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Find an ABRSM Grade 4 Music tutor

Build lessons around your instrument or Music Theory goal, the Grade 4 skills you find difficult and the exam route you want to prepare for.

Find my Grade 4 tutorExplore Grade 4 preparation
  • One-to-one tuition
  • Pay as you go
  • Direct tutor contact
Tell us whether you want Practical Grade, Performance Grade or Music Theory support, and name your instrument if you play one. A useful starting point is the music or question you can attempt now and the part that keeps going wrong.

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ABRSM Grade 4 Music tuition enquiry

Tell us what you know, skip anything you’re unsure about, and add a short description if you skip both subject and level.

  1. Tutoring brief
  2. Contact details

Final question

Contact details

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Your tutoring brief

Subject
ABRSM
Level
Grade 4

Free matching request skip anything you’re unsure about pay as you go when lessons begin.

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How one-to-one tuition can help

  • Turning a difficult Grade 4 passage into a manageable practice task
  • Preparing the components of your chosen ABRSM route
  • Explaining theory answers and recognising the same ideas in music

Available tutors

ABRSM Grade 4 tutor profiles

Compare instrument or Music Theory experience and teaching approach. Include your chosen route and a specific difficulty in your enquiry.

Portrait of Simon OKeeffe

Simon OKeeffe

Music and Music Performance Specialist

london, United Kingdom

£40.00 per hourDBS checkediAccepting enquiries
ABRSMGCSE (general)GuitarMusic Performance+4 more
  • Simon has over 12 years' of experience as a music educator across primary and secondary schools in addition to further education.
  • Holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Music (Guitar Institute).
  • Holds a Master of Arts in Record Production and Distribution (University of West London).
  • Professional background as a musician, producer, arranger, and musical director.

Music educator with 12+ years’ experience offering private lessons as a guitar tutor and piano tutor, plus drums and music theory. Supports GCSE, A Level and university music performance and music technology, with lesson reports and optional homework.

Send a quick enquiry from here and the Latimer Tuition team will pass it on to Simon.

View Simon’s profile
Compare Grade 4 tutorsStart my tutor search

Choose the Grade 4 route you want to prepare for

ABRSM Grade 4 can mean different assessments. Choose the route before agreeing the lesson plan; for playing or singing, name the instrument or voice syllabus too. You can also use Grade 4 material to develop your musicianship without setting an exam date.

Practical Grade
A face-to-face exam combining prepared music with supporting skills. For piano, this means three pieces, scales and arpeggios, sight-reading and aural tests. The balance of lesson work should cover every component in your instrument syllabus.
Performance Grade
A video assessment of four pieces or songs and the performance as a whole, with no separate supporting tests. Lessons can focus on interpretation, technical control and sustaining a complete programme.
Music Theory
A separate online exam in musical knowledge. Tuition can address reading notation, rhythm, keys, intervals and other theory topics, with explanations that help you work out an unfamiliar answer.

Next step

Practical Grade 4: keep the pulse when the reading changes

In ABRSM’s 2025–2026 Piano Practical syllabus, Grade 4 sight-reading introduces 6/8 time alongside other new features. This piano example shows how tuition can turn that requirement into a task you can hear and check. Other instruments have their own requirements.

Try a made-up bar of six equal quavers: C, D, E, F, G, A. In 6/8, those six short notes normally group into two main beats, each containing three quavers. Giving every note an equally heavy accent can hide that two-beat feel.

First say “ONE-and-a, TWO-and-a”, placing C–D–E over the first group and F–G–A over the second. Tap only on ONE and TWO, then play the notes while keeping those two taps steady. A dotted crotchet lasts for one whole three-quaver group: if C replaces the first three quavers, hold it through “ONE-and-a” before playing F–G–A on “TWO-and-a”.

The improvement is audible when both versions keep the same two-beat pulse. Try another short bar without stopping to count every note aloud. In a lesson, the tutor can then help you carry that pulse into an unfamiliar extract rather than memorising just this exercise.

Next step

Performance Grade 4: let the melody carry through

A Performance Grade involves a complete programme, so the work extends beyond correcting isolated notes. ABRSM’s expectations for Grades 4–5 include musical character, balance between parts and the stamina to sustain a performance. This makes the relationship between a melody and its accompaniment a useful Grade 4 practice focus.

For a piano example, imagine a melody being covered by its broken-chord accompaniment. The notes may be accurate, yet the listener hears the repeated accompaniment more clearly than the tune. Practising everything louder keeps the same problem.

Reduce the passage to this invented exercise in 4/4. Play four right-hand crotchets, G–A–B–C, above eight left-hand quavers, C–G–E–G–C–G–E–G, in a lower register. A crotchet lasts as long as two quavers. Play the right hand alone and sing its four-note line; then practise the left hand evenly at a softer volume. Combine them slowly, keeping two left-hand notes under each right-hand note.

Record the result and listen without watching your hands. Can you follow G–A–B–C easily while the accompaniment stays even? If the left hand gets louder whenever the right hand changes note, isolate that join and repeat it with the same balance. Return to the actual piece and follow its written phrasing and dynamics.

For another instrument, use a comparable passage from your own Grade 4 music with the tutor. Finish by playing the repaired passage in context and, later, in a complete programme run. Mark where musical shape or control fades as you tire, so the next practice session addresses a specific point.

Music Theory Grade 4: explain the interval, not just its number

Grade 4 Music Theory includes intervals between any two diatonic notes within an octave in the prescribed keys. “Diatonic” means belonging to the key’s scale. This moves beyond recognising intervals only from the tonic, the first note of the scale. Alto clef, double accidentals and keys with up to five sharps or flats also broaden the work.

Example: name the ascending interval from F to B in C major. Counting F–G–A–B gives four letter names, so the interval is a fourth. Calling it a perfect fourth at that point misses its quality, the word describing its exact size.

F to B spans six semitones, where a semitone is one step to the next piano key, including black keys. F to B-flat spans five semitones and is a perfect fourth. Raising B-flat to B makes the fourth one semitone larger, so F to B is an augmented fourth.

Now try ascending B to F. B–C–D–E–F gives a fifth, also spanning six semitones. A perfect fifth spans seven, so this is a diminished fifth. Both span six semitones, but the letter names change the interval name. A complete answer gives both number and quality, with a reason for each.

As a follow-up, compare ascending C to F: four letters and five semitones make a perfect fourth. Explaining why this differs from F to B is stronger evidence of understanding than repeating a memorised label.

Next step

Make progress visible between lessons

Agree a practice routine that fits the learner’s concentration, instrument access and other commitments. Keep the task small enough to complete independently, then bring evidence back to the lesson. The examples above offer three different checks: a steady pulse after the rhythm changes, a melody you can hear over its accompaniment, or an interval answer you can explain.

  • Practise the correction, then use it

    Work slowly on the difficult bar or concept, then try it in a fresh extract, a longer passage or a new question. Being able to repeat a corrected answer is a start; applying the idea elsewhere shows whether it has stuck.

  • Check the whole route before booking

    For Practical, sample every assessed component, including work you have not prepared in advance. For Performance, rehearse the full programme and its transitions. For Theory, include unfamiliar questions so that recall of a practice paper does not hide a gap.

Turn your enquiry into a useful first lesson

You can request a free tutor match or contact a tutor through their profile. A free introductory meeting is a chance to discuss goals, teaching approach and arrangements before paid lessons begin. It is not normally a teaching lesson.

  1. Describe the starting point

    Name the instrument or Music Theory goal, chosen route, current materials and any target exam window. Explain one difficulty: losing the pulse in an unfamiliar bar, an uneven scale or an interval answer you cannot justify.

  2. Check how the tutor would help

    Ask about teaching the relevant instrument or theory level, how they would assess the difficulty and how they would explain the next practice task. Mention any reading, concentration or communication needs, and which approaches already help.

  3. Agree what to bring back

    At the first paid lesson, agree a small task the learner can complete independently and a way to review it. A short before-and-after recording or an answer with the reasoning written beside it makes progress easier to discuss.

Online lesson setup and costs

Latimer offers online one-to-one tuition. Microsoft Teams is the default platform; you and the tutor can agree another option. In-person lessons need an individual arrangement with the tutor.

For instrumental lessons, have the instrument, music and a pencil ready. Test an angle that shows the relevant hands, posture or bowing, and check that the tutor can hear changes in volume. For Music Theory, keep manuscript paper available and make sure both of you can see the same question and notation.

Each tutor sets their own hourly rate, shown on their profile. Lessons are billed after they take place on a pay-as-you-go basis. Before agreeing a schedule, confirm the lesson length and any separate costs for scores, exam entry or accompaniment. A useful lesson plan should leave practice tasks that fit the time and instrument access you actually have.

Settle the exam arrangements before entry

The piano examples on this page use ABRSM’s 2025–2026 syllabus. Check the instrument and route specification for your intended exam date before choosing music or booking; a later entry may need a different edition.

Agree who will enter the candidate, organise any accompaniment and check the exam instructions. For Performance Grade, the programme must be recorded in one continuous take, and the candidate or person making the entry organises the recording venue and equipment. Discuss any tutor involvement in those tasks separately.

Allow time to rehearse with an accompanist where the chosen music requires one. For a recorded programme, test the room and device before the final take so the music can be heard clearly. Confirm current fees, booking dates and submission instructions directly with ABRSM when you are ready to enter.

Find my Grade 4 tutor

Support and clarity

Frequently asked questions

Straight answers to the questions people ask most often.

Do I need Grade 3 or Grade 5 Theory before taking Grade 4?

For Practical or Performance Grade 4, an earlier grade pass is not required, and Grade 5 Theory is not an entry condition. The Grade 5 prerequisite applies to entry at Practical or Performance Grades 6–8, with accepted alternatives such as Practical Musicianship or a Practical solo Jazz instrument. Readiness is a separate question: a tutor can check the learner’s current work before recommending an entry.

Can an adult or returning musician take ABRSM Grade 4?

Yes. ABRSM permits candidates of any age in its Practical, Performance and Music Theory grades. If you are returning after a break, bring something you can currently attempt rather than judging your starting point only by a certificate earned years ago. That gives the tutor a basis for deciding what to revisit and what to develop next.

How long will Grade 4 preparation take?

There is no fixed number of lessons that suits every learner. Agree a provisional schedule after the tutor has heard your playing or seen your theory work, taking account of the route, starting point and practice opportunities. Review that schedule against fresh work and complete rehearsal attempts before committing to an exam date.

What should I use to practise Grade 4 Music Theory?

Use the ABRSM syllabus outline to identify the topics and official Grade 4 practice papers to sample questions. Model answers are available separately. Keep an error note that explains why an answer was wrong, then try a different question on the same idea. This helps distinguish a misunderstanding of notation or terminology from a slip in a calculation.

Can lessons and exams be adapted for a learner’s needs?

Discuss helpful lesson changes with the tutor, such as shorter tasks, clearer notation or a different way of giving feedback. Exam access arrangements are a separate ABRSM process. ABRSM provides fair-access arrangements and considers needs outside its published guidelines individually; check the guidance for the chosen route before booking. A lesson adaptation does not automatically establish an exam entitlement.

Further information

Useful links and resources

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