Rockschool Piano grade 1, Any good? Options

[lorraineliyanage]

My understanding is that Rockschool is no longer affiliated to Trinity. Hence the reason Trinity have brought out their own Rock & Pop syllabus...

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This is correct! Trinity Rock and Pop are also fun pieces, although the Initial level is pretty tricky, harder than Rockschool Debut. Playing along with a backing track is loads of fun!

[morceau]

If he's learning on the keyboard why not try getting a keyboard book? They just have the right hand tunes and chord letters for the left hand and suggest what type of beat they set for the piece (samba etc). Assuming his keyboard has beats that is!

For the reluctant learner it looks a lot easier because they think they only have to do the right hand. Then you can start with left hand block triads, moving on to broken triads and beyond! When they get the beat going with it it sounds quite impressive so it may just get him hooked.

[hammer action]

I had considered Rock School for Piano a while ago, but was really surprised at the difficulty of Grade 1. It would be nice to be able to offer an alternative to ABRSM though, so i'll have a look again at them next time i'm in a music shop. I'd be interested to hear of other teachers opinions on the Grade 1 pieces, and how their students coped.

[lorraineliyanage]

My youngest Rockschool Grade 1er was 7, nearer to 8 when he took his exam which is, on average, older than my students taking Grade 1 who are usually a year younger. All of my students have absolutely loved playing the Rockschool pieces, so it hasn't been difficult to encourage them to practice. Having the CD is a big help although we use Speedshifter to slow it down. The pieces did take longer to learn than ABRSM but the scales are easy peasy as you do not have to memorise them. The sight reading is A LOT easier and aural is quite straightforward although that did still require a lot of advance preparation.

I would definitely recommend RS Grade 1 for students that are 8+ and looking for an alternate grade system.

[Sunrise]

Thanks for all your replies!

I've sent an email to his parents giving the choices at the moment...

1 carry on as we are
2 try the Rockschool Debut book or trinity rock and pop G1
3 do a mix of the above and use the rockschool as a reward for other practice/work.

It's going to be interesting to see what they come back with. I'm flexible and happy to go any route.....

[ExpressYourself]

Trinity Rock and Pop do Initial level too, but harder than Rockschool Debut I think

[Sunrise]

Trinity Rock and Pop do Initial level too, but harder than Rockschool Debut I think

That might be better for him...looking for the equivalent in standard to nearly starting ABRSM g1...don't want it too easy but not too hard either!!