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EXAMINATIONS & CERTIFICATES
THE PIPING SCHOOL offers a range of certificate levels as part of its study program. These can be done either as a Skype session or at any of our workshops. They CANNOT be done without a period of instruction relevant to the necessary level - and this is done either at one of our workshops, by a CD ROM course of instruction or through Skype lessons. There is NO extra charge for doing these exams, they are part of our unique service.

Our exams/certificates are NOT meant to be seen as either a replacement or substitute to any other examination body. They are in place simply to allow pipers who study through any of THE PIPING SCHOOL teaching methods to grade their own piping level. They also enable a piper to sit an exam at a workshop or teaching session where the examiner may be a teacher also which is not accepted in the PDQB system but which is a simple and practical way for students to establish their level of competence.

Pipers who wish to do these exams should notify us in advance and arrangements can be made to sit them either during a workshop or separately.

Currently these are the only levels we are offering for examination (others will be added shortly);

LEVEL 1 (fundamental piping skills on practice chanter)
LEVEL 2 (basic piping skills on pipes and practice chanter)

LEVEL 1 (fundamental piping skills on practice chanter)
Suitable for a piper who has completed an introductory course in fundamental piping skills and is learning tunes and has probably been playing for 6-12 months.
PRACTICAL
Care and maintenance of a practice chanter.
THEORETICAL
Notation, time value, duration.
MUSICAL
Plain and G, D and E gracenote scales
Strikes
Top and Bottom hand doublings
Throw on D
Two tunes from memory which must be at least two parts and one of which must be a March.
To pass this examination a student must gain a 70% pass mark in each of these three sections.

LEVEL 2 (basic piping skills on pipes and practice chanter)
Suitable for a piper who has completed a Level 2 course in basic piping skills and has made a successful transition from practice chanter to pipes. He/she has probably been playing for 12-18 months.
Note that the student must also be able to satisfy the requirements of the Level 1 certificate and may be asked any questions or play any of the musical requirements from that level.
PRACTICAL
Basic care and maintenance of a pipe and knowledge of the part names and functions.
THEORETICAL
The differences between Simple and Compound time signatures.
Write out correctly a tune in 2/4 time signature (the quality of the ‘tune’ is not important).
Write out correctly all movements.
The Duration Table.
MUSICAL
All doublings and Ceol Beag movements including;
Grips (Leumluadhs)
Taorluadhs
Tachums
Birls
Six tunes from memory which must be at least two parts and must include one tune in the following genres;
2/4 March
6/8 March
Strathspey
Reel
The examiner will ask the candidate to play two tunes from this list on practice chanter and two on pipes. The played tunes will be assessed on both the technical and expressive performance as well as the standard of the tune and setting played which must be suitable to this level.
To pass this examination a student must gain a 70% pass mark in each of these three sections.