31 Jul Drumming Exam Marks – Summer 2017

The heat is on as the summer drumming exam marks have come through. We’ve got some scorchers to report to you guys so read on!

RSL Awards Results

Grade 3 & 4

Rich (Wood Green) achieved a whopping 95% in his grade 3 exam. Clearly this ended up being a distinction with him getting near full marks across the entirety of the test. This included a whopping 15/15 on his technical exercises. Wow! Rich chose the fairly heavy track Fallout as his Rockschool original piece. For his free choice pieces Rich opted for Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and Roxanne by The Police. They’re a pair of tricky tracks to nail, especially as the tempo of Nothing Else Matters is deceivingly slow. Incredible work Rich, well done!

Heiragan (Edmonton) has been taking drum lessons with his teacher Az Khan for a few months now. He got a distinction in his grade 4 exam after a tonne of hard work! Well done Heiragan! He decided to chose the reggae track Jahmake Ska, hip-hop track The Nod and the very funky Cold Pants. Alongside the test, Az tells us he’s been working on triplets, ghost notes and even linear phrasing. No wonder he got a distinction!

Well done to Jonathan (Golders Green) for his grade 3 merit, meaning his drumming exam marks totalled 79%. Jonathan worked hard on Rockschool pieces Old Bones Blues and Fallout, whilst choosing Back in Black by AC/DC as his free choice piece. Back in Black is a classic rock staple, with some tricky 16th note bass drums. These can be be tough to get exactly in the right place. Great work Jonathan, especially towards the back end of the test with full marks in general musicianship questions.

Grade 2

Next up is Lucas (Highgate) who snuck up behind Rich with an impressive 94% on his grade 2 exam. (Rich, you have competition!) Lucas managed to get full marks on his Rockschool piece Bleach, working really hard on his bass drum control. He also got 19/20 on the funk track Dora and Bootsy. For his free choice piece Lucas chose Should I Stay or Should I Go by the Clash. Full marks on the aural / ear tests AND the general musicianship questions rounded off a near perfect score. Keep up the great work Lucas and congratulations on your distinction!

Grade 1 & Debut

Congratulations also to Rupert (De Beauvoir Town) on achieving 85% merit in his first ever drum exam. It’s a great mark! Rupert chose West Coast Rollin’, Bend & Snap and Munky Fusic as his three pieces. Furthermore, he also got near perfect marks on his technical exercises, sight reading and ear tests. Onwards and upwards to grade 2 now!

Ian (Winchmore Hill) entered his first ever exam with RSL Awards, going in with the debut grade. It worked a treat as Ian got a distinction, great work Ian! For this exam he chose the three tracks Big Ideas, Full Rudder and Z. Ian’s drum teacher Luca Romano tells us he’s already hard at work preparing for grade 1. We’re looking forward to seeing the results!

Trinity College Rock & Pop Results

A huge well done goes to Ida (Highbury East) for passing her first exam, grade 1, with a distinction! She managed to get a huge 89%! She entered the Trinity College Rock & Pop syllabus and decided to chose a great selection of tracks. This included Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads, Sheena is a Punk Rocker by the Ramones and Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival. What a selection! Her drum teacher Joe Nicklin tells us she worked super hard on this exam. Great work Ida!

Well done also goes to Evelyn (Muswell Hill) for passing her Trinity College Rock & Pop Initial exam. Evelyn chose a wide of tracks to perform in her test. The tracks included the classic song I Am the Music Man, Black Betty by Lead Betty and Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day. Well done to Evelyn and her drum teacher Mark too!

And finally, drum teacher Az Khan also tells us that his student Stan (Tufnell Park) passed his Trinity College Rock & Pop grade 2 exam with flying colours. He chose the tracks Manny’s Blues. What’s Up and Flats in Dagenham. Great work Stan, keep it up!

Do you want improve your drumming exam marks?

Congratulations to everyone above, it’s clear that the hard work really paid off this time. If you want to improve own drumming exam mark, make sure you contact us to book a lesson with one of the drum teachers. They provide London drum lessons but are also available for online drum lessons too.

(If you’re already taking lessons with one of the tutors and we missed your mark out, let us know! We’ll get them posted here ASAP!)