Yesterday I asked in my local music shop for a Grade 5 ABRSM piano CD and I was shocked to see that the price is £12.99. When I expressed my shock and said no thank you afterall, the girl told me that Grade 8 CDs are nearly £20. Am I the only one who finds these prices outrageous? I have suspected for a long time that the AB is more interested in making profit than music and here is yet more evidence.

Trinity produce a CD for around £8 that covers grades 1 - 5. I moved to Trinity several months ago for my Grade ones because I find their repertoire more appealing, their aural tests more sensible (because they are integrated and use the same example to cover many aspects) and I think the scale syllabus is far more logical since it allows the students to really begin to understand the circle of fifths. Of course you can teach how scales are constructed to those doing AB, but then the scale syllabus is so bitty you have to teach lots of different things.

Different organisations do things differently and we, the consumers, are (thankfully) able in the UK at least, to choose which we want to "buy" from. I don't regard £12.99 as costly for a well-produced CD that gives me useful information but I respect the views of those who do. The tracks are recorded by pianists who are very emminent in their field of study (even the Grade 1 CD is) and everything has a price. ABRSM is actually a charity as I understand it, so ploughs its profits back into music-making, not the wallets of shareholders.

Personally, I don't use Trinity because it's such a business finding a centre locally that operates the exams and I am content (both for oboe and piano) with the ABRSM set-up and the quality of service I get from them.

I am equally happy, Barcarolle, that you do what's best for you and your pupils - and that's true for anyone else on this list too.

I saw them on Musicroom and thought they were a little expensive too. Getting the CDs for Grades 6, 7, and 8 are useful to listen to the alternative pieces that aren't in the exam book. I'm sure they could sell them a little cheaper!

This week I'll be getting the eight Grade exam books and CDs for 6, 7, and 8. Ouch!

I think the prices of the CDs reflect costs, distribution and a limited market.

I do feel, however, that the last lot of flute CDs Grades 6-8 were badly produced. They were recorded before the syllabus was released, but only became available when the syllabus had been running for two terms. Some of the accompaniments are unusable, because they make no allowance for the fact that the flute starts before the piano. And I've found at least two instances of beats missing or added in some of the performances, which suggests poor editing.

The CDs now contain only Lists A and B, whereas the last set contained List C as well for the same price.

I bought a grade 6 CD for around £13 the other day, I think that it compares quite well to other CD prices - for example - I bought a Double CD set of the whole of Swan Lake - for £26 each CD is simmilar in length and quality, so I don't feel to hard done by after having bought and AB CD.

or was it just that the swan lake CD was extremely expensive?

I don't think £12.99 is too much for a CD, - it's roughly the same price as a chart CD. Compared with a chart CD, exam CDs have a much smaller market and need to cover production costs. As oboist points out, the ABRSM is a charity and exam CDs feature accomplished leading performers in their instrument.

You still pay £13 for a chart CD?! They can be found *much* cheaper now - £9 is the average I pay

I think they are expensive for what they are, and the quality (especially volume in the accompaniments) is not always very good. I don't buy them myself. I tell students that if they want them they can buy one and tell them how much they are.

David

Have you tried that well known auction site beginning with E and ending in bay? I got my ABRSM CD from there, second hand for about a fiver. You might be lucky.

I have recently taken grade 8 piano and i have spent well over £100 on the exam :-
£63 entry fee,
CD £20,
pieces plus aural and sightreading books £25+

I do think it is rather expensive (but worth it for enjoying the music! )

I think the CD's are quite expensive, especially seems you use them for a couple of months and then thats it. I think the exam fees are the worst bit though, i know exams are expensive to run, but when you're paying over £50 for one of the higher grade exams it just puts on even more unneeded pressure to pass.

I brought gd. 8 clarinet cd believe it or not after my gd. 8!My teacher recommended it to look at some pieces i want to do for my dip and because there are so many good quality clarinet recordings in one cd! It made things much cheaper than buying loads and loads of cds!

I only had to get a few other cd's with different recordings on (although i did tape some pieces off classic fm!)

I think these CDs are expensive, but as others have said, it's a comparatively small production run.


I don't know why AB don't do the same. With the lower grades it is quite possible that a student will take more than one exam before the syllabus changes. It would be cheaper for AB to produce one CD as sales would be higher, and it would be cheaper for the student to have more than one set of pieces on it.

Are they doing this with all the instruments, or is it just flute?

It's the same for clarinet, but I imagine not for strings or piano, as the lists work differently. List C for woodwind are the unaccompanied pieces.

One thing a lot of people seem to be forgetting in this whole "it's so expensive" complaint: it's not mandatory to buy them!

They've only been available for a relatively short time... before that I remember the Pocket Performer & Pocket Pianist tapes, which were cheaper but not as good quality (and not THAT cheap), and then before that there was no such resource as far as I am aware besides going out and finding recordings oneself. The AB is doing a favour by providing the resource: we don't have to use it! If they're too expensive, don't buy them, or make your own recordings for pupils. It's no an obligatory purchase for an exam! It seems a little strange to me to complain about how expensive something is when it's basically a luxury rather than a necessity in exam prep. Sure they're useful, and the piano accompaniments are a boon for non-pianist-teachers, but no one has to buy them!

Yes, it would be nice if they were more affordable, but they seem (from my minimal experience) to be reasonably good quality recordings by good musicians, and with a small run they do well to be so competitive with other classical recordings.

I wouldn't have minded paying the pennies if I had the Grade 5 piano pieces instead of the rock band that I got on my CD

I was very excited to see that midi files were available, as that would be preferable for me, especially if RH and LH had split channels. Disappointed to find that they only had the pieces in the book, not the alternative pieces, they only go up to Grade 5 and they were slightly more expensive.

Midi files are usually cheap...well, I thought they should be cheap.

No good for me. I want all the pieces, and especially the higher grades.

I also don't mind paying for the cd, given the work that goes into producing it ... only I got one that doesn't play all the songs so I was a bit disappointed as this now means taking it up with the vendor and I just hate hassle like that.

Elizabeth

I don't mind paying extra for a CD. An awful lot of classical CDs are expensive these days, and remember that you are actually getting TWO CDs (well you do for clarinet anyway). Looking in WHSmith the other day, a double CD was 14.99. So that makes the grade exam CDs cheaper. And anyway, you don't have to stop using the CDs just because you have finished the grade. I still listen to the grade 6 CD that I bought. Admittedly I don't really use the accompaniment CD, but I listen to the other one. And as Sarah Flute has said, you don't have to buy them.

In which case I could make one suggestion - don't use leading performers. The CDs are not bought by people wishing to build a CD library, and in any case - given the current price of the CDs - there are far cheaper ways to do so.

People buy the CDs to listen to the pieces on the exam syllabus; and for that purpose I suspect a recording by a performer whose fee is lower would be as useful. Perhaps, given the relatively low difficulty of the pieces, the ABRSM could give students at the RAM/RCM/RNCM/RSAMD a few pounds to record them.

Thank you - I just won it for £4.75 - fab!

I take people's points about the price of classical CDs and the ABRSM CDs, however the former contain many more minutes (hours probably) of music than the latter. And I listen to classical CDs more than just a few times. If Trinity can produce one for around £8 I really don't think it would be impossible for the AB to do the same.

That's not any good for people who want the Cds when the syllabus first come out, only for those using it during the second year.

Yes, the ABRSM Cds are always so expensive. In New Zealand it's about $80.00NZD for Grade 8 Cello.

That does sound a lot. Anyone know how much that is in £'s??
I guess it doesn't matter what we think of the cost of the CDs - people who want tehm badly enough will buy them anyway.

About 30 pounds...

Ouch.

Bring on ABRSM's itunes store (edit - don't think NZ has its own itunes yet even - pick a generic download site ;-) )

I do think that the AB CDs are overpriced considering their content - I was quite disappointed with the dynamic range and overall musicality of the clarinet and flute ones. It would be a very good idea for the Board to allow downloads of individual pieces too, rather than having to buy the whole CD. Perhaps the extra revenue gained from this would then enable them to reduce the price of the CD?

Whaaaaaaaaaat?? £30 for a CD? Some people think £12 is extortionate!

Am I the only person who is sceptical about the whole CD thing anyway and doesn't use them? To sound utterly like an old fogey: in my day we didn't have them and it never did me any harm....

I am reluctant to get my pupils to use them, particularly at the lower grades - surely it's just going to turn out identikit copies of the 'approved' CD version? I would rather my students show a bit more independence. I know from my own experience that I tend to dislike interpretations of pieces that vary a lot from my 'favourite' recording (usually the first one I got for that piece!), even though I know this is not rational. How much more is this going to apply for a student / kid?

As for being able to play along with the accompaniment for non-pianists: hmm, yes, maybe, but doesn't that take away the extremely important musical aspect of being able to work *with* an accompanist in a musical dialogue, not just plonking one's way through and expecting the pianist to be there somewhere - which seems to be exactly what a CD encourages.

I get them, but only to hear all the alternative pieces otherwise it's so expensive to buy them all.

The children hear me play the ones in the book and listen to the alternatives not in the book, before they decide which pieces they want to learn. Then I buy the extra books as needed.

That is the only time they hear the recordings. Works really well for us and gives us lots of choices. Nearly everyone chooses at least one of the alternative pieces

I like to hear (and let students hear) the CDs for the higher grades and compare them where possible with other recordings of the pieces. They also provide useful examples for Aural Test D.

Yes, it is important to be able to work with an accompanist, but many students whose teachers do not play piano do not get this opportunity - it has been an eye-opener to me when stewarding music exams to realise that many candidates have only one practice with their accompanist, and some do not meet the accompanist until the day! In this situation, if they have practised with the CD, at least they know what the accompaniment sounds like and where they have to come in. Not ideal, but better than the alternative.

Absolutely. I've played a few pieces where the piano part was nothing like what I thought it would be, which was a bit disconcerting the first time through with a pianist.

I would have thought that in this day and age it would be possible for the AB either to link to sites where you can listen to and/or order a performance of the syllabus works, and to download the accompaniments as required. That way, you reduce the production costs (no minimum production runs or packaging costs with mp3 files ), which could be reflected in the download price. As time progresses you need to make fewer new recordings - some clarinet pieces have been on the syllabus for the last 20 years and will probably remain there for a further 20! How about it, AB?

Anyone know what happens to the unsold CDs when a syllabus expires?

There is a useful link on the Teachers page of this website of someone who sells midi accomps of individual tracks. I'll toddle off and find the link.

Here it is.

Slight correction: they're mp3s or CDs, not midi.

yes...unfortunately almost all foreign things in NZ are crazily expensive...

Meh, that's nothing - move to Iceland .

Where's that??
Sorry my Geography is nopeless.....

One point to consider is that the CDs are probably being produced/supplied to the shops by ABRSM Publishing, which is a profit-making company, as opposed to ABRSM itself, which is a registered charity (even though the two share the same offices).


Whether selling what is merely a learning aid for the Board's exams at the price of a professionally-produced CD album is justified...well...I don't think so.

Well don't buy them then

(& learning aid it may be, but I think they're still professionally produced CDs...)

I agree that they're too expensive, though I suppose we have to give the AB the benefit of the doubt as we don't know how much it costs to produce them. What rankles is that if you buy several of them it gets very expensive as the syllabus changes quite frequently. To help recommend the Grade 8 pieces you almost have to buy the CD as there is no one book of selections.

In short, if they could bring the price down it would really help us teachers!

Other quibbles I have with the CD's are:

The accompaniments are often played too fast - sometimes considerably faster than the metronome markings on the AB syllabus books.

Vibrato is sometimes used on grade 1 violin pieces; the vast majority of grade 1 candidates won't be using vibrato yet so the playing isn't representative of the sound the student can realistically achieve.

The count-in is unnecessarily formal (off-putting, frankly) and sometimes too quiet. Hint: for nice informal count-ins listen to the Fiddle Time series, especially Fiddle Time Joggers - lovely!

Violinia

No, Claire21, you're not the only one - I use them very little, and almost never with the lower grades.

As, primarily, an oboe teacher until just recently (oboe CD coming out with some music from lower grades on it) I've never had the luxury of CDs for pupils - they just get on with it. Maybe we're more resilient?!!

As a piano teacher I always teach the music from scratch in the time-honoured fashion. However, I will occasionally lend a pupil my CDs if they are struggling with a bit of the piece and just hearing it once or twice in the time between their lesson might be the difference between the problem sorted or magnified by the time we next meet.

Use them sensibly and they're useful - copy-cat performances are not my thing!