Assignment to grades is certainly arbitrary and all the more so when the reviewer is not actually responsible for setting syllabus standards, so they should be saying "is roughly a grade 6 piece". About half the readership of the UK based Classical Guitar magazine is UK resident, and most will have some idea of grades so its helpful to them to know roughly where a piece sits in grade terms. For many years "the" Bach Bourree (Em) was a grade 6 piece, now considered a bit too hard for 6. I think so long as folks don't forget that grading is arbitrary and only an outline or framework, it can be helpful, not least to avoid disruptive leaps in standard when setting pieces for students.
Stephen On 4 Aug 2013, at 15:09, Christopher Wilke wrote: > ..... > [On a side note, I've been amused to follow the side topic that > this > thread has spawned regarding the qualifications for grade > examiners in > the UK. A couple of my compositions have been reviewed in British > publications. They always say something like, "this is a Grade 6 > piece". As an American, I wonder what the heck that even means. > Despite > the thoroughness of the system, what I've learned has done > nothing to > dissuade me from believing that performance study is essentially > arbitrary.] > -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
