What ABRSM "DON'T" tell you about their Performance Exams

If you are like many of my students who have taken the ABRSM performance exam, you will have, no doubt made quite a few recordings before coming up with the one you want to send off, and the repetition of the opening announcements and showing ID and the programme form, can be quite frustrating.

However I heard a rumour that these announcements could be made separately. Curious I went to the ABRSM website that clearly states in the guidance,

"The exam should be recorded as one continuous audio-visual file – this means that once recording has started, the candidate should make their announcements, show their documents to camera and perform all their repertoire in one continuous take. "

Confused I decided to write to them for clarification  and the response I got was quite surprising. I was told,

"Announcements for the Performance Grade exams can be recorded separately and added to the unedited continuous performance if announcement was not made in the original recording. Please ensure that none of the exam performance has been edited in any way."

So if you forget (conveniently or otherwise) 😉 to do the announcements first, you can always add them on later, as long as you make sure the four pieces are an uninterrupted performance.

By the way if you do not feel technically confident to do this yourself, you can always email the files to me at musiconlineuk@gmail.com and for a small fee of £5, I will merge them for you.