.............the covers of the books are white.



Wait until a few of my rugby players get their muddy hands on them.....

What about the contents? (The repertoire, as opposed to the colour!)

Who cares?



(We'll all be sick of the contents in two years' time anyway!)

One might say that about the colour of the covers!

Had hoped for pink but there you go.....

(I'm assuming the colour of the contents is black and white...)

LOL - seen the covers - I just want to know what's inside now!! Especially the Gd8 syllabus! Will it be online to view on 1st July?

They're hideous! Hope the content is more impressive! http://www.boosey.com/images/shop/Piano_2013_UCAT.jpg

I didn't think they were too bad. No taste me!

Just as long as I don't have to listen to Vampire Blues or Bah Ba Doo Bah again...

I concur.

I concur.

Hideous. Agreed. Lousy colours!

People, people, surely we shouldn't judge a book by its cover... (ducks)

I think black or a very dark green with gold lettering would be nice.

I've told you before, don't call me ducks!

Whoops

How prissy! I can imagine that's enough to put off a lot of boys!

I think I shall get mine to cover them with brown paper like we always used to cover our books in the good old days at school. Then they can draw or stick whatever they like on the cover. Anything to cover up that girl with her top knot and high heels! I might even run a competition ......

Oh dear! was it a girl? I didn't even get beyond the nasty blue and orange - ugh!

Are they trying to put off 50% of the population? how silly.

Maybe there'll be a series of different covers, some with boys, others with girls - a sort of special collectors' edition, such as Radio Times occasionally publish. Although if the books go the same way as some of my piano exam music, the contents and cover will part company before long.

Deborah (who reeeeeeeeeally wanted to be the girl on the front of the Boosey and Hawkes clarinet publications of the late 1980s. Long hair, clarinet, high heels, long flowing skirt - looks like I made it!)

Are these the ones we got to vote on a while back on the forum? Does the outcome match any of the options we had to choose from?!

Yuck !

I don't actually mind the colours but Aquarelle has it quite right - prissy girl with high heels and silly top knot - looking like someone's grandma's idea of a 'nice' young lady . . . revolting

Actually a sticker idea is good but they should be official.

i.e. you could have grade books with a relatively adult cover and just a pen and ink sketch outline of an orchestra or something.
And the a whole page of stickers inside (some serious ones, some silly - man with banana in his trombone or whatever). And then kids could decorate their own covers as they want (or not . . )

There you go, Board, and the idea's copyright free - be my guest . . .

Answering my own question: no, it doesn't

Oh no - should have had a gender neutral one - I agree - dark background with gold lettering would have been fine. If they want pictures, maybe musical terms and signs (could do a nice collage/pattern of pauses, crotchet rests, "una corda" etc which would lead to discussions about what they mean in lessons). Why not run a competition for the best design next time and get the youngsters involved? Or an opinion poll on what to have on the cover?

Does look like they bought a batch of blue and orange ink though!

Coming back in on this one ? I don?t mind the colours but then I am not a painter or photographer so I?m not really a good judge of that sort of thing.

However, I spend a lot of time and energy getting teenage boys ( and a suprising number of girls) to think that music is not namby pamby and that their street image will not be tainted but rather enhanced by their ability to play the piano. I have no intention of sending my boys to their various boarding or day schools with that dreadful cover in their school bag ? just imagine the fun some of their class mates will have if they come across it! And as for a teenage boy walking into an exam with that under his arm ? well !

Now, I know full well that what counts is what is inside the book ? but we don?t need any extra hurdles to get over.

I am quite serious in what I say about the image the ABRSM is thoughtlessly projecting here ? and projecting to a generation of young people who are well keyed into images. I know a lot of people won?t agree or will think I am making a fuss about nothing but I?m afraid that?s what I think.

I thought the idea about a neutral cover and a choice of musical stickers was brilliant. Older children and adults probably would give the stickers away but younger ones would love them.

Anyone know where I can buy stickers large enough to do the trick this time?

I don't mind them actually - they're very striking, though I think the girl is not altogether thought through. They're certainly quite different from what we've had before; variety is the spice of life - we'll get used to them (and agree with Czerny that it's the contents which matter most!).

I'm not really sure that boys would be put off. I mean you could argue that the last two lots (green and blue) are more appealing to boys; were boys put off by the couple of years where they were purple? If teachers really feel it's a problem, just make a joke out of it - they can draw bunny ears and whiskers on it if it makes them feel better. I really don't think boys will find it a problem unless teachers make a big thing out of it (it hadn't occurred to me to look at the gender of the human until it was pointed out here!).

I mean, where do you stop? Thinking about those books called More Romantic Pieces, they have pretty pink and peach pastel colours on the covers and little landscape paintings; should they be made more appealing to boys?

I don't see what the obsession is with pandering to boy's in anything (remotely) educational! Honestly, if boys can't handle a white coloured book, are you sure they should be playing the piano in the first place?

I teach a number of boys the clarinet and have never had any problem with them not liking the colour scheme! Since when has playing a musical instrument been seen as something 'girls' do?

It isn't the colours - and for the romantic books I think a romantic picture is fine. It's just the image being projected I dislike. Maybe that's because here there is such a huge feeling about piano playing being only for the conforming middle classes and not a proper activity for boys. One of my mothers actually had this battle with her husband who didn't want his sons doing piano because it was, in his silly opinion, unmanly! Maybe you come across that less in the UK.

Now if they had pictured a boy and a girl duetting the message might have been a lot better!

I'd still have a competition for youngsters to do the art work. I recently asked a pupil to paint a picture for the front of our latest CD - it is gorgeous and everyone loves it - much nicer than the usual predictable corporate image stuff, (yawn, yawn!) There's alot of talent out there - trust the pupils!

Yes, I agree. I do not think it's a matter of pandering to boys. And I don't think it's the white that 's the problem.
I do think having a girl (and an old-fashioned looking, slightly 'dressy' one at that) on the cover is a huge mistake. The Romantic books aren't a problem - anyway we have a choice over whether we use them or not. There is less choice regarding using the grade books, really.

Aquarelle, I think we do come across it in the UK. I don't find it much in private teaching. But it is alive and well in schools, and other areas of life. I regard it as a really unfortunate choice.

I'm not worried about the colour of the book, nor the piano and piano stool on it. Why do we have to have anybody playing the piano though?

I have 4 boy pupils who will not be impressed by the girl on the cover. I had a boy who went to senior school and gave up piano in favour of guitar when he was in about year 9 because it was much cooler to play guitar than piano. It is important to make the books gender neutral.

Frankly, what is on the front cover doesn't matter. It's the choice of music inside, and the way the exams are administered that's most important. Why can we not go back to having rather boring but official looking covers that we had in the 70s and possibly 80s - no expensive artwork - and reasonably important and impressive looking? Spend the money in the right places.

Since an awful long time in some areas/schools.

Definitely!




Hear, hear!

There have been many surveys done that show the hugely unequal divide between boys/girls taking up music - sad but true.

Oh if they don't like the cover, tell them to tear it off and get on with practicing! Years ago i taught a man (only for a few lessons thankfully) who was completely barking mad and refused to learn anything from a book with either green or black on the cover. Seriously. Very strange man. I recall him disliking the sound of F sharp on the piano too for some reason which i never found out.

Did he like Gb though?

Of my 4 boys - the (very mature for his age) 15 year old will ignore the design, it won't sit comfortably with the 8 year old and 12 year old, and I think I'll have to go down the the alternative pieces route for the 14 year old (he's a jolly good player and student - mainly self-taught on keyboard and is just coming to classical piano, but is at the age where this kind of thing really matters). Some people do feel alienated if an image isn't how they see themselves (probably why lots of women don't watch football - it's not something they can relate to).

I have always (in 13 years of teaching) had more girls on my books than boys, and know other teachers with a similar gender bias. Maybe street cred is more important to boys? Certainly one of my boys used to get teased at school for carrying a violin case - although if it had been a horn, trombone or other similarly "masculine" instrument, perhaps that would not have been the case (no pun intended!)

Same here, 1/3rd male and 2/3rds female students and that has always been quite consistent over the years.

Interestingly though I have more adult males than females.

Now there's an idea, ducks on the cover!! Would make a change from a piano...

A choice of covers would make sense, a boy or a girl. Will be interesting to hear what my few male pupils think; I know the girls will like it!

This is an opportunity to do a critical thinking exercise with my pupils (boys and girls) - ask them what image is being presented, whether this is appropriate, and what they would like to see on the cover. It's kind of hard to ignore a front cover, so why not make a feature of it!

Tear off the cover? Damage the precious book? I would never dream of doing that - I don't care if it's bright pink with sparkly unicorns! (Actually the idea of playing from an exam syllabus which is bright pink with sparkly unicorns amuses me but then I'm weird.)


Indeed. I think having a girl on the cover does suggest that playing the piano is a 'girl' activity - none of the other exam books in my collection dating back to 1920 have a person on the cover and I wonder why they've just decided to do this now. Some of the early 90s books are pink, don't know how well that went down.

[quote name='Tixylix' date='Jun 21 2012, 10:12 PM' post='1155181']
[quote name='hammer action' post='1155046' date='Jun 21 2012, 03:08 PM']
Oh if they don't like the cover, tell them to tear it off and get on with practicing!
[/quote]
Tear off the cover? Damage the precious book? I would never dream of doing that - I don't care if it's bright pink with sparkly unicorns! (Actually the idea of playing from an exam syllabus which is bright pink with sparkly unicorns amuses me but then I'm weird.)

personally I'd love that- but then I love pink- might not go down so well with the students though!

I'd love that too - unicorns and ducks - a bit surreal - something to make you think! I'm a bit odd - but that would work for me!

Hopefully, management at AB will read all these comments and get the message. Will we have a survey to canvas our opinion of the final version?

Hands up who's brave enough to raise the subject at the forthcoming conferences in the Q&A session?

Don't forget that we are all coming to your house for the anti-Olympic party Susie!
We can plan our sparkly unicorn campaign then!

That is roughly true for me too.