7 replies to this topic

[BadStrad]

Had this drawn to my attention.  Sorry if I'm late to the party and you're all rolling your eyes and saying "Oh that."

 

It's a list of violin music (other instruments are available) sorted by approximate level.

 

https://imslp.org/wi...Page/DiffMain/2

[Gordon Shumway]

It's worth keeping your eye on the New Zealand Music Examining Board's extensive classifications too (because they are freely available - I think you have to pay to see Australia's!): -

https://www.nzmeb.or...nSylNew2020.pdf

[BadStrad]

Thank you.  Looks useful.

[Zixi]

Had this drawn to my attention.  Sorry if I'm late to the party and you're all rolling your eyes and saying "Oh that."

 

It's a list of violin music (other instruments are available) sorted by approximate level.

 

https://imslp.org/wi...Page/DiffMain/2

Thank you for that! There's one for the recorder. I'd been wondering if there was any kind of list somewhere to help me gauge approximate difficulty.

[Gordon Shumway]

It's worth keeping your eye on the New Zealand Music Examining Board...

The NZMEB is very useful in conjunction with the ABRSM, and when it fails to agree with the ABRSM's grade level, it's usually only by one grade. But the Bach gigue from BWV1006 is grade 5 with the NZMEB and grade 7 with the ABRSM! Possibly speed requirements dictate that?

Blimey, and the Vivaldi Am is grade 7 ABRSM, grade 4 NZ!

[SingingPython]

The Vivaldi is in Suzuki Book 4, and I suspect that "grading" of Suzuki pieces might be sometimes different in places where Suzuki has a greater influence.  I don't know to what extent the NZMEB cross references their syllabuses with the AMEB, but wouldn't be surprised if they did.  It's been my impression that ABRSM often has pieces one grade higher than my recollections from AMEB (piano and violin).

 

(Having said that, grade 4 does seem a bit mean just as grade 7 over generous; the ABRSM grade 7 was also a slightly easier version.  In my limited experience, students in Suzuki book 4 can handle grade 5 ABRSM pretty well.)

[Gordon Shumway]

Curious. I had a look at Suzuki 4 last night. The arrangement of the Vivaldi is wayward. Also it ends with BWV1043V2, which is probably about grade 7 (but ABRSM haven't prescribed it for a long time). Then at the end of Suzuki 5 there's BWV1043V1, which is probably more grade 7 than grade 8.

Suzuki books can't be used as any kind of benchmark though, as they tend to move through many difficulty levels, and they overlap each other.

ABRSM often prescribe a Suzuki piece. I've noticed it's usually approximately the last piece in any book, and Suzuki book x tends to translate into ABRSM grade x+2.

[SingingPython]

When the Suzuki books were being revised some years back, there was a lot of discussion (? argument?) about this.  Our copy of book 4 came with an alternative version of the 1st mvt of Vivaldi A minor, which was trialed across European Suzuki teachers for a few years before everyone quietly went back to the old version (my impression, I don't know the details).  If I was asked to discuss it with someone keen on authentic historical performance practice, I'd be citing pedagogical reasons.  Which reminds me, a 13 yr old student of mine learning it at the moment would be ready to learn about such differences.  The two 8 yr olds would not ...

 

Bach double 1st violin part goes into 5th position whereas the 2nd violin only needs 2nd and 3rd; book 4 was originally the first place in the Suzuki repertoire to require shifting (lots of alternative fingerings in now from late book 2 onwards), and 5th position isn't encountered till book 5.

 

Indeed the progression in Suzuki books is conceptually different to exam grades, some pieces introduce "big" new techniques, others will then consolidate or serve to develop something more straightforward.