Hey all,
I was just wondering what kind of pieces everyone plays in their lessons, like do you do mainly exam board pieces and nothing else or not really do grade pieces or a wide variety of groovy randomness!!

Usually, I have one jazz piece, a duet piece and a normal solo piece (I'm sure there's a proper word for that, but I can't think of one ).

Car Expert

Groovy! I was just randomly wondering because with my old piano teacher I basically went from grade to grade and just did exam pieces apart from this 1 christmas piece, and with my piano teacher I have now I do exam pieces and other pieces! but i think if you just know stuff inside the exam syllabus then you be might very good but not be as good as other people who play a wide variety of stuff... which probably doesn't make sense but hey!!!!

Im doing exam pieces right now as g8 is very hectic. My teacher still thinks i should get hour lessons, ut i dont think we can afford them. I was thinking of having hour ones in Jan anyway...If not exams, we do random pieces, bits of Schumann, Mozart...

i do (dare i say) Grade 8/Diploma music of the masters with Chopin Debussy and Beethoven as my specialist composers
only ever done one jazz piece and that was for my Grade 5 in summer

so yeah...i do nothing but classical all in original forms and whatever

I was looking at the list of your repertoire on your website, Chopin. You must have a great deal of talent.

Liz

is that sarcasm?

by the way, thats a list of everything i've attempted at more than just a mere 2 minute playthrough, a fair bit i've tried learning

Repertoire is defined as the set of pieces you are prepared to perform at the current time, not every single piece you've ever learnt. If that was indeed your repertoire you would rival most professional pianists.

i thought something was a bit strange

GCBS i have looked at your website and seriously doubt whether you can play beethovens Appasionata and Waldstein sonatas. or in fact any of his sonatas, and please .....there is no way you can play JS Bachs french and english suites.


and i dont know why on your website you said you play piano to grade 7/8 level............i would like to think you mean seven eighths of a grade rather than grade 8.........very disturbing.

I like to play a mixture .. I have pieces at all different levels - some learning notes, some gettting musical and some being 'polished' to perfection
I also have a range of what I term 'muck about 'pieces that I learn and play but my teacher doesn't actually listen to unless I get stuck- musical theatre, songs, jazz stuff that catches my ear.
My current pieces with my teacher are
Sonatina No 1 - Douglas Lilburn ( polished)
Sonata in D maj - Haydn (polished)
Polonaise Op26 - Chopin ( almost done)
Sonata in E - Scarlatti ( starting)
Romance in F min Op 5 - Tchaikovsky ( about half way)
Des Abends - Schumann ( polished)
and I like them all
I love getting new pieces and with 3 of those almost finished I can start some more Yay!!

I am also playing keyboard with a band and the next show after we do Annie in a fortnight is Seussical the Musical so I have the whole score of that to master

i usually always have my three grade pieces plus others.

at the moment my grade 8 pieces are:

Haydn Eb major sonata hob.16 no.49
Chopin Polonaise C minor op40 no2
bach prelude & fugue in A minor

im also playing

Clementi: study no.13 from gradus ad parnassum.
on/off my own prelude composition> not that hard ...yet
on/off a reflective piece....very modern....somebody composed for me....very hard!

scott.

as i've said...stop being hostile and i'll get off your back...

Op.26 Chopin Polonaise, is that the C# minor or E flat minor Polonaise? either way they're fantastic

im not being hostile. i just think its wrong that you say your at a level that your not. In the end only you will lose through lying like that, real musicians will see through you.

I'm having my exam soon so I mainly I focus on exam peices now, my teacher usually does some random peices (some are from films, others are just nice tunes and some are ridiculously challenging). He's more than happy for me to bring in some of my own music as well. When he thinks I'm ready, he'll let me have a go at some exam peices and he let's me decide on the next step.

It's the Chopin Polonaise in C# minor and yes, it's lovely. I played it at the 50th birthday party of a friend of my Mum's and all the grannies were coo-ing !!

fantastic piece that is!

Strewth! Settle down ppl.
In my lessons I work on anything really. Since Im not doing any exams, I just choose what I want to play and go with it. I love having the freedom of choosing what I want to play rather than being given a list of pieces and having to pick from them. I think thats why I stopped doing exams. No pressure that way lol

I learn classical (by which I mean also baroque, romantic, etc) pieces in my lessons. Outside of lessons, I sight-read a mixture of easy listening/pop, jazz and classical for fun.

I only work on exam pieces when I'm planning an exam. I used to start them about a month before the exam, but for grade 7 I think I'd better allow 2-3 months to prepare . But first I want to learn some non-exam pieces, and get all the grade 7 scales learned and ready. And improve my aural. And a million other things...

All I've done for the past year is exam pieces, and got completely sick of playing. I have a really good teacher now and we are working on technique and a movement from a Clementi sonatina.

I'm not sure whether this was your choice or not, but this is exactly what shouldn't happen. It's usually pushy parents forcing their kids through the grades, and completly destroying their enthusiasm for music.

Not exactly my choice now, it was my teacher giving me more exam pieces and wanting me to do them

I usually have 2/3 pieces (at the moment an obsolete grade 3 book), a duet and sometimes a study at any one time in my lessons

At home I play other stuff too.

At home I play stuff like Einaudi and Film stuff and Joe Hisaishi as well as my exam stuff... I haven't done sight reading for ages though and when I tried it the other day I didn't even get half way through it! I think I'll need to regularly practise that...