Hi guys,

I am an adult learner (age 32) who have been learning to play violin for almost a year right now. It's been an enjoyable experience and I think I made a right decision to start it. Fortunately, I've got a good teacher who can show me the right way to perform each techniques. My teacher feels that we should plan for grade 3 exam next June. I am wondering that for those of you who are working on grade 3 exam, which pieces you would choose. Any suggestion?

Thanks!

Well there are loads of good pieces there to choose from - I get my students to listen to the Associated Board CD you can buy with all of them on and to write a few words about what they think of each one. Then we learn a few of their favourites and then ultimately refine their choice for the exam to one each from the A B C sections.

My son is doing Grade 3 this term and is playing Watkins Ale, Romance and Down By the Riverside. This is a nice group of contrasting pieces, it's good to have a mixture of tempos and keys if you can I think.

As a teacher I am delighted with the selection of pieces for this Gr3 session. I only had 1 student doing Gr3 this year but am looking forward to many more over the next 2 years.
The Romance in List B is really lovely and Ain't Misbehavin' in List C. And I was delighted to see Mvt.1 from Rieding B Minor as a choice piece as I have been doing that concerto with my students for years now and they always love it. Skye Boat Song as a choice piece for List C is also a very nice arrangement.
Over all you should learn as many of the pieces as you can and see which ones suit you best.

You mention that you were an adult learner. What book did you use and would you recommend it for similar situations.

You have made fast progess to be considering Grade 3. Well done!

I agree with the others, it is one of the better grades as regards choice and variety AND you no longer have to play the scale of Bb minor!!!

Katie

Thanks for all the advice!

Katie: I have been using 'The Little Sevcik's (for fingering) along with Suzuki's books (Book 1-3). However, for Suzuki's method, we don't follow the original Suzuki's teaching style. We just use many of the Suzuki's pieces as practicing repertoires.

From my initial exploration of all the choices, a few of them apparently need some 3rd position as well (I've just started learning the 3rd position). So I think this could be quite challenging and a bit worrisome.

Hey, welcome to the adult learner's club! I'm 32 end of this year and I'm in Grade 4. I have been learning for almost 3 years. Come august it'll be three years. Good to hear that someone my age is in the forum. Well I would say definitely your own choice of pieces is best, those you feel you can manage reasonably well. Or you could ask your teacher's opinion and then try to do the pieces which are in favour of your strengths. For example if your detache is not very good, then go for the more legato-styled pieces. Erm.. that's my opinion anyway.

Smallest son got a nice 130 for his Grade 3 violin........not bad I think. The Romance was especially good.

Daughter did Dancla'a Air de ballet (this is a very beautiful piece!) and Handel's trio which is super fast and which she went wild with! She loves the latter to bits and said she'll miss doing it after the exam. She also did Down by the Riverside which is really fun and flowy with lots of long bows and vibrato. Enjoy!

I am doing my grade three exam this year and I have choosen Watkins Ale, Romance and Aint' Misbehaving from the ABRSM Grade Three book. They are really good pieces. You can put a lot of feeling into them and make them sound really good. It is also handy if you buy the CD so you can prctice with it. I played Romance and Aint' Misbehaving in a competiton on the weekend and I got first place. Personally I think they are really good pieces but its all up to what you like.

Heya

Im doing :

Moderato
Waltz
Down by the riverside

Its great that you have progressed so quickly, I'm glad your enjoying it Would the current pieces not be out of date by next June though or am I mistaken?

You are not mistaken but this post was dated May 2005! so by now this person has taken the grade 3 and possibly is well over grade 3 now that 2 years have passed

You are not mistaken but this post was dated May 2005! so by now this person has taken the grade 3 and possibly is well over grade 3 now that 2 years have passed
[/quote]

Ooops silly me, I must remember to check the post dates in the future

There's no getting away from the Bb minor, because it's on the trinity GUildhall syllabus for Grade 4

I had my lesson tonight and am starting Grade 3 for the exam in November .

I'm really excited because it uses third position which I've been having great fun with in the Bach Double.
I have my list of scales and I'm going to start by looking at Ain't Misbehavin' which my Dad will love (he's a Grapelli fan). I like the Handel piece too so I'll give them all a shot this week.

I'm possibly taking my first Scottish music exam in November too so I have to memorise eight tunes.

Lots of work to get on with

What board/group are you taking your Scottish fiddle exam with?

Ain't Misbehavin' would be fun on the violin... your can see how daring you can be with playing it in an authentic style, I wonder if a bit of jazzy would go down well in the exam room...

I can't remember which board my teacher mentioned yesterday - it wasn't ABRSM. I'll find out at next week's lesson.

I'm going to play Ain't Misbehavin' really 'sloopy' and jazzy, especially sliding in the bflat!! I don't care if they like it as long as it's in keeping with the 'style'. I'd be shocked if they wanted it played dead straight - it's not a classical piece!! I'm just going to have lots of fun with it

Yay, go you - I think having fun with it is the way to go. Presume you will have a recording of Grappelli somewhere, get inspired sliding into notes would be cool.

(funnily enough, that's one thing I found REALLY hard when Jane and I did a Jazz workshop with Violinia some time ago... - my intonation isn't spectacular by any stretch, but after years of trying to put my finger in the right place to start with, sliding into notes was surprisingly hard )

I've never even heard of Scottish fiddle exams, so I'm most intrigued!

Have you found these good to study from? Would you give them a good recommendation to other beginners?