Check a music exam video before upload
Choose the board and the video. Reelpass reads the file's own structure to find its size, format, codecs, running time, picture size and sound, and checks them and the file name against the board's published limits: ABRSM 2GB, Trinity 3GB, LCME 1GB.
Nothing is uploaded. Your video, candidate names and pieces stay in this browser; the checking and the compressing run on your own device. The board's own page is the authority; check it before you upload. Reelpass checks your file against the published guidance on the date shown and cannot promise a board will accept it.
1. The board and the video
Or drop the video here. The file is read on this device and never uploaded.
The file name
Choose a video to check its name. Letters, numbers, underscores and dashes only, and the name must not be blank.
The checklist a machine cannot do
These rules are about how the video was recorded. Tick each one that is true. For what each means, read recording a continuous take.
0 of 6 ticked.
Rehearse the start of the recording
Practise the holds before you record, so the photo ID and the music stay up long enough.
- Show the opening of the music to the camera: 10 seconds (a Reelpass suggestion; the board sets no time)
Elapsed 0.0 of 10 seconds.
Ready.
The candidate
As the board writes it, for example Piano or French Horn.
Programme and printed summary
Type the programme in the order it is played. It prints with the checks and the checklist on one page for your records.
Exam video summary
Our own layout for your records. Type the programme into the board's online form yourself.
| Candidate | |
|---|---|
| Board and grade | ABRSM Performance Grades, Grade 1 |
| Instrument | |
| File |
Programme in performance order
Type the pieces above and they print here in order.
Checklist
- Not ticked: The whole exam is one continuous recording, including any retuning or break during the performance.
- Not ticked: The introduction announces the name, subject and grade, and each piece's title, composer and list number in performance order.
- Not ticked: The opening of the own-choice piece is shown to the camera: title, clefs, key and time signature, tempo marking and a few lines.
- Not ticked: Nothing in the performance section has been edited; any edit is a small fix to the introduction only.
- Not ticked: You have watched the whole file, start to finish, with sound, after any compression.
- Not ticked: You have the programme ready for the online form: each piece in performance order with list number, composer and title, own choice marked.
Checked against "Performance Grades Guidance", read 27 September 2026. The board's own page is the authority. Reelpass cannot promise a board accepts a file.
What ABRSM asks for
From "Performance Grades Guidance" (No date is shown on the page.) read on 27 September 2026. ABRSM's own page is the authority; check it before you upload: https://www.abrsm.org/en-gb/performance-grades/guidance
| Size limit | 2GB, checked as 2.00 GB. The board writes the limit in GB. Reelpass reads 1 GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes, the smaller reading, so a file under it is under either reading. |
|---|---|
| Formats | MP4, MOV, MPG |
| File name | Letters, numbers, underscores and dashes only, and the name must not be blank. |
| Editing | One continuous recording. A small edit to the introduction is allowed only to add missing information; no edit of any kind to the performance, and no editing after the exam. |
| Introduction | Before the performance: announce your name, the subject and grade, and each piece's title, composer and list number in performance order; show the opening of your own-choice piece to the camera. |
| Photo ID | Grades 6 to 8: hold the ID for at least 10 seconds, then the face for 10 seconds. |
| Upload window | 28 days from booking. You can upload the recording only once, so choose the right file. |
| Recording | The page advises 720p at 30 frames per second. Higher resolutions make files that may be too large to upload. |
Change a number (if ABRSM has changed its page)
Your numbers are kept in this browser and marked as your setting wherever they are used.
A Reelpass setting, not a board rule: how far under the limit a compressed file aims.
How the check works
An MP4 or MOV file carries a header that lists every track, its codec, its picture size, how long it runs and where each frame sits. Reelpass reads that header in your browser, the way a video player does before it plays, and asks your browser's video decoder whether it could decode the picture. No frame is decoded to check a file, so a 2GB video is checked in a second or two.
A machine cannot see whether the recording is one continuous take, whether the introduction names every piece, or whether the photo ID was held up long enough. Those are on the checklist for you to tick. For each board's rules, see the guide; for a file that is too big, see how to shrink an exam video.