Anyone planning to do this? Interested in which pieces you are choosing and why you have chosen those particular ones. Is anyone trying the Israeli Concertina for list C?

Speaking for my 10 yr old daughter...

Bach's Bourree...As she has already learnt this via the Suzuki method, Riedings Pastorale... As its a lovely piece to play, but she originally also learnt Dancla's Petit Aire Varie' as that was beautiful too. Final piece was the ' For Latin Lovers' piece.

Actually on rethinking this through another major factor was the fact that the ABRSM booklet supplied the sheet music for the latter pieces and I had the Suzuki volume already for the first piece. I kinda ruled out those pieces which would have required me spending yet more cash- and I actually wish ABRSM did the decent thing and supplied sheet music for all the pieces. After all you only generally play 3 of them.

Odd too that my daughter's new violin teacher suggested the Israeli Concertina amongst others as a piece to learn over the Christmas holiday. We chose Rieding's Concerto in G major op 34 as the alternative to learn as to our ears it was more musical and melodic. To our untrained ears all the list C pieces sound pretty uninspiring to learn, but I do appreciate they are testing for a different style

For a collection of nine carefully-chosen and well-edited pieces, the ABRSM books are an absolute bargain, especially as one doesn't need to buy piano parts or CDs unless wanted. I'd suggest that a lot of pupils do play more than three of the pieces, if not learning then at least in order to choose which they prefer.


I've encouraged a couple of pupils to tackle Slow & Fast instead of For Latin Lovers - it's certainly not uninspiring, although the performance on the ABRSM CD could well be (I've not heard it myself, but in general warn against using them as a basis for assessing the appeal of pieces, tending to be very vanilla middle-of-the-road performances).

I accept your point that if you use all the material it is good value. I think I based my comment in part on the fact that the last ABRSM grade 3 exam my daughter took, she took two pieces that we already owned in the Suzuki books..and only one from the ABRSM book- and really haven't used the book for much more- At any rate, this series is now out of date for the new syllabus and for my younger twin daughters who are just about to consider grade 3 I will have to buy another. If we had wanted to choose any of the other pieces, then I have to buy entire books of music for individual pieces. For myself the problem could get worse if the twins decide to play different pieces. For me it would be handy if ABRSM put on the pieces to listen to on the internet..and for me to download sheet music for those pieces I intend to use- This could include the piano part too.

Just listened to another youtube version of fast and slow. Even Perlman couldn't get me to like it. I appreciate that's more likely a deficiency in myself. I don't 'get' Janacek either, but have a violinist friend who loves it. Trouble is the way we work in this house is to try and find pieces that both of us like- there being more chance of it being practiced.

just out of interest ...are some pieces technically harder, or more challenging , than others?

This is always going to be a subjective matter. Somebody who has a great technique might be able to tackle showpieces with ease but lack the musical insight to fully capture the musicality of an 'easier' piece.

They're all grade 5 standard for something. What one person might find tricky, someone else will find easy, and vice-versa.
I like the new set and will have quite a few taking it over the next couple of sessions. They have had difficulty choosing pieces because they like so many of them, which is always a nice situation to be in.

From the sound of it, your daughter is only playing three of the pieces in an exam book because she is being taught the Suzuki method (which follows a very different approach) and her teacher is prefering to use the Suzuki material.

I have never actually taken a violin exam, but I've used lots of the exam books and have played most of the pieces in the books I've had. My teacher has old exam books which she lends out, and over the past 12 months or so I've used 3 grade 5 books and 2 grade 6 ones in addition to some other edited collections.

Viledin4u, your username is very funny!
I've had a very quick saw and scrape through the abrsm book and am very excited about the trad Greek piece, so exciting! I can't wait to get going with it. It suits my play-everything-fast-and-loud style. Well done abrsm for including it.
It would be nice though to have a book with all the choices in, as well as what we can currently buy, even if it was alot more expensive.

It would, but that would involve dragging all those music publishers involved out of their 19th century business model...