For my C list piece for Grade 6 I am playing Rumba Toccata by Paul Harvey.
I hate to sound modest, but I have found it really easy to play and I was talking to a friend in my school and she finds it really hard. My piano teacher said that some people find it difficult and others hard. It doesn't seem like a skill thing, more of a technical issue and the way your brain confuses the notes. But what do you all think about it?

I love this piece and it's one I've found worth while (and quite easy)to memorise. I's so full of patterns that meorising it is not too bad; plus it has to go fast so you can't really keep referring to the notes all the time.

Your not alone - I found it EXTREMLY easy compaired to my other pieces.

By the way, I find some grade 6 pieces next to impossible to play, there are so difficult, and some, I can sightread quite easily...

I am learning this too, and have found it fairly easy to play. However, I am still debating between this one and the Valse in the alternative list which I feel gives a nice contrast to A3 and B2 which are my other choices.

When are you taking your Gd 6?

Ant

I plan on doing:
A2 - Gigue - Handel (This is ok, and not too hard)
B? - Prelude in C# minor - Heller (Nice but goodness me it's fast)
C2 - Rumba Toccata

Ha, I have to get my Grade 5 theory done before I can do G6 but hopefully that won't be too long. Not in the very near future is the answer...

Thanks for all the replies. I agree that it is easy to memorise. But if we all find it easy, why on earth does it suggest a slower speed for the exam...ah well!

Quite like the Rumba but get frustrated by my own rhymically-inept moments so decided to to the Four Birds one instead.

I think this is because C2 is more skill and technique...

But on the CD, it's SOOOOOOOO fast...So how fast ARE you meant to play it at? And what about the B1 Prelude? Because on the CD, it's super duper fast too.

how fast is super duper fast? 118 bpm seems a fine speed for the Rumba to me! The prelude seems to be very fast yet A1 is very slow. by the time i can take gr6 I'm going to be very bored of these pieces. They are not challenging enough as it is. How much harder are the Gr7 pieces?

As a teacher to diploma level I have to comment here.

The CDs that the ABRSM produce, whether Grade 1 violin , Grade 6 piano or Grade 8 flute do not represent what is required to pass that particular grade. They show the IDEAL performance. I have heard performances of Grade 8 violin pieces that would not go amiss in the Wigmore Hall!!!!

Remember - the CD is giving you the ideal technical performace. Try to make the piece your own

Pianoboe - if you find the grade 6 pieces too easy, then you won't mind letting us know when you get a distinction!

Haha - fat chance...I can't do the aurals or scales, but it just seems that I'm going to have to stick with them a long time before I have the theory to do it and by that time I'll be completely fed up of them and probably able to play them in my sleep. Is it really worth it?

I'm not sure that i'd call some of them ideal.
I've heard exam pieces on the CDs played in a way that I definately don't like and wouldn't want to try to emulate.

It is a nice easy piece to learn as far as notes are concerned.

Are you sure that you have put in all the accents, dynamics, is the brilliante actually brilliante etc etc..... I've taught this piece a good few times now and listened to many very dull performances of this. My advice would be not to take it for granted that this piece is easy. Quite often there's a piece like this in the exams and they often carry the most disappointing marks.

PS It IS supposed to be horrendously quick.

they play the pieces too fast in ALL the abrsm cds i've ever got or listened too. I find them helpful when learning the piece or checking the rhythm of something but I think its best not to try and copy whats on the cd. For my xam pieces I'm playing all of them a bit slower on the cd because
a) short hands and arms mean I can't move them as quickly (for jumps etc.)
b) and I think they all sound nicer slightly slower

and it is nice to put a bit of yourself into what you play.

The problem is there is no such thing as an 'ideal' performance, but I'd be very surprised if the performances on the CDs (which I haven't heard) don't represent something that would score 29 or 30 in the exam (the 29 being not matching examiners' tastes) as they're played by concert pianists. Yes, they won't be to everyone's taste, but they do represent one example of something that would be considered a good performance in the exam. If the pieces were played to 20/21 standard on the CD, which would clearly represent a few technical problems, then there would be reason to complain. Tastes will always differ though .

I do think you're right about copying the CD though: it's a bad thing for the exams, sure take some inspiration from it, but some people do seem to wish to copy every detail of it and see that as the only performance that will be acceptable in the exam; clearly it isn't. The examiner has probably never heard the CD!

Regarding the original question of this thread: I often find that the list C pieces take less learning technically than those from the other two lists, and that's certainly not because I enjoy that style of playing more so have more practice of it . I wonder why this seems to be the case .

Yes. Same here. I'm slowing my grd6 pieces down too...

1. I want to sound CALMER in the exam!!
2. If I'm nervous on the day, I'll end up playing super duper fast... =]=]=]

Ok.

So slower does sound nicer...

Me too - I always start at half the speed I want to because I know it's faster than I think!