Acoustic Guitar

Welcome to our ACOUSTIC GUITAR syllabus – where you can pick and strum your way through our selection of eight Graded Exams. There’s a total mixture of tunes to choose from within our core syllabus from gentle and enduring classics such as ‘Scarborough Fair’ which is very much rooted in our folk traditions or the haunting lyrical nature of ‘Amazing Grace’.Or perhaps ‘Layla’? Written in 1970 and considered to be one of rock’s definitive love songs. Its composer Eric Clapton is said to have been inspired by a character in Persian literature; the song relates a tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and who went crazy because he could not marry her.

Do take the opportunity of introducing your own favourite pieces of music within your exam, if you wish.  This is possible thanks to NME’s ‘Own Choice’ procedure and details can be found in the dropdown menu under the tab marked ‘Own Choice’ zone on our website.

Candidates registering for one of our Acoustic Guitar exams may opt to play one piece taken from the equivalent Grade listed in our Electric Guitar syllabus (i.e. one item of repertoire is interchangeable).