I've just scraped a pass at Grade 7 and although I want to progress to Grade 8 (and have got the book already!) I know I need to do some work on my technique before I attempt it. My Grade 7 examiner said that I need to improve my finger strength and flexibility and general technique building before I go on to Grade 8.

My teacher doesn't do a lot of technique with me so I've resolved to work on it myself. The only book of "exercises" I have is the Hanon "Virtuoso Pianist" book II and haven't done that for ages, so I'd really appreciate any suggestions for technique and strength-building studies and exercises that would help me bridge the gap between a scrape through at Grade 7 and Grade 8!

I'd also appreciate any suggestions for repertoire building ideas for about this level.

Scales

I didn't say that...

Anyhoos, I can't make much of a suggestion but that's the first to come to my head I'm afraid.

Lots of luck in it, just passed my grade 8 piano... doesn't feel like I'm grade 8 though

Hi Lady Moonlight. Congratulations on passing grade 7! Even if you feel let down by your mark, a pass is a pass and I hope you enjoy moving on to grade 8 material. I did G7 a few months ago, so I'm not in a great position to advise, but I'd be happy to pass on the technique areas my teacher and I worked on. Which pieces did you play?

These are the main areas we worked on while learning the exam pieces:

Making the melody sing out, especially in the Tchaikovsky (B2) where the melody moves about through 3 parts. How to adapt your hand position to emphasise certain notes in a chord. Bach inventions are really good for practising separating out and emphasising voices.

Half and quarter pedalling to give an echoey sound without blurring the melody - Debussy is good for this.

Soft notes without losing full tone (using arm weight). Debussy good for this too.

Articulation of baroque pieces - there's a thread on articulating Bach, which describes the way my current teacher taught me, and which I used in the exam for my A piece. My old teacher never told me this, though, and I used to play baroque all legato unless there were stacatto marks - wrong, apparently!

My current teacher has never given me any exercises (except scales, etc), but rather steered me towards pieces which will require a certain technique, which is why I've mentioned composers here, rather than citing exercises.

Best of luck preparing for grade 8! I'm having a break for now while I learn some grade 7 repertoire - there's such a lot of it.

Hello there.
Well done on your recent exam success and don't be ashamed of your mark; what kind of sad sack has their exam mark carved on their tombstone anyway? There is more to life than distinctions!

Technique. I'm no expert but have just been told that I need to keep my fingers bent. We have probably all been told this but I'm STILL having to be reminded at my very advanced age. Do you need to remember this, too? I was also told to consider the wrist; put your hands in piano playing position with the wrists high (preferably at the piano but can probably be practised away from the instrument) then drop the wrists + heels of the hands down. Practise scales in 6ths doing this on each change of chord and observe how it affects the quality of the sound. Try this when playing slurred pairs of chords, dropping the wrist on the second chord. Generally try to keep a flexible wrist.

I have seen recommendations for various books on technique i.e The Art of Piano Playing by Neuhaus (forgotten his first name) and there are bound to be others. It is a HUGE subject.

Hanon is good but excessively boring and your hands and arms will ache - take care not to overdo these. Probably ok for when you are tired and not capable of more creative practise.

Good luck.

Mel

For finger strength and gererally good techniqe - scales, arpreggios and 5 finger excersises such as Hanon (bk 1 before bk 2, and yes I know bk 2 does contain most of the scales and arpeggios).

Otherwise, just pick pieces that are supposed to be this standard but you can't play: The chances are that the reasons you can't play them is that that's where your weaknesses are!

For the "correct" position, I strongly suspect that there is much variation, but with certain common factors: check out the vidios of famous pianists on youtube.

I suspect I'm about grade 7 standard myself, though I aspire to grade 8 and beyond (and my last exam was grade 5 in the early 1970's!).

Have fun!

Hi,

I think the 'Foundations of Pianoforte Technique' by Geoffrey Tankard is brilliant. It tells you how to practise the exercises in the Preface and there is a mixture of different kinds of exercises organised into sections which will cover all your needs. It's best to focus on just one or two different ones per day as doing loads of aimless exercises won't help much. You could build up to say five a day! (s'cus the analogy).
The book states they are graded up to a Grade 8 level.

There is a second book by Tankard and Harrison based on an hour a day (there is a timetable suggestion in front of the book as a guide) - level from Grade 7 to concert standard. Probably best to start with the first book which I use a lot with my adult pupils.

Good luck

The tankard books are fantastic - if you work through them you should do very well

Thanks for your replies - I've ordered the Tankard book BusyBee suggested. I definitely need some structure to my practice!