What does everyone think of the new piano exam pieces to be released this week for 2009-2010?

http://www.abrsmpublishing.dloadshop.com/

nice Grade 8 summary here:

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=31340

Oh wow, I shouldn't have looked at that! My daughter is preparing to take Grade 2 in the autumn but I made the mistake of playing snippets of the new list. There is the Mazurka from Coppelia by Delibes which is such a lovely piece of music and also Reviewing the Situation from Oliver. She's been in a production of Oliver and is dancing in Coppelia in the summer, so now I forsee a complete down-tools on The Bee, Balletto et al, although she likes them! Is the spring the earliest possible date for these?

I haven't looked at the others in detail yet but I didn't think the Grade 1 was so inspiring at a quick glance (but then, nor was this years)

thanks for the info 'imlovinit'!

i just heard grade 7 list c pieces
from the sample, they are nice!
especially from joanna macgregor and ravel

Just got my parcel from music exchange...off to investigate!

I think the Grade 8 Pieces are excellent. I love the Bach P & F ...for once there's a list A piece that I actually enjoy listening to! The Partita is OK too.

Not sure about the B list yet - I'll have to listen more to the Mozart, but the Mendelssohn Sonata is growing on me fast.

The C list is excellent and there are a few pieces that I'll learn whether I play them in the exam or not.

Alligator Crawl is nice - I've got a version of Fats playing it that's much better than the ABRSM recording on the site which is a bit straight for me ... btw - anyone know where to get the score?

I quite like the Liszt and Rachmaninov, but my favourite of them all is the Gershwin which you could really vamp-up.

It's also introduced me to some lesser known pieces like the Copland. Still looking through them all - didn't buy the CD this time because I had alot of the pieces already.

I'm aiming for the exam next summer so 12 months to go!

Dave.

Its in the grade 8 book (I went and bought it just for this and C4 - cant remember the name though)

The Buccaneer by Malcolm Arnold is on the new Grade 6 list. I've just been playing it from Real Twentieth Century Repertoire. A great fun piece.

Ooh - I was trying to avoid having to buy the book, as I have the Bach P & F already. I guess it's got to be their transcription as well ... Oh well I guess you get some more pieces.

Here's what's a website says is in the book : Is it correct?

Contains three pieces from each of Lists A & B & six from List C from the Grade 8 syllabus. Cimarosa Sonata Dmin; Handel Fugue No6 Cmin; Hindemith Interludium & Fuga secunda; Beethoven Finale; Clementi Allegro con brio; Mendelssohn Allegretto con espressione; York Bowen Prelude in Emin; Brahms Intermezzo Bmin; Elias Moto Perpetuo; Piazzolla Retrato de Alfrdo Gobbi; Prokofiev March Op33 No1; Fats Waller Alligator Crawl.

Dave.

ps. How useless is the ABRSM publishing site??? I can't find anything on it ...

Yes - I'm afraid spring 09 is the earliest you can do the new syllabus.

I only heard very brief snippets, but I wasn't immediately grabbed by the grade one pieces, either.

I've just gone out and bought the 2, the 3 and the 5 as those are the most immediate for me - I've got pupils due to start those in Sept. I've also got pupils due to start the 1 but I think I will stick to LCM for that one; I got into it this year after the AB was so uninspiring and it seems popular.

I really like all of the ones I've bought. The 2 is lovely, the 3 has Top Cat in it which I have played about 20 times over already tonight because it's so addictive! The Saint Seans elephant also has lots of appeal. The Grade 5 has Schumann's Of Foreign Lands and Peoples in it which is the most gorgeous piece of music, and I'm very taken with the Mike Cornick In The Groove.

I think AB have surpassed themselves with these. I think the Grade 2 is harder than this years (which I always thought was rather easy for Grade 2, to be honest), but the others seem comparable.

If anyone has bought or looked at any of the other Grades can you post your thoughts here? I'll have a pupil on virtually every grade at some point over the duration of this syllabus, so it would be good to hear opinions on the ones I haven't yet got.

Same here! I grew up with Top Cat - it's a fondly remembered tune from my childhood. My daughter is unlikely to be looking at grade 3 anytime soon - but I couldn't resist buying the book purely for Top Cat (she'll grow into it - with any luck by 2010 )

There's a good selection of pieces for grade 3. And the scale requirements look more manageable as well. No broken chords!

Um, very useless indeed! The assorted syllabi are now on the main AB site, so all is not entirely lost.

I like the new Grade VIII piano syllabus, and have in the past fumbled my way through the Bach Partita and the Debussy Arabesque (from lists A and C respectively), so will bear the new syllabus in mind if I'm not going to be ready with the 2007-08 pieces by next spring (which I jolly well hope I will be!).

I'm not overjoyed to see a contrary harmonic minor scale at grade 3 !

Listened to the Oscar Peterson Jazz excerise one of the List C pieces in Gd 6 last night, I love it. Just bought the book!

Yes, but it's only A minor, there's only the one sharp to deal with. I'm so pleased they've taken B minor out of Grade 2 I'm in the mood to forgive them anything (it might not last ).

Yes, I agree about B minor and have been looking forward to seeing the back of it at that grade, for sure.

I find students seem to struggle with the sound of harmonic contrary scales - even at the higher grades. We'll see !

Grade 6 list - "Tune for Toru" sounds very nice indeed. I'll definately be having a look at that piece for a forume concert!

Never heard of the composer either!

Yep, it definitely sounds right up your street Stu

im INCREDIBLY annoyed!
I HAVE TO DO B MINOR FOR GRADE TWO AND THREE!!


Grade two is under a week away!

Friday 11th @ 12:09 - 12:21

Dminor contrary will be easy, i began doing that when i was going grade 1ish, for fun because its my favourite scale

D minor is my favourite scale too. Good luck with the Grade 2.

ET

Will the Gershwin in list C be from "Meet George Gershwin at the Keyboard"? Is this the piece arrangement that is on the DipABRSM syllabus?

Yes.

Does anyone know whether the CDs for 2009-2010 are playable/copyable in a computer?

Thanks.

I paid 99p for one of the pieces - I just seemed to get an unprotected MP3 file. Havn't tried playing it on anything but my PC yet but there doesn't seem to be anything special about it. You could down load the files and burn 'em onto a CD!

Ordered the sheet msuic for Tune for Toru so you may here it someday Carol!!

Looking forward to it!

I played the Minuet listed for Grade 3 for my Grade 2 exam (in those days it was thought to be by Bach).

I don't know about the new CDs, but with the last lot, theyworked fine on my computer, although I do seem to be part of a minority.

We can only hope that for-profit, commercial ABRSM publishing has learned from their previous mistake and realizes that many of us living in the year 2008 will load the CD onto our listening device and never look at the CD again. Copy protecting the CD makes the music inaccessible or extremely inconvenient for the majority of users in this day and age. Offering downloads is the first sign that they have also decided to enter into this century and I would be very surprised if they continued with their insulting and student unfriendly policy of trying to restrict access to the very same music that the ABRSM charity is supposed to be promoting...

When ABRSM puts the "make money" cart in front of the "promote music education" horse we will all be the poorer for it.

Hello, I've just found this thread! I have this piece in my old Classics to Modern 5 (and when I say old - it's 1977 - I don't know if the pieces are still the same). I love playing it, however incompetently; it's so beautiful. My son is now starting to play grade 5 level pieces, and when he comes to choose what to do for the exam I'm going to try and get him to do this one - he'll play it much better than I do now, and it will be lovely to listen to someone else playing it.

I think all the pieces in 'Classics to Modern' are in their proper form rather than easy arrangements (the ones i recognise certainly are). So, assuming there is only one 'Of foreign lands and people' by schumann, it is the same piece.

Thank you

Well I've bought the grade 4 and 5 books (I don't want to do the exams, it's more for the sake of challenging myself to learn new pieces).

In grade 4, I like the list C pieces most. I like the Sonatina and the rag quite a lot. The Mike Cornick "In the Groove" for grade 5 is pretty neat as well. I really wish I was a grade 8 pianist though. I looked at some Youtube videos of pieces and I loved the Alligator crawl. I can almost play the opening walking bass, but that's as far as I'd ever be able to do.

I think I preferred the old G8 syllabus personally, especially since it included the two best Haydn sonatas in it. The "Alligator Crawl" is the best piece, but they seem to have made a few cuts to it. Is the full sheet music available anywhere?

I agree. I find that the new G8 syllabus contains more obscure repertoire.

Also, I was hoping that the new List B would include at least one set of theme and variations. Instead, all of the non-sonata-form movements are rondos.

To answer my own question: yes they are!
(I just got the grade 8 CDs)

I'm not a pianist but being a fan of all things Piazolla have got hold of the 'Retrato de Alfredo Gobbi' piece (grade 8 syllabus) and am loving it. I'm unsure of how to tackle some of those amazing chords in the LH though. (I can't even reach them using both R & L hands).

Just stick at it, and one day you will be.

This is good.

But this is not a smart thing to say. The first step in getting better is to believe that it is possible ... and not to limit yourself by believing that it is not. If you really want to get to Grade 8, and you are a fairly normal person then you should be able to do it. It is astonishing how much you can accomplish by steady practice. Over a few weeks or months ithe improvement may not seem much, but when you look back after a few years - it can be amazing.

Believe in yourself.

The one grade 8 new syllabus piece that I really love is C4. I can't remember what it's called but I think it's amazing! The only problem is is that it has repeated tenth chords in the left hand, and I can barely stretch that far Is there any way that I can still play it?

I love this one too. It's called Retrato something or other, but thats as far as i could remember

You can either play the chords spread or possibly as thirds rather than tenths. You might find that there's some indication in the teachers notes book.

Yep that's the one!

Are you allowed to alter the chords like that though? Where would I find the teachers notes book?

Your teacher probably has it, as it has all the sylabus lists in, but most music shops should have it.

Ok thanks

Piazzolla Retrato de Alfredo Gobbi

It is amazing. I've ordered a copy, just for fun, and am waiting for it to arrive.

Piazolla - great composer - but one you can easily overlook. I missed him for 40 years, until meeting his Histoire du Tango (ordered a copy of that too!) through a bit luck a few months ago.

Just love those Spanish and South American Rhythms on piano - late Scarlatti, Albeniz, Turino, Granados, Falla, Mompou, Rodrigo, Piazzolla, Villa-Lobos, Urrutia, Ginastera... dozens more ...

The AB teachers notes book only goes up to grade 7.
Teachers teaching up to that level will know ways of dealing with notes you can't reach.

Oh, Thanks, nevermind.

[quote name='sbhoa' date='Jul 30 2008, 10:08 PM' post='728368']
[quote name='sarah123' post='728362' date='Jul 30 2008, 09:54 PM']
[quote name='PianoSecrets-x' post='728359' date='Jul 30 2008, 09:42 PM']
The AB teachers notes book only goes up to grade 7.
[/quote]

I'm sure I've seen a grade 8 one

I think you right about lists A and B. They have some nice stuff in them this year, but last year's lists were exceptional. On the other hand this year's list C is awesome.

[Incidentally - where did they find that awful murdering of Bach's Prelude WTC II No 12?]

Blimey, I sounded so pessimistic in that post. I think the third quote was probably meant to say something like "but that's as for as I'd be able to go at the moment. Also, on the G4 syllabus, I've started the Valse Lente by Vaughan Williams (B3) and it's my new favourite.

I've just had another look over it, and playing the chords spread is definitely doable with a bit of practice, and for some of them you can take the top note with the right hand.

What about those amazing chords in bars 13-15? (The octave plus F Bb D, 8ve + E A C sharp etc). I don't have the ABRSM edition, so it may be that it's different in mine, but I see no earthly way of tackling the one in bar 14 apart from either playing the 8ve or[b] playing the chord on top. The other two could be played with L and R hands (but that wouldn't allow for the full note value), or spreading them (but that would be pretty tricky). As I said I'm no pianist, so if my question verges on the dim - my apologies.