My teacher has just persuaded me to have a go at some grade 4 pieces ("Not necessarily to do the exam; just learn some of the pieces and see how you feel" - yeah right, that's how I ended up doing grade 3 in the summer!). I'm an adult learner.

Anyway - does anyone have thoughts on the pieces on offer? Maybe this has already been discussed, in which case someone can point me in the right direction? My initial thoughts are:

A - A1 Allegro in F (Nannerl's notebook) - seems nice. Scherzo (Bach) OK too, Beethoven minuet in G MUCH TOO HARD (all those thirds).

B - Don't like the Kabalesvsky. Chez le forgeron "interesting" but currently thinking about Alone at Sunset as contrast with A1

C - Soldiers in the distance - hmmm. Carnival in Rio would prob drive my long-suffering neighbours crazy (as would the Forgeron), so probably Blues.

I haven't looked at the alternative pieces.

Interested to hear others' thoughts.

PatC

On the whole, quite an appealing set, I think. A couple I'm not keen on, but all round enough choice.

A2 is delightful: I'd enjoy teaching A1 or A2. Feel A3 is probably less straightforward than either of the first two.

B2 is lovely (always find Kabalevsky's pieces attractive) but needs very secure keyboard geography and is not for the faint-hearted. B1 is fine: good opportunity for some colourful and sensitive playing. I don't find C3 appealing though.

C group - I have to admit that I don't like C1, and I suspect it won't appeal to many adult candidates, although I gather it was popular last time it was listed. C2 and C3 are both good: C3 is perhaps slightly trickier to get the right kind of laid-back idiom. C6 is fun, but rhythmically slightly tricky - but it's a fairly reasonably priced 'extra' book with ten pieces in.

I haven't seen the teaching notes yet for next year's pieces, so I should stress that these are just off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts. I haven't started teaching any of them yet, either.

You say one piece is much too hard?

You should learn that piece. Even if you don't do it in an exam you should learn it. The board put in some easier pieces, and some harder ones which touch upon the next grade. Learning it now will help prepare you toward the next grade.

This is a lovely piece. I am doing this one and have nearly got it up to speed now. When you first start it seems like an impossible task but you get there quite quickly.

I am doing the Habanera from the alternative list C. It's not too tricky under the fingers. The hard part is getting the feel of the piece and dynamics etc right.

I love most of the List A pieces. I have been working on the Bach and the Kuhlau from the alternative list. Both are a bit tricky, the Kuhlau has these chromatic runs which are fine on their own but I fail miserably when I try with the left hand aswell!

I must admit I think the Grade 4 pieces on the whole are all nice

I haven't started on the pieces yet but I am thinking of doing Alone at Sunset and the Habanera too. Both lovely pieces

From list A I liked the Kuhlau but think I may attempt the Mozart Polonoise- is it especially difficult?

I'm doing Alone at Sunset and Shostakovich. Haven't chosen List A yet.

I think the new grade 4 collection is excellent. I have 4 pupils in various stages of preparation. 3 have chosen A1, and I am hoping the 4th will chose the Beethoven Minuet as I played it for my own grade 4 some 60 years ago.! None of us much like the Smithy piece. 2 have chosen the 'Carnival' for their 'C' list choice as they had learned it previously, and the other 2 have chosen the 'Blues'.

Whereas the grade 4 collection is excellent I wonder whether the grade 5 collection is a tad hard.

I am having real problems with the new list - my pupils can't seem to choose as they like them ALL so much! I have 6 starting work on the book at the moment and they keep changing their minds or saying they'll learn several then pick nearer the time.
I always used to find gd4 had the least appealing pieces..not this time it seems!

I'm planning on doing the second one in list A, alone at sunset and the carnival one.

first lesson with new teacher on wednesday...........

Somehow or other I forgot to say that 3 of mine have chosen to be alone at sunset (great to have a Walter Carroll piece back in the lists again) but the 4th thinks it is far too a romantic piece for any self respecting - and tough - 11 year old boy to be playing. He is really quite a gentle boy, but he thinks it would be wrong for his image! He has chosen the Kabalevsky Waltz instead.

New grade 4 pieces are great pieces , my teacher gave me Carnival in Rio and Blues and i more or less sight read them , i just passed my grade 4 so I think they will be easy to learn also

I hope you won't mind me reviving this topic but just wondering how it's going, folks. Here's MY story so far:

A1 Allegro in F: I like this and can play it more or less accurately (bar the odd stumble at similar but different stretches eg.bar 4 v. bar 14). Teacher says my semi-staccato and my dynamics need to be more convincing. But the speed - oh dear! I am still playing at only approx half speed after 3 months. And the notes in The Pianist (I think it was that mag) said Crotchet = 80 is realistic but 92 is better - Gordon Bennett! Maybe my metronome is running fast ... Don't you just hate the thought of that dreadful little Nannerl racing though this with her ringlets flying ...

B1 Alone at sunset: enjoying the chords and the pedalling (haven't done much of the latter). Here again there's a speed issue, in spite of it being a slow piece - speed took a nose-dive recently when I added the pedalling; just too much to think about. But I don't begrudge the effort. I think I may need to try & memorise this. I don't normally memorise; also perhaps try and think musically about what's happening with all those chords. I did grade 5 theory but 'fraid it doesn't come through in my playing.

C3 Blues: I liked this a lot at first but am a bit bored now. It's a nice contrast though. My rhythm is rather hit and miss in bars 10 - 12. Slurring in bars 13 - 14 sometimes goes awry, and the ornament in bar 15 sounds very laboured in my hands. I'm still a bit puzzled about what the footnote means about swinging the dotted rhythms (as is my teacher); we are presuming it means the dotted quavers are made a bit longer and the semis a bit shorter.

Not sure I will take the actual exam as I am away quite a lot in June/July and teacher says it's then or never (haven't learnt all the scales and esp. the hands tog arps yet either). But I might learn some of the other pieces too, instead of rushing on to anything harder.

Interested to hear others' thoughts.

PatC

I now have an adult student working on this set of pieces, and he is enjoying the Beethoven (A3) and Carroll (B1). Particularly the Carroll, although it's at a relatively early stage. We haven't started a C piece yet: it will probably be the Gillock.

Well I had a go at the Gillock C2 rather than the habanera, as it looked a bit more straightforward and now have a rough and ready version for later polishing, even if the switch from sustain to una corda pedal is proving a bit messy. I may do the habanera later 'for fun' as I'm still very fond if it.

The B1 'Alone at Sunset' is starting to come together in sections - but I haven't even thought about pedal yet. No doubt it will unravel a bit when I try to add it in. The tones are even more lush and gorgeous in front of you than how they sounded on the CD and, when I'm not massacring it, it sounds fantastic.

The A6 Polonoise looked a bit daunting, but I was advised that if it looks intimidating then all the more reason to go for it. No regrets yet as I try to get fluent with the melody line. It is clearly one of the best pieces in section A, and just so catchy. I'm told that adding in the left hand will help to stabilise the right, and I hope that's true.

I totally agree with the comments that Grade 4 is a fine collection of pieces. It seems a pity that few people like B3 'at the forge' as I really like the drama of it as well as the playfulness of B6 Scherzo. Maybe I'm just drawn to the more romantic repertoire. Whatever you choose you can't really go wrong.

I've recently started doing Grade 4 pieces to start to get to know them, and I pretty much have a definite idea of the 3 pieces I wanted to do, A1 Allegro in F, B1 Alone at Sunset, C2 Carnival in Rio. To be honest, I find C2 Carnival in Rio incredibly simple for Grade 4, although I do have to add the una corda in bar 17 but that shouldn't be too difficult.
I only chose A1 Allegro in F because I didn't like any of the other pieces in List A. I'm quite enjoying learning it, but the SPEED! I don't know how I'm going to manage to get it quite that fast by exam time.
B1 Alone at Sunset, is a really wonderful piece. I haven't added the pedal yet because I want to make sure I'm incredibly secure in the notes first.
On the whole, liking the Grade 4 piano syllabus - much better than Grade 3 in my opinion

One of my grade 4's has chose the following pieces for his exam:

A1 Allegro in F: he likes the style of this one. A2 and A3 seem a lot harder.

B1 Alone at Sunset: lovely song! Opportunity for extremely expressive and colourful playing: aiming to stretch the mark to 29 for this one!

But he's not sure between C1 or C2

C1 is marked 'ppp', and im not sure whether this will be a technical challenge.
C2 is pretty straightforward though, so we'll probably end up with that one.

I really like the grade 4 pieces from the 2011-2012 syllabus. I didn't really like the 2009-2010 grade 4 pieces that much, which was when I did grade 4.

If anything, I think the Beethoven Minuet is overplayed, though I do think that it is best to tackle the harder pieces of the group.

A similar example was the 2009-2010 grade 3 syllabus. Many people said Top Cat! was too difficult to be there, though I played it (and got 29 marks for it! ) and I felt it was good preparation for grade 4.

Still struggling with the A1 Allegro. After months of effort I have just about achieved quaver = 100 (as opposed to the specified crotchet = 80). What does "Allegro" mean again ...? Oh dear.

PatC

You remember last year's Grade 4 pieces ? With Handel's Courante ? Which literally means 'running' ?

Well, one of my grade 4s played it SO slowly you could have called it 'trudging-with-a-ball-and-chain-round-your-ankle' . . . . . . (she normally played it way too slowly and set off in the exam at about HALF her normal speed - more largo than allegro).

And she got 22 !

Generous in my view but, in her favour, she plays with a nice, firm rhythmic bounce which suits baroque pieces and has good baroque articulation so all is not lost if your metronome is not being friendly !!!

Thank you dolce@piano - you have cheered me up!

PatC

PS I think I've mentioned before that the kind examiner's comment on my grade 3 Month of Maying effort last year was - You chose a good pace ...

Sorry to revive an old thread! Just thought there might be some new people doing grade 4 now

I have picked WF Bach's Aria (Originally chose the Allegro in F at teachers encouragement but grew to really dislike it)

I learned to play the Kabalevsky waltz at the proper pace, but also sped it up. The mind-numbingly boring pace the exam asks for in case I chose itfor the exam, and faster because my teacher said it'd be a good piece at a concert but not at the exam speed. If I don't pick this for exam, I'm doing Chez le Forgeron. Great fun, absolutely love it!

Habanera for my C piece. Lovely piece but challenging!

Anyone else starting grade 4 pieces? How have previous posters on this thread got on?

I too started the allegro in F, but find i now am fed up with it. So now working on the minuet. I like the "alone at sunset", "waltz", "solders in the distance", "Blues". Have not tried the "Chez le Forgeron" or the "Bach" one yet - so not sure. I do quite like the slower pace of the waltz piece - only cause i cannot play it fast!

Hello! And yes, I am doing Grade 4 in March. I am learning the Beethoven Minuet, the Kabalevsky and the Carnival in Rio. I entered at the last minute and have no idea how I will get through but will keep practising and see how it goes...

Hi PianoBeginner good luck for March.

I did grade 4 in December and I did

A1 Allegro

I started off quite liking this piece but ended up hating it (my wife who had to listen to me practise hated it even more). With the passage of time I managed to sort out my various slips, but then started making new ones!
I never managed to achieve the stated speed- but found it comfortable at about 2/3 of the stated speed- I didn't get any comment in the exam about the speed- maybe more important to be accurate than fast!

Waltz

I loved this piece- nice to have something slow and quiet after practising the allegro. The Rit makes this an interesting piece to play too, and good at firming up timing

Carnival in Rio

Another piece I really enjoyed playing- quite easy to play too fast though, and quite technical with the timing of the left and right hands.

You've probably already moved on way past these grade 4 pieces now PatC but something has just occurred to me. If you really don't want to do the exams and your teacher says the same "not necessarily for the exam" spiel when he wants you to start looking at grade 5/6 pieces........ just buy the selected exam book of pieces for the previous syllabus. That way they won't be valid and you can't possibly use them for an exam