Well, the title is self explanatory enough. Any hints on what pieces to choose? Presently, I've chosen Praeludium (A3), Allegro Moderato by Schubert (B2) and Minstrels by Debussy. Hm...Having a hard time practising them, since I skipped Grade 7. Any hints on what pieces to choose or comments on the pieces that I've chosen will be greatly appreciated. THanks.

I'm not taking the exam for a while yet (I skipped Grade 7 too), but I've been playing the Schubert, which is nice but you need big hands! It's hard to balance the different parts in the right hand, and to pedal correctly so that all those quavers in the left hand don't cloud things up!
Praeludium seems interesting, I do like 20th century repertoire very much - that one seems particularly hard because of the unusual time groupings of notes. The middle section is lovely though. I'm playing the Handel fugue myself, which I found deathly dull at first, but now I've had chance to absorb the music I think it's wonderful. I enjoy singing the different parts as I play along (bit of a Glenn Gould fan, y'see).
The Debussy I've only briefly looked at - it's quite humorous! And colourful
Your programme, although they are all good pieces, seems an unusual mix, as you have two modern pieces. Perhaps a Baroque piece from the A list or a Romantic piece from the C list would have created a more balanced programme, but this is not terribly important. You've set yourself quite a challenge with those pieces! When you practise listen as carefully as you can. Do the phrases flow? Are the chords balanced? Do you articulate well? Is the pedalling effective? There are endless amounts of things to work on at this level. Oh, and if you're not already, DO practise scales everyday. There are 150 of them for Grade 8, so learning them sooner will make the whole giant mammoth task easier. Plus it strengthens and improves the dexterity of your fingers.
Good luck with the exam!

Really? I choose schubert too!! Fall in love with that piece once i heard that...
Indeed you need big hands. But i am thinking of using the technique of gliding over the chords??
I think i will be choosing A1 for section A, however its quite plain...
Anyone got any suggestions? Heard that the alternative pieces by Scarlatti is pretty good??

I've just done my grade 8 piano and i did the Bach Sarabande and Rondeau, Mozart Sonata in D 1st movement (not in book) and Sacro Monte by Turina. If you want a fantastic C piece I would recommend the Sacro Monte.....it's exciting and a real joy to play (although it takes a long time to learn it and get it right).

The Bach piece(s) are wonderful to play and to hear, but they do take some practice and getting used to mainly due to the modulation throughout them. The sarabande is beautiful and fairly straight forward to play once you've learnt it well. This piece will do wonders for technique and particularly fingering because a strict fingering pattern is required to play the piece well.

The Mozart was probably my favourite. It moves very quickly due to the semiquaver alberti bass pattern in the left hand and there are several occassions where you have to really bring out the left hand part, which takes some practice. As usual Mozart has composed some beautifully classical melodies for this sonata, particularly in the second movement. All in all a very impressive piece.

Sacro Monte, like I said above was an exciting piece but it does leap about on the keys a lot.....particularly at the end and at the top of the second page, but again it becomes easier with practice. If you are looking for drama in a piece then this is certainly one to look at and the transition to a triplet against quaver section towards the end really does drive the piece forward. A very impressive piece and an explosive end to the last (apart from diplomas) exam.

Good luck with the exam!!!! And enjoy it!

Woot! Thanks a bunch for your review. I admit that I find the Praeludium a tad too difficult, especially the running notes close to the end of the first page. I've been practising ages and yet I still can't get it right. Question is, I'm not sure whether I should change my A piece to A1, Sarabande and Rondeau. I've been practising the Praeludium piece for about two months now. I can get almost all the parts right (at least I think I should get it before the exam next year... ), except for the last few running notes close to the end of page one. Any suggestions or solutions?

As for the Schubert piece, I'm wondering if there's any way I can stop the blurring of notes when it comes to the octave parts, especially the left hand notes. I tend to pedal really awkwardly there much thanks to the difficulty of the passage...so there are loads of "holes" in my phrasing. Any suggestions as to how to improve that?

The Debussy piece...well, I haven't been practising that piece for quite some time now, looks really tough. yikes.

ANd yes, I'm practising my scales everyday. Woohoo! Go me.

You don't want to be able to 'sort of' play your pieces and doing Bach at Grade 8 is always good (goes down a treat!) The praeludium is v.difficult, I would avoid! If you fancy Baroque and indeed, Bach, then you are not restricted to A1 the Sarabande and Rondeau - what about the Prelude and Fugue? That's great fun - and if you want to do music, fugues are always good to know as much about as you can! (especially for a level and degree level).

The Schubert is a first-class piece - excellent choice! You can really go far on the interpretation for this piece - make it as romantic as you can! Stay calm in the scalic-octave passages and take it nice and steady. If you have listened to the Grade 8 CD - I do not like the interpretation at all - plus it seems far too fast for my liking, take your time, relax and enjoy it.

I am inclined to recommend either the Sacro Monte - Turina or the Chopin for list C. The Chopin is a beautiful piece but very challenging, if you fancy some Chopin and a challenge - it's an impressive piece to play in a solo recital (or the like). Again, if you want a piece for performance for A Level - this is ideal for your A2 year! The Sacro Monte is great fun - lots of energy needed, and it needs to go like fury!

Good luck! Let us know how you get on! xx

I'm also doing the Praeldium and the Allegro Moderato (Schubert). I'm finding the Allegro Moderato quite tricky especially the bit where you have to do the octaves in triplets with one hand! (that probably doesn't make any sense !). I think the Praeldium is not that demanding but the Fuga is just torture!!! Especially all those running notes at the end! aarrrrghhh!!
Good luck with your exam and I'm sure you will be fine!!

A3 is a challenging piece, I have to agree as well. But as A3 is more of a modern piece, if you choose A3, you should try to avoid choosing modern pieces in List C (the examiners might think that you are incapable of doing other periods pieces) (hopefully it is different now...).

I've just started doing my Grade 8, i skipped Grade 7 so i decided to go for the easy options, and if that's what you want to do then A1 is great because it's really straight forward (must admit the fingering is a bit tough but when you get the hang of it, it's a OK ) and then B1, that is just SOOOOOOO straight forward, i think that some of the grade 6 pieces are way more difficult than that one! I'm not exactly gonna complain though! But I'm really unsure about what to do for Section C, my piano teacher says i should do "Grieg" but i'm really not keen on that piece - i hate the triplets in the left hand going against quavers in the right, i just find that incredebly difficult. Any ideas on what else i could do?

Trisha

I did my grade 8 exam early last year, and played A4, B3 and C10.

The Bach prelude and fugue is really relaxing to play, but it takes a while to make the piece perfect! The prelude looks quite simple but it's quite hard to make it interesting for that reason! The fugue is really good fun, the left hand trills are hard to get right.. that's what I thought anyway. You get to know it so well, I can still play them with my eyes closed!

The Haydn sonata is good, I'd say it's my least favourite out of the three but I got my best mark in it. Make sure you can play 2 against 3, that's all I can say!

I love the Grieg, it's quite easy (probably not Grade 8 standard), but I heard it and really liked it. First couple of pages are really quite simple but at the same time it takes time to make it sound very controlled. 3rd page is harder than it looks..

Good luck to everyone doing Grade 8... I found that once you get Grade 8 you realise how big the piano world really is, there are just so many amazing pieces I wanna play! (not that you can't play them before G8 but you know what I mean)

Love Lea xx

Haha...yes, I know what you mean. It's at Grade 8 do you realise actually how far you've come. It's a long way, but we all make it in the end.

Anyway, playing 2 against 3 is really tough. It takes a lot of coordination doesn't it? Any tips on how to improve the passages that require triplets against quavers? My teacher advised me to play the triplets while skipping the second quaver note in order to get the triplet and the quaver in place. It does work to keep it neater, especially for the Schubert piece. But I was thinking whether there was any other way around it besides just drilling it by playing the passage over and over again.

Thanks a bunch.

QUOTE (leanna @ Jan 10 2004, 07:23 PM)

I found that once you get Grade 8 you realise how big the piano world really is, there are just so many amazing pieces I wanna play!

Precisely. Which is why I like to consider Grade 8 as only the 'beginning' rather than the 'end' of your studies in terms of piano repertoire, as it is only then that you have acquired the technique to play the majority of the repertoire. Even then, there is still heaps of music on a higher level (Liszt, Rachmaninoff etc) which takes even more hard work and commitment.

I have always liked playing 2s against 3s (or 3s and 4s)

QUOTE (hannah @ Jan 12 2004, 06:27 PM)

Precisely. Which is why I like to consider Grade 8 as only the 'beginning' rather than the 'end' of your studies in terms of piano repertoire, as it is only then that you have acquired the technique to play the majority of the repertoire. Even then, there is still heaps of music on a higher level (Liszt, Rachmaninoff etc) which takes even more hard work and commitment.

I think having grade 8 piano means that you need to make a choice for your future career. If you want to be a pianist or a piano tutor, then you have to further your study in piano, and to spend much more time and money on it. Otherwise, attending piano lesson is no longer a necessity as you can play most (but not all) piano pieces for your own enjoyment.

Beware of any injury due to excessive training on virtuosic pieces. There are many pianists suffer from this. In fact, Liszt's works may not suitable for all piano players, especially those with small hands.

Hi new to site - i too am doing my grade 8 this spring. i get the impression that everyone else doing it is still at school whilst i am not! I adore playing the piano and fit it around 2 boys work tennis house etc etc!. I am having trouble with the scales etc. but do now practice every day. One question - I play from the music and don't know how to cope with page turning in the exam. Any help appreciated.

I'm not still at school so you are not alone in being a 'mature' candidate.
(my children are adult)
Though mostly I think I will never actually get as far as taking the exam.
Especially when I read the posts from people who say they learned one of the pieces in 2 months. I wouldn't like to count how long it takes me
And then there is the nerves
For page turning you have to work out a place where a hand has a rest, and learn the bit that is one side of the turnover at least.
I'm mostly ok with scales as I have had teachers who ask for scales at every lesson.. always did them as a matter of course from when I began to learn. Just the one handed thirds that is a killer!!

I did my Grade 8 piano a few years ago at the "advanced" age of 37 - I had always felt I missed out having given up piano lessons while at school (carried on violin to G 8 and never stopped playing both instruments for pleasure) and having a son learning the piano I started to look at the Grade 8 lists each time, thinking "could I do that?". Finally there was a list with 3 pieces on that I not only had copies of already, but felt I had a chance of mastering, so after a few months fitting in as much practice as familiy life with 3 kids and a part-time job would allow, I decided to try it - took G8 at the same time as son took Grade 4, and we both passed (130 - I think the examiner was being kind to me!). The scales were definitely the hardest to get up to scratch - especially the 3rds and 6ths, but I felt a real glow of achievement.

Now I keep looking at the diploma listings, but I think that might be rather too difficult with the amount of time it would need to put together a balanced programme. Still, it's a useful guide to the standard of the pieces I can enjoy tackling for pleasure.

So my advice is - go for it! Allow a realistic timetable, especially for the scales, get the family used to "mum's practice", revise those cadences, if you are not having lessons book a few on an "ad-hoc" basis - and have fun. After all, the children will be doing their Grade 8 contrabasson before you know it......

I did grade 8 last summer. Daphne asked about page turning. You don't say which piece/s is causing the problem but one way round is to copy the first page and stick it onto your music. I did that with the Beethoven I played - there was another page turn to do further on but that wasn't a problem. Also, if you can memorise the next bar or two over the page then that will also help and keep practicing so that the turn is as smooth as poss