Hello fellow pianists

Just wondered if anyone else is planning to sit grade 5 before Christmas, and if so, what pieces are you playing? I'm doing A1 (the Mozart andante), B1 (La chevaleresque - I love that piece!) and C1 (Jackson Street Blues - another lovely piece but I haven't even started looking at it yet ).

What are people's thoughts on the exam? I think the scales will be manageable with a LOT more practise - there seem to be so many to learn - but sight reading and aurals are worrying me a bit - I'm never too keen on the singing part!

I think I'll be doing grade 5 before Christmas as well. I can't recall the names of the pieces, but roughtly I'm going to do A6 (Handel - which I haven't started looking at yet), B3 ('Romance') and C1 (Jackson Street Blues). The scales are a fairly big jump from grade 4, but, like you, I think they are manageable.

I often wonder about whether to take exams at all, but I think grade 5 represents a landmark along the way. It also keeps you in touch with the standard of sight-reading and what's required in the aural examination. Someone recently told me they started singing in their aural and the examiner raised a sardonic eyebrow! I'm finding my sight reading is improving rapidly by just picking up pieces that are more difficult than I can play, and just 'having a go'.

Good luck with everything

Good luck to you too!

I hope my sight reading is improving too - I find the published books of sight reading for each grade are pretty awful to say the least, so I prefer to just use other books of pieces and play a few bits here and there. For some reason I always find the sight reading in the exam easier I think I'm going to, but perhaps I've just been lucky...this time it could be terrible!!

I heard Jackson Street Blues being played at a Festival on Saturday. I didn't know what standard the piece was but I'm sure my daughter would love it. She won't be taking G5 anytime soon though.

Good luck to both of you when the time comes.

Hi - I want to take Grade 5 in November (although my piano teacher suggested November 2009 ). I have already learnt A1 Mozart, B3 Reinecke and C1Jackson Street Blues and am almost there with the scales. Good luck to everyone!

Well done for the learning the pieces so early! I'm finding the Jackston Street Blues really hard - it seems so much more difficult than the A and B pieces - far too many chords for my liking!

I found it hard at first and then one day it suddenly "clicked". Now it's probably the easiest for me.

(I like your signature - I'm doing a PhD in a completely unrelated subject too )

My exam's tomorrow!!

I'm doing A1: Mozart's Andante in B flat, B3: Reineke's Romance and C1: Jackson Street Blues.

Am feeling rather nervous, especially on scales... there're just so many to remember!
Anyone else taking Grade 5 piano soon?

I found Jackson Street Blues hard at first, just because you had to maintain the timing all the way through. It's straight forward now, thankfully.

And I'm doing a PhD in an unrelated subject, too!

I'm doing the exact same pieces! They are all lovely. However...i am sitting my exam in November (good luck anyway!)

What a coincidence! I was also working on these same three pieces until my teacher put the exam back until next summer and I had to switch to the new syllabus! I really liked the Mozart and the Reinke ones though.

Good Luck with your exams

Woo hoo - come on the PhD-ers!

Jackson Street Blues is coming on slowly but surely. I love it though! I'm beginning to think that my B piece is the most difficult - it's Le C... (can't remember the title!). My fingers can't cope with the semiquavers at the end!

driftwood and amber_piano, good luck with your exams!

(P/s: Of the 3 pieces, I enjoyed practising B3 best...)

I've already changed my mind about one of the pieces! I think I'm going to do the Schumann waltz instead of B3 - that's if I can get the speed sorted out! (See other thread!)

Tortellini, I love the Schumann Waltz! The music's very pretty (especially the middle section). I learnt it before for class (from a Keith Snell book) but I didn't play it well enough. It's a fast waltz and I've problem with the speed. The pedalling's tricky too. But I personally thought it was a little easier to learn/play than Reinecke's "Romance". Less notes and more repetitions. I enjoyed learning and playing both pieces though.

Of my 3 exam pieces, I enjoyed B3 the most. I love music from the Romantic period!

Tangerinerose - How did it go??

How's everyone else's preparation coming on? My pieces are more or less ready (well my teacher says my Schumann waltz wouldn't pass but I disagree!) Still have a few scales missing though. Haven't even tried the aural yet

I haven't looked at the aural yet either, and I'm getting a bit worried about the sight-singing part of it! My scales are ok, but the contrary motion ones get me in a mess sometimes, especially C# minor - I've being playing it over and over every day and it still takes me at least 4 goes to get it right! Pieces are coming along I think (I'm doing A1, B1 and C1), but they're still too slow and quite often I make mistakes and end up stopping halfway through And as for sight-reading, I think that could only be described as appalling...

Good luck to everyone else sitting exams this session! I've been told that the earliest mine can be is the beginning of November, so I have at least a month to panic...I mean prepare.

I can't get that C# contrary motion scale right either! I'm just hoping that the examiner doesn't pick it! Two weeks till the exam.... and this morning I couldn't play any of the pieces through without a mistake - aaargh!

I'm planning to take Grade 5 next June and have already got all my pieces (all of them alternative ones) ready as I very much like to do them well in advance and let them sink in (I need a lot of this in general if I am to feel really confident). I've done the Handel Toccata, Massenet's Mélodie and Espagnol. I believe it seems quite an easy Grade 5 and the pieces I've seen for Grade 6 are a lot more demanding than these.
Ref scales, I still struggle with C# minor (contrary motion) and with some of the arpeggios but all in all I'd be ready for November but don't whether there's a session in my area in Italy.
However, I've recently changed piano teacher and the new one suggested speeding up the scales a bit (up to semiminim = 80 !!) and I wonder why ...
Theory Grade 6 (I passed Grade 5 in June) seems quite a bit of a stumbling block, given all the harmony we need to master but I've got a few months ahead so won't dismay just now ...

Hi Juan - I don't know where you are in Italy but I take my exams in Milan and they definitely have a session in November!

Yes, I did hear from Martin Biggs there is a session in Italy in November but I'm in Padova and I prefer to take the exam somewhere around here (prov. of Vicenza, to be precise), where they have a session in June. I can use these following months to get some Grade 6 ready (there is a piece by Scarlatti I've already started to look at ... and a Gnosienne by Satie I'd very much enjoy playing). The long time ahead until June 2010, which is when I'd take my Grade 6 exam will give the extra security we adult learners (51 years of age) need to feel fairly confident when the exam comes ... Nice to know you're in Italy, too.