I have finally got around to buying the books for the new violin syllabus and wondered what people thought of the pieces... To me, they seem a bit harder than last year's but there does seem to be quite a nice mix...

Any thoughts from teachers or students?

W

Both my teachers think that the new syllabus is harder then the old one.

Guess I picked the wrong time to start playing again.

Hi Yes I have bought the new violin sylabus grade 4, what grades have your bought? If you are doing grade 4 have you chosen any peices yet?

I've just bought the new Grade 8 syllabus. The pieces in there are lovely though. I've chosen a nice Beethoven sonata for one of my pieces.

HK

Have just been for my lesson, at my last lesson my teacher said I should get the Grade 3 pieces for the first session next year but at tonights lesson she said I may as well get the Grade 4 book.

I think I should stop practicing so much, I'm making a rod for my own back,

I have been working on the 'new' Grade 3 syllabus and I love almost all the tunes in it - I think they're the correct combination of challenge and progression on from Grade 2.. but I am an adult who was a professional on a different instrument. I think the pieces would be quite hard for kids.

I also had the Grade 3 pieces from last session and I found them a bit dull and not so challenging.

I'm really glad I put my exam back to March 08 to use the new syllabus.

My impression, from looking at the old and new grade 5 books, is that the new syllabus is looking for more musicality than before. That's not to say that the technical demands are less - I don't think they are - but that mere technique on its own won't be sufficient to do the pieces justice.

I certainly agree with you about the musicality required - but, if anything, I would say that the technical demands are also greater. So far I have only looked at the lower grades but I would have thought the average child would find some of these very challenging indeed!

W

My 9 year old daughter is finding them difficult. her teacher told her they were harder than last years. She's getting there with Rumba (C3?) and is playing Lady Hudson's Puffle at the moment. She says they are boring!!!! I quite like the pieces though....

Rumba is a 'tad' boring I must admit, Old Joe Clark is BRILLIANT I can't stop playing it, so is Sweet Lorraine I think..
the one I find most challenging is Grande Valse Brillante the middle section where you have to use your bow lightly bouncing and fast, I find it difficult to make this nice and even throughout!

The new grade 3 pieces are harder - more shifts etc. I was quite happy to breeze through the current grade 3 syllabus - I quite liked the pieces and I've played selected pieces from the new grade 3 syllabus.

Onto grade 4...

The Grade 3 pieces I've been working on are Lady Hunsdons Puffe, Mio Babbino Caro, Grand Valse Brilliant, Sweet Lorraine and Rumba.

Lady H is a nice piece, keep the crotchets short and give the longer notes some welly to make them really sing.

Mio Babbino Caro might throw some playes who haven't developed any vibrato yet, it really needs it to sing imo.

Rumba is just a nice easy bit of light relief from the other pieces.

Sweet Lorraine is a great piece, really swing it and enjoy the style.


All this is probably academic though as I've now got to pick out some Grade 4 pieces when the book arrives,
I've really been enjoying the Grade 3 music though. A great learning experience.

I'm playing all the pieces apart from the Beethoven (although I try it occasionally).

I really like Lady Hudson's Puffle but I play it too fast and can trip myself up I love music from this period anyway so take great pleasure in the Bflats.

I do like 'Jeanie' and 'Old Joe Clark' but Jeanie sounds squeaky played so high up and (sorry! but to me it's a piece that should be played in the lower registers...) Joe is a bit lifeless

My favourite has to be O mio babbino caro BUT I'm still just working on intonation and vibrato so haven't really sorted out my bowing and dynamics on this one. This piece IS going to take until next March to learn to play properly because I know how I want it to sound and it's going to take time to build up the technique and security to play it the way I want. At the moment it sounds awful (even my husband told me so last night ) but I know what I'm trying to achieve so I'm just going to work away at it.

The Grande Valse is lovely (I used to play this a great speed on the piano ) but I don't know anything about 'bouncing' bow techniques so I just use short bows? I just make it sound light??

I love Sweet Lorraine and really swing this one along making it all jazzy and sloooopy

The Rumba is nice too and is the only one I play with the accomaniment CD at the moment because it seems really easy

Lottie, I am SURE you could play the others with the CD accompaniment! Do it, for the fun of it I do too at least a couple of times at every practice, I like to also practice a lot without the CD so go over the 'rough' bits

Sweet Lorraine is so swingy that I dance to it (can't just stop my body from swinging too when I play this one LOL )

Grade 5 can become a glass ceiling for many students and the new pieces have hit some kids like a 10 tonne truck. One or two are struggling with both the technical and musical issues - some of which is simply down to a lack of practice - but, even an 11 year old (generally) will have difficulty in finding life experiences which they truly understand and give them a feel for how the music should be expressed.

Older students (mid-teens and adults) however, have a lot more experience to draw on and they also tend to be far more pragmatic when it comes to dealing with the technical issues. Maturity (or in the case of children, 'an old head on young shoulders') is definitely going to be an asset in the higher grades of the new syllabus.

I think the Grade 3 pieces are SO much harder than last years!