The very first London College of Music examinations were held at the Music Mart on Friday, November 8, 2019, in Kingston, Jamaica.
They were two electric guitar entrants. from the ART centre led by guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Fitzroy Bennett. They were Aayush Jain and Chrystal Elvey who are both teenagers.
The exams were conducted by Philip Aldred, the Chief Examiner of the London College of Music.
The London College of Music has been a leader in providing certification worldwide to the "everyman". They have moved beyond classical music to enable exams to be conducted for a wide range of needs from Leisure play to professional Pop & jazz Certification. They also offer Classical, Teaching diplomas and Church Music.
Fitzroy Bennett, himself a professional musician with many years of experience sees the London College of Music exams as a solution for the longstanding problem of not being able to provide exams that are relevant to his students. "It was so frustrating for my parents and I not to be able to find an exam offered on the electric guitar". Fitzroy and one of his parents had spent years appealing to other exam boards to offer electric guitar with no luck.
Seretse Small, who once was a musical partner of Fitzroy, was also seeking solutions for certification in areas such as Musical Theatre and Reggae had become the representative for the London College of Music exams through his company, Avant Academy of Music approached him about using the LCM exams as the solution to his electric guitar certification problem.
It took two years with lots of challenges with getting everything organized and ordering the books along with communicating the syllabi requirements so that the students and teachers could prepare for the exam. Once the exam was completed, Fitzroy indicated that he and his students were happy and that they were now looking to the future with more hope. On the day following the exam, he said, "I am excited about the prospects moving forward and am ready to enroll my students for Electronic Keyboards, Drums, Violin, Bass Guitar and the Guitar. There are now more opportunities for myself and my students to be certified in the music genres that we love"
The next exams will be conducted in November 2020. Go to the website for more information on the Syllabi and what LCM offers.
https://lcme.uwl.ac.uk/
For more information on how to register in Jamaica, you can call (876) 946-0828 or (876) 631-4216 or email mujahid.dawes@avantacademyofmusic.com