Piano Resources from Trinity College London

Exploring piano technical exercises: Grade 6 - Spinal Chords

Written by Sample HubSpot User | Sep 4, 2018 1:33:50 PM

Our lead senior examiner and piano consultant, Peter Wild, takes you on a tour of the Grade 6 technical exercise, 'Spinal Chords', explaining why it's great to work on and giving his advice on how to approach it.

The technical work section of Trinity’s piano exams supports the development of technical skills by assessing candidates’ performance in a range of technical work options. Candidates perform scales, arpeggios and exercises, giving a balanced suite of technical tasks to develop musical ability and technical skill.


Our exercises are specially composed short pieces designed to demonstrate three key areas of technique in performance: tone, balance and voicing; co-ordination; and finger and wrist strength and flexibility. For their exam, candidates should prepare three exercises from the graded list, two of which are played in the exam. One is chosen by the candidate and one by the examiner.