As stupid as it sounds, I'm grade 7, and can play, nothing. I know nothign when it comes to classical music, so, anyone know any good romantic pieces? (always a good place to start)

If you're anything like me when I was studying piano, I would learn my exam pieces and do the exam and then learn the next exam pieces and do that exam etc. I ended up only being able to play a few pieces.

I'd advise just going into your local music shop and having a nose around and see what you fancy. If they sell pianos as well, ask them if you can just have a go through the piece on the piano to see if you like it. they're normally more than obliging.

I can play Canon...

You can get books of Romantic Pieces.

I think Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes of Childhood) is wonderful, Romanticism at its best.

Should be within your reach if you have a good practice technique.

Enjoy!

I second that wholly. My teacher gave me the first one, "Of Strange Lands and People", when I was doing Grade 4. It was a bit hard for me back then but I really, really loved it so I kept on practicing, and it's still one of my favourites! I ended up buying the whole book and I've played every single one, although some I've only sight-read through. No 7, "Träumerei" is famous and also very beautiful.

I think there is a handy book called "Romantic Pieces for piano" or something along those lines, which I've heard are quite good too.

Yeah there are quite a few books of them.

Romantic pieces for piano
More Romantic pieces
Short Romantic pieces!

You can hear the complete Schumann Kinderszenen played by a very competent amateur pianist by downloading the two (rather large - 9Mb each) MP3's in this thread on the Piano Street forum: http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,13333.0.html

I've only listened to the first minute so far..but I love it!

iv heard one of the bits in it.. i was going to play it for my grade 6 but i didnt like it

I know what you mean about being grade 7 and not being able to play anything. I have 8 certificates above my piano (7 grades and 1 theory) and when people visit they see them, assume I am a great player, then ask me to play something.

When this happens I am at a loss. I have a few pieces I can play but nothing really impressive. I don't think they would be that impressed if I sat at the piano and played them G# melodic minor.

However, I still love my piano!

Shelton

lol, its me!

Doe's Tchaikovsky count as Romantic?

Yeah

Just wondering coz all the music from The Seasons is really good!

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i think i can play spring and autumn ... i may be wrong...

No, not those Seasons by Vivaldi...the ones by Tchaikovsky

Which month? I can play June (Barcarolle) and a bit of October (Autumn song)

You can here them here but you have to register for a free account...

I think i got it wrong.. ill shut up now

Thank goodness it's not just me then. I am also grade 7 but can't play anything. Perhaps we should all get together and have a "can't play anything " concert !

But what would we play?!

The fool probably...

Lol i get that too!! People tell me to play stuff and exect something quite good and all i can play are G3 standard pieces. ...or Summer...

It's very comforting to discover that there are other people that have achieved some of the higher grades but still find it difficult to class themselves as a musician.

When I was about grade 1, I believed that once I reached the higher grades, boy, I would be hot stuff! I even remember asking my then piano teacher when would I be able to just 'play' an average piece of music by sight without the need to spend ages working it all out. He told me this ability usually comes at around grade 5 standard. What a wally.

Hardly a week goes by when I don't get asked 'okay, you've got to grade 7, but when are you actually going to learn some music?'

The solution? PLAY SOMETHING OTHER THAN EXAM PIECES!!! Yep, that's it. This surely is the answer. Although I am toying with grade 8 scales, I am not going to start preparing for grade 8 proper for a number of months, maybe even years. Surely if I just learn pieces of music I like and forget about playing the same 3 exam pieces over and over and over and over, then I will start to become the kind of pianist I want to be.

Shelton

its so hard when you doing grades to get a big repertoire. I mean, you can play other things apart from exam pieces, but if you dont follow the grade "steps" if you like, then you just sort of wander around doing nothing. Im so excited about getting grade 8 done this march...then i can sit down and play some more advanced stuff for diploma...and anything from grade 8, dip and beyond can be kept in the repertoire!

Exactly my thoughts! Apart from the fact that Im not going to do Dip. just play randomly

Dip will be amazing if i can get it!

i need 2 do these bloody scales tho!! arghh!

yeah, it works wonders for your sightreading... and yeah i want a "cant play anythign" concert!! we could play.. chopsticks... even though i can't play it

Don't worry. Broadly speaking, folks like Telemann, Vivaldi, Pachebel (the famous canon) and Bach are baroque, classical composers are typically Haydn and Mozart but Beethoven and thereafter (like Brahms and Strauss and even including Debussy who is sometimes referred to as a late Romantic/Impressionist) are Romantics till about Mahler who is known as a modern contemporary composer and later ones after him. You don't have to be a music student to know that.

But jess, why do you keep doing graded exams? It's BORING! Why don't you just play for fun? Just learn the scales if your teacher thinks it is really necessary PLUS tell him/her that you just want to have some serious FUN by broadening your repertoire. Think about it. What's the point of doing something if you don't ENJOY it?

I'm on grade 7 and when people go play something really complicated and fast Louise! I'm just like emm...well my exam pieces are the closest I can get lol. And all the other pieces I play are like grade 5 standard or less than that or Fur Elise lol... one of the reasons is that my mum keeps wanting to me to do grades instead of just playing for fun but I want time in my lessons to play other stuff as well but she just won't listen! Ah well...

I think there is a myth that supposes that because you are on the higher grades, you are a capable pianist. It seems for some of us, passing a grade simply means that you can learn several scales, a bit of aural and practice the life out of 3 pieces of music over a number of months.

Looking back over the past 6 years since I started, I wonder what sort of pianist I would be if I had spent the whole 6 years forming a large repertoire of music rather than concentrating on a few exam pieces.

Don't get me wrong, I think the grades can bring great satisfaction and enjoyment, especially when you hang another certificate on the wall. However, I also believe that the grades system is flawed.

Being an adult-learner, I feel more pressed to maximise the profitability of my practice time and not waste time doing useless things. I want to become the best pianist I can be, not necessarily for others, but for my own enjoyment.

Having done grades 1-7, I hope to pass grade 8 one day but not for a while. I am going to hopefully build that repertoire I keep mentioning. Then, maybe, I can entertain myself and others with a wide variety of music whenever I wish instead of choking when asked to play something.

After all, music is supposed to be fun!

It is not the grade system that is flawed, Shelton, but its use by many people. You are right; you now ned to spend a few years learning to play the piano properly before tackling grade 8.

Not only will you enjoy this but it will make your eventual grade 8 (and who knows what beyound?) that much more enjoyable.

Steve

What was your early story, SteveHopwood? Did you "rocket" through the grades at the age of 4? Or did you not bother in the early years and then suddenly "see the light" when you turned 13? Given your low regard now for learning zillions of scales by rote, how did you cope with that task yourself as a student? Did you ever resent the time dedicated to practise? When you won the RNCM concerto prize were you up against all other students on all other instruments from all years? What did you play? Who accompanied you? What was it like? Did you always want to teach? Did being judged the best instrumentalist from three years of students at a top British Conservatoire open unimaginable doors to opportunities as a soloist, or merely a fishflap into an ocean teeming with great shoals of fish?)
(sorry - just got hit by a wave of interest of what keeps a youngster "ticking over" sufficiently to end up winning the concerto prize at the RNCM).

An elderly lady living next door owned a piano. I was fascinated by it from an early age and was forever round there 'playing' it. What a patient lady. Whend I was about 4, she taught me the National Anthem using one finger; she must have heard it countless times after that. Eventually she gave to piano to my mum and told her to book me in for lessons somewhere.


Trouble was, I found it all so easy. I came out of my first lesson easily able to read all 9 notes radiating out from middle C; within a couple more I had worked out how to read everything else as well. Playing accurately, rhythmically and musically came naturally (it came as a shock when I started teaching, to learn that this was exceptional.)

I did not need to practise to satisfy my teachers, so I did a few minutes before each lesson and sailed through easily. Shame really; had I retained my 2 and 3 year old passion for the instrument I would have become a much better player than I am. I am not sure my teachers did me any favours by asking me whether I wanted to do exams and enter festivals. As a typical little boy, my instant response was ‘no’. Who knows what a difference exposure to these incentives to practise would have made?

I ‘saw the light’ aged 14, ludicrously through playing the violin stunningly badly. Into our school erupted a charismatic music teacher, a brilliant pianist who had won a scholarship to the RAM. He involved the school in a performance of Britten’s Noah’s Flood. This is a pathetic piece with zero musical validity; its strong point is that it can involve every child in a small school (we are talking 1960’s here – at 500 strong we were regarded as vast). I was playing ‘ripieno violin 2 – everything in first position). I loved every second of the preparation, rehearsal and 3 performances.

Come the end, I was devastated. A flame of passion had been aroused within me. The rest is history.


I did them. I did not realise at the time how pointless they are.


I resented the time I could not spend practising.


I need to amend my website entry. It was the piano concerto prize that I won.


Schumann A minor.


John Wilson, then staff accompanist and later head of accompaniment. I was in the ludicrous position of having an accompanist who could have played the concerto 10 times better than the soloist; I am sure I was not alone in that.


Terrifying.


Yes. If I had not become a musician, I would probably become a primary school teacher.


Ocean, definitely the ocean. Full of vast shoals and the occasional scary thing with big teeth. I did not get any regular performing until into my 30’s, and then only as a result of tireless self-promotion. The moment I stopped promoting the gigs dropped off. These days, I am happy with a wonderful life containing the occasional solo recital and even more occasional concerto, and masses off accompaniment.


Happy to respond; I always hope my story will encourage those like myself who were not prodigies and Chets etc to make the most of their own situation. I have done this and enjoy a brilliant career as a result.

Steve

Wow, what a story. I just love the Schumann, the first day I got the cd of it I listened to the third movement (over 10 minutes long) 5 times. Those chord progressions (I'm sure you know which I mean by 'those' Steve ) are simply divine!