Formul Bass Grade Exams

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Hi,

I Have been playing bass for over 15 years and consider myself to be prety good. I am quite fast and accurate, I can slap and I use fairly standard and correct finguring to play my bass lines. I play be ear and can improvise a bassline to almost anything thrown at me I also play some nice melodic solo's.

I have never really used written music or TAB much, although I can read them both enough to figure out a tricky piece if needed, I have never really worked at sight reading. I do have a reasonable working knowledge of music theory from both playing for so long and also music GCSE(secondary school) exams.

Recently I have been considering taking some formal bass exams as I have recently gained some teaching qualifications and would love to teach bass guitar at some point in the future.

My question is, What grade could I expect to start at as a competent gigging bass player. Would I have to do a lot of work or would they be straightforward to a seasoned muso.

How hard are the higher grades? Do you need to be a virtuoso to do grade 8 or just a good solid player?

Any information would be well recieved. I will be buying the grade handbooks for more information, but just wanted to know if I need to buy the books for the early grades (1-2) or if i would be able to start at the intermediate (3-5) or higher grades (6-8).

Many thanks in advance,

Will Hart.