I am just starting my students in the examination process. I am just now looking at last year's piano syllabus for an idea. What level would a student be if they just finished Für Elise?

Thanks so much for any help!

I think Für Elise is about grade 4.

There's so many different versions out there, some simplified, some not; some shortened... How long did they take to learn, is it a 'musical' performance or are they simply playing the notes, what other things are they playing, are the other exam components at or near the same level?

It's impossible to say over a forum!

Fur Elise is a very popular choice as extra repertoire, and I would give to anyone who liked it, who was at Grade 2 or above. However, I'm only talking about the first section, as to play all of it to a reasonable standard, I think they'd need to be about Grade 4-5. It's a piece which is easily memorised, and which has a lot of potential for teaching the basics of pedalling, rubato, harmonic progression, etc. I would tend to give them the original version, and simply tell them to finish the first section with an A Minor chord - AACA - preceded by DCBA in the RH as opposed to ECBA.

EDIT - I've just realised that that's not really what you asked! You have someone who has already played it!

It's impossible to say on the basis of just one piece. Sorry !

I'd want to know about scales, sight reading and aural skills too before I took the decision to prepare a candidate. I've had students (usually returnees) working on pieces of around grade 4-5 whose scale knowledge was only around grade 1 or 2 and sight-reading very similar.

Thanks for the good advice though!

My student played the entire original piece. Today was their recital as a matter of fact, and he did very well.




I think this might describe my student. He is very motivated to play actual pieces, but he is not very motivated to work on scales, sight reading and aural skills. We are going to work on that this summer.

How did you get your students at the same level in all areas?

This is maybe worthy of another thread; let me know if you think so. (And I know you were really asking Maggiemay!) In my experience, it's rare to have a pupil who's equally good at all sections of the exams. Who says the exams are a difinitive test anyway? I have some great sight-readers who never really perfect anything - potential good last minute accompanists? - and I have some great performers who are pathetic sight-readers. (Great soloists - as long as they're not handed something unexpected?) Being good at aural tests (or otherwise) seems to bear little realation to being good at ANY of the other facets of the exams. Aural tests can be practised and improved, but some people just seem to have more finely tuned ears than others for pitch. For all these reasons, I generally let people progress at what they're good at, and don't hold them back just because they might fail one section of an exam. (No overall failures so far - touch wood!) Though I'm sure there will be people who will disagree with this approach...

I play scales and technical exercises as a warm-up in each lesson and pupils are encouraged to do the same at home. These are appropriate to the grade thay are working towards.

We work pretty slowly through the Paul Harris sight reading books and also treat all new pieces as sight reading, but talking about key, tempo, character, starting position etc. We also play duets together to help them to understand why we keep going through mistakes.

Aurals it depends on the age and ability of the student but there will usually be a chat about any new piece including loud/quiet; smooth/detatched; major/minor and similar. The singing/memory test in the exam tends to only have a place once we're working towards that exam (or they are in another instrument and need the practice!).

How did you get your students at the same level in all areas?

I don't always! and of course it varies enormously from student to student - as Patricia pointed out, they have their strong and weak areas. It doesn't stop us as teachers though from aiming to produce well-rounded players, and trying to keep tabs on different areas of skill , and perhaps trying to avoid one area dropping too far behind.

Like Suzymac, I try to incorporate sight-reading, scales and aural into most lessons. Once pupils know a few scales, we usually play a couple to warm up. If they have done an exam at all, they are expected to keep up those scales (no, they don't always!) but knowing they will probably have to play a couple most weeks encourages some to not forget them. They sight-read bits of most new pieces we tackle. We use current pieces to improve listening skills and discuss markings in the copy. I have picked up quite a lot of ideas from the forums in this area!

If I have a student (often an adult) who's learning pieces well in advance of other skills, and who wants to take an exam, I perhaps list the scale requirements and take him / her through some graded sight-reading examples, to give an idea of what's involved besides the pieces. It can help produce a realistic picture of what's needed. They can still learn harder pieces if that's what they want to do - the exam needn't be the only target on the horizon.

I start preparing my students with Scales, Sightreading and Aural well before I buy the Exam pieces so that they then concentrate on the pieces and we revise the other things on a fairly regular basis, especially sightreading.
Good luck!

Thanks for all of the help!!

I may be a little late, but I tend to start piano pupils on scales and technical exercises before they get their pieces. The Dozen a Day series is excellent for up to Grade 5 if you get the right book. I have found it really supports scales and arpeggio work, and gets pupils familiar with the whole layout of the piano.

Once I'm happy with technique, I then introduce the pieces. It sounds to me that you should be aiming at Grade4 at least if not Grade 5. Don't just stick with technique in the meantime, use a mixture of repertoire.
Pamela Wedgwood's "Jazzin about" is excellent as is her upgrade series. But if you want something more classical, then Keyboard Anthology, Classics to Moderns are good too.

Then there's Aural and Sightreading. If your pupil is IT clued up then take a look at hofnote [mod I know I'm connected but I've mentioned a lot of publications here and I'm trying to be objective!] it will give him a chance to practice aural at home. For sightreading I like Right@sight. It helps train the mind to do the think in a structured way.

The with the pieces, don't just learn the minimal requirement (if time allows) let your pupil explore them as pieces of music and not just stepping stones to pass an exam.

[quote name='jod' date='May 25 2006, 05:17 AM' post='329683']

Once I'm happy with technique, I then introduce the pieces. It sounds to me that you should be aiming at Grade4 at least if not Grade 5. Don't just stick with technique in the meantime, use a mixture of repertoire.
Pamela Wedgwood's "Jazzin about" is excellent as is her upgrade series. But if you want something more classical, then Keyboard Anthology, Classics to Moderns are good too.

Then there's Aural and Sightreading. If your pupil is IT clued up then take a look at hofnote [mod I know I'm connected but I've mentioned a lot of publications here and I'm trying to be objective!] it will give him a chance to practice aural at home. For sightreading I like Right@sight. It helps train the mind to do the think in a structured way.


Which Classics to Moderns book would you suggest? Also ... what is hofnote?

[quote name='sopgatto' date='May 25 2006, 03:45 PM' post='329804']
[quote name='jod' date='May 25 2006, 05:17 AM' post='329683']

Once I'm happy with technique, I then introduce the pieces. It sounds to me that you should be aiming at Grade4 at least if not Grade 5. Don't just stick with technique in the meantime, use a mixture of repertoire.
Pamela Wedgwood's "Jazzin about" is excellent as is her upgrade series. But if you want something more classical, then Keyboard Anthology, Classics to Moderns are good too.

Then there's Aural and Sightreading. If your pupil is IT clued up then take a look at hofnote [mod I know I'm connected but I've mentioned a lot of publications here and I'm trying to be objective!] it will give him a chance to practice aural at home. For sightreading I like Right@sight. It helps train the mind to do the think in a structured way.


Which Classics to Moderns book would you suggest? Also ... what is hofnote?
[/quote]

Google Hofnote and you'll find out. For Grade 5 Go for Classics to Moderns book 4 or 5.