Find a Grade 6 violin tutor

ABRSM and Trinity assess Grade 6 violin through different formats. Check the route on your entry or intended booking before choosing repertoire and dividing practice time. The preparation below uses ABRSM’s Bowed Strings syllabus from 2024 and Trinity’s Strings syllabus from 2025; check the board’s updates and repertoire rules for your exam date.

For ABRSM Grade 6 Practical Violin, G and B flat major and minor scales extend over three octaves, and both harmonic and melodic minor forms are required. A secure fingering pattern needs to preserve the right notes as the hand moves higher up the fingerboard.

A practice example: G minor. Take the last four notes of a one-octave ascent. Harmonic minor uses D, E flat, F sharp, G. Melodic minor rises through D, E natural, F sharp, G, then descends G, F natural, E flat, D. One trap to check for is keeping E flat on the melodic ascent because it belongs to the key signature. Here, the sixth note rises to E natural; it returns to E flat on the descent.

First name the changing notes and play that short pattern slowly with separate bows. Listen for the intended pitch before extending the pattern through the required three octaves. Agree the shifts with the tutor, isolate any unreliable landing and then restore the prescribed bowing. A useful improvement signal is that the changed notes and shift landings stay accurate on repeated ascents and descents, without a pause to correct them. This is an illustrative practice task, not a replacement for the complete syllabus list.

For Trinity’s face-to-face and digital Technical Work routes, the Violin syllabus from 2025 includes a Grade 6 bowing exercise, played from memory, using a chosen Grade 6 scale or arpeggio with two spiccato quavers on each note. Spiccato uses a bouncing bow stroke: the task brings together bow control, the left hand and a steady pulse.

Try the rhythm on two scale notes. Count “1 and 2 and”: play the first note on “1 and”, then the next note on “2 and”. If the second quaver of each pair is late, practise the four even strokes on one pitch before adding the note change. Keep the speed slow enough to hear whether the spacing stays equal; discuss the bow’s movement with the tutor rather than trying to force a bigger bounce.

Then return to the chosen scale or arpeggio. Listen for two clear, evenly spaced sounds on every pitch, with the pulse continuing through string and position changes. The tutor can use that result to decide whether to extend the exercise or return to a particular bow or left-hand transition.

A four-piece route needs more than four separately corrected pieces. ABRSM’s Performance Grade guidance highlights character, programme order, stamina and the transitions between pieces. The same rehearsal questions are useful when preparing Trinity’s Repertoire-only pathway or a personal recital.

A rehearsal example: a lyrical piece followed by a lively dance. Suppose the final phrase of the lyrical piece fades away, but the dance starts at the same unhurried pace. Practise the last phrase and the next opening as a pair. Finish the first sound, allow the pause, silently hear the dance’s pulse and prepare its bow stroke before beginning. Choose the character and tempo from the scores. The aim is a deliberate change of mood without a rushed setup or hesitant opening.

Next, record the complete programme in the intended order. Note whether tone and pitch stay controlled in the later pieces, and whether an error leads to a restart or a musical recovery. Use those observations to choose the next practice target. Build stamina through manageable runs; repeated full performances are less useful if the same unresolved transition keeps breaking the flow.