knowing how to choose the pieces.  That's where I think the graded syllabus helps.  You can assess where you currently are by learning to play a graded piece, then select more based on challenging yourself with the next grade up.  I don't think there is a lot of technique in plectrum guitar.  No arpeggios, tremolo etc like classical, and no bends, tapping etc like rock music, and what there is can be seen on youtube videos.  At the top grades there's a bit of hybrid picking, and some left hand string muting is needed for some of the extended jazz type chords, but that's about it.