REGULATIONS

These regulations apply to students who register to take all or part of any course (Intermediate, Grade 6, AMusTCL and LMusTCL) and who wish to be able to ask questions and have work marked.

Please contact us if there is anything you are not sure about.

All courses

1. Fees must be paid before resources are sent out.  If students can not manage to pay the fees in full, arrangements can sometimes be made to delay part of the payment.  In this case, resources will be sent in instalments, and the full fee must be paid before the examination.  Details should be discussed with the Director.  Transaction fees will be charged on payments made through Paypal, whether or not each instalment is over $150. 

2. Great care has been taken to present modules and sections of modules in an order which ensures that students build on knowledge and skills already gained.  Usually files are listed in numerical and alphabetical order;  students are expected to follow this order.  Where there is a "START HERE" file giving information about the section or setting out the order in which files should be studied, students are expected to begin with this file, and to open the other files in the order stated.

3. If students are not sure about how to answer a question, they may ask for advice.  However before doing so, they are expected to study the material carefully - both that worksheet and previous worksheets - in case they can work out the answer for themselves.

4. Detailed comments are made about students' work, pointing out errors and suggesting ways in which improvements could be made.  Students are welcome to ask for clarification if they do not understand any of the comments made. 

5. Assignments should be sent in for comment on a regular basis, preferably weekly.  There are three reasons for this:  firstly it helps students pace themselves so they reach the target in time;  secondly, it allows students to take note of comments made about assignments and so avoid repeating mistakes in future assignments;  and thirdly it avoids placing pressure on marking of assignments.  If students send in a large group of assignments at once, no guarantee is given that they will be marked and returned before the examination.  If, as a result of several assignments being sent in at once, the same errors occur in these assignments, the assignments will be returned to students for correction before they are marked.

6. It is not usual practice for tutors to remark assignments, especially at diploma level.  If students wish to send an assignment a second time to have comments made on their reworking of it, a charge will usually be made.

7. Students are advised to do frequent revision, looking over resources supplied and assignments marked.  It is then likely that students will gain most benefit from reading the resources and doing the assignments, and unlikely that errors made in the past will be repeated.

8. Students will not be required to sit the examination.  (Students may take the course, or order the resources, for interest, or to develop particular skills, rather than to gain a qualification.)  In the registration form, students are asked to give some indication of whether they are planning to sit the exam, but they are free to change their minds later.

9. Students wishing to sit the examination need to complete a registration form and send it, along with examination fees, to the examining body by the due date.

10. No guarantee can be given that students will pass an examination. However students who complete all work set satisfactorily and learn relevant points and illustrations can expect to do well.

11. Students should study the information about charges, payments and refunds.

Diploma only

1. Students should not take the AMusTCL course unless they have reached the level of Grade 6 theory.  Students who have not passed grade 6 Royal Schools or Trinity College, or an equivalent examination, are asked to fill out a survey indicating that they have the required level of knowledge of music theory.  Help can be given to students who have not reached that level.  Students who are not taking the Writing Diatonic Melodies option in the Composition module are recommended to take the Writing Melodies module of the Grade 6 course.

2. Trinity Guildhall does not allow candidates to take the LMusTCL examination unless they have passed grade 8 theory or have an equivalent qualification;  however students are advised not to take the LMusTCL course unless they have already taken the Score Analysis and Musical Knowledge modules in the AMusTCL course or have the equivalent knowledge and skills.   Students can download surveys and samples of these modules from the AMusTCL pages to decide whether they need to extend their knowledge and skills before taking LMusTCL.

3. Trinity College examiners have made it clear that the examination is planned to require a year of study.  Students are then advised to allow at least nine months (a university "year") to prepare for the examination.  Only in exceptional cases will students be permitted to begin the course less than seven months before the examination they intend to take.

4. Students taking a complete course should allow several hours each week for their own study if they wish to complete the course within a year, unless they already have qualifications of a similar type (such as a music degree). 

5. The LMusTCL syllabus states that "Candidates are required to have passed AMusTCL or Trinity Grade 8 theory of music or an approved equivalent qualification before entering this diploma."  However, since FMusTCL and LTCL in composition have been withdrawn, LMusTCL has been made much more difficult. As a result, registrations for the LMusTCL course will not be accepted from students unless they have already passed either AMusTCL or an equivalent qualification.  Such students should either take the AMusTCL course first, or order the materials and work through them on their own or with another teacher. Very few students who go from grade 8 straight to LMusTCL pass the latter.

   Thank you so very much for your kind effort.  I have never enjoyed learning Music Theory as much as I have been doing since I got in touch with you.

   November 2014, Mohit Kumar, Hyderabad, India

6. Resources should be read, and any important points committed to memory.  Assignments will also be set.  Students who want to score a good mark in the examination should do their own reading as well as studying the material supplied with the course.

7. Students must listen to the set work.  They should begin listening to the work, following the score where appropriate, before beginning the first assignment on the work.

8. LMusTCL students should have enough experience of English to be able to write a three-page essay. (Students who plan to choose the essay option in Section B of AMusTCL should be used to writing two-page essays.)  Help can be given with essay-writing technique.

   "Thank you very much for all your help and guidance this year – as always, this  has been more than appreciated." 

   October 2008, Whangarei, New Zealand

9. Trinity College have not indicated how long essays should be.   Examiners are likely to expect longer essays in LMusTCL than in AMusTCL. It is recommended that in general students aim for the following:
   In a question worth 10 marks:  between 300 and 400 words.
   In a question worth 20 marks:  between 550 and 800 words.
   In a question worth 30 marks:  between 800 and 1200 words.
   If students write less than this, they are unlikely to make enough points to gain a pass mark; yet if they write more, they are unlikely to be able to finish all the other questions in the examination within the time allowed.  Essays sent in for comment should in fact be no longer than the upper figure.  Help can be given to students who are unsure how to make their essays long enough, but essays longer than these guidelines may be returned to students to condense before marking.  It is important, then, for students to choose which points to include and how to make those points briefly.  Examiners seldom comment that students essays are not long enough, but often remark that many points made in essays are not related to the question.

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