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British music schools run the largest instrumental exams around the world, with well over a million candidates each year taking grades from Trinity College London and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
Products of the height of British Empire, the grades were an attempt to introduce a universal standard of musicianship in the western classical tradition. These very British tests have survived into the modern era and continue to shape the way music is taught. Now global businesses, these rather traditional organisations operate today in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe and are facing new challenges in an increasingly connected world. With the growth of a middle class in countries like China, a classical music education - and evidence of that - has become a symbol of aspiration as well as culture.

Russell Finch follows an examiner to one of the fastest growing markets for music exams, Thailand, where he meets some of the candidates taking British music exams today. He hears their stories and finds out what they want to get out of their music learning, and why the grading system is important.

He explores the reasons why British institutions are dominating music education internationally and the effect of this worldwide, homogenised approach to music learning.

(Photo: Chinese little girl playing piano with her mother at home. Credit: Getty Images)