Francesco68 Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 [color=#333333][font=sans-serif][size=4]Hi everyone, I am a 49 years old Italian (not professional) bass player. I have studied bass for several years and now I'm thinking about moving to Ireland to start a new phase of my life. I was also thinking about getting involved more seriously with bass learning and maybe take some exams. I have been looking at the different boards: Rockschool, RGT, Trinity College London. Almost impossible for me to figure out the differences from here, and since I would like to start to get the books and maybe begin to work on them, I would ask you, if it is not a problem for you, to quickly clarify the differences between the three boards, just to give me an idea, so that I might know where to start. Thank you very much in advance for your time. Francesco Pisa, Italy [/size][/font][/color] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Spicer Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 Between the Trinity & Rockschool books and exams, the differences are mostly the pieces you play. With Rockschool they're pieces written by educators to display certain technical aspects within different genres and are potentially a bit cliché as a result? However they still serve their purpose! With the Trinity books you are given classic pieces that sometimes have slight edits to make them a little more technically challenging, but things like "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick", "Havona", "YYZ" are ones I remember from the Grade 8 exam. With RGT (my best friend teaches RGT Guitar) it's a much more divided course which really focuses in on technical ability and doesn't require you to play and whole songs. It instead focuses on scales, arpeggios, reading charts etc. which are all crucial aspects to your development and applicable in the future. However I would say it's the most difficult to start out with! For me I would go with (and went with) Trinity as it's developing your repertoire for future gigs and is also easier to get a grasp of, by listening to the original versions of the songs. Listening is key in all aspects of learning music and making that as easy as possible in my experience increases the likelihood of success! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobthedog Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 I started out with Rockschool but got board of spending my time learning technical stuff by repeated playing and not actually getting gig ready by learning tunes. I wish I had gone with Trinity for the reasons TJ states above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
converse320 Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 I have started with Rockschool - doing grade 2 bass at 59...... I actually quite like the "learning the technical stuff by repeated playing" parts. But I do find most of the pieces a bit dull - though there are some standout exceptions. My daughter is also doing Rockschool grades. Her teacher's view is that Rockschool is great as a start, but that Trinity is a better long term bet. TBH, it probably doesn't matter initially very much which one you start with - starting at all is what counts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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