Initial

At the Initial exam, you can learn to play power chords and blue notes. You’ll perform three songs and choose your Session skill – Improvising or Playback.

Choose your songs from our song list, including one of the Technical focus songs that develop particular skills. There’s an option for you to play your own cover version of a song or, if you’re a songwriter, one of your own songs.

You’ll find more information about how the exam works in the syllabus.

Initial Guitar song list

The Initial Guitar songbook includes everything you need for the exam – sheet music for six songs, performance tips, technical support and guidance on Session skills, together with a CD of demo and backing tracks. If you want to buy individual songs, choose them from the list below.

• Black Betty (Technical focus) Lead Belly
• Breakdown (Technical focus) Jack Johnson
• Dirty Old Town The Dubliners
• I Am The Music Man (Technical focus) Traditional
• I Wanna Be Like You From The Jungle Book
• Rhinestone Cowboy Glen Campbell

Initial Guitar demo video

Session Skills

Players choose Improvising or Playback.

Playback

You’ll perform some music you haven’t seen or heard before – you can sight-read from a song chart or play by ear from an audio track, or both.

Improvising

You’ll be given a song chart with chord symbols and song style and will improvise over a backing track.

Songs: Black Betty, Breakdown, Dirty Old Town, I Am The Music Man, I Wanna Be Like You, Rhinestone Cowboy Glen Campbell

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