Latest Posts  •  July 3, 2017

Who likes exams anyway? For most of us, exams mean stress, pressure, and anxiety. “What if I don’t pass?” “What if I’m not good enough?” are the questions our critical inner voice is telling us.  And these questions make it hard to take another view.

Who doesn’t love success? We all connect success with joy, pride, and self-confidence. “I’ve done it!” “I did that really well!” are affirmations that give us strength and confidence and help us tackle further challenges with optimism.

I consider these two perspectives as the “old” and the “new” way to face the challenges of life. Many supporters of the “old school” way still follow the old no-pain-no-gain-principle and think that success without hard work is impossible.

At Modern Music School, I often witness the exact opposite, the enthusiasm-creates-success-principle. The more fun it is to play a song, the more passionately our students will practice.

As a music school, we always shied away from testing our students. Instead, we took enthusiastic student bands and put them on professional stages to give even novices first successes in front of live audiences.

“Exams? Not for us!”— was our thinking for many years.

But then, on a trip to Hong Kong, our education director Sebastian Quirmbach and I stumbled upon a concept that has changed our way of thinking. We got to know the “Trinity Rock & Pop Exams” and were thrilled. The Trinity College in London offers fantastic the same success experiences for rock and pop musicians all over the world. Their approach resembles our philosophy: The more fun it is to play a song, the more passionately students will practice.

Trinity Exams are in line with the “new way” of learning. With a great selection of songs and empathetic examiners, Trinity Exams creates moments of success, joy, and pride for thousands of students in 9 difficulty levels.

For each exam, students choose three songs from one of the difficulty levels — the songs range from Abba to Ramones, to Muse and Iron Maiden.

In the exam, students play or sing these songs in a friendly and protected environment and receive professional and constructive feedback, and, in most cases, the Trinity College’s official certificate.

We’re excited about this new development and proud to be able to, with Trinity, give students in Germany the same opportunities for success and pride. Besides an enthusiasm for music, we want our students to have fun and feel proud and self-confident.

Our team of Modern Music School coaches prepares our students for the exam situation not only musically, but also emotionally, so they can safely rock their songs with joy and confidence.

I’m convinced that this kind of achievement will foster our students musical and personal development alike.