I earned my GCSE music and 'Grade 5' guitar in 1994 age 16 mainly due to the practical, guitar-relevant theory and composition side. The traditional guitar tuition that came with the course had almost nothing to do with true musicianship such as improvisation, just 'join the dots'.
I learned a lot about different forms of musicianship from other members of the course group, the most prominent being when I invited a ‘Grade 7’ violin player to improvise a short violin solo to a song I wrote in C-minor but she did not know where to start without notes on paper.
Top grade is 8.
That form of play is suitable for a violin player within a 20 piece orchestra due to the fact that they´re probably not familiar with the notes and not free to improvise. What it boils down to is that if you ‘Free-style’ within a 20 piece orchestra you get kicked out,
As part of a band you get a thumbs-up.
*Note to N.B.*, you can have every qualification under the sun... but can you jam Free-Style.
