In the current Grade 6 syllabus is the piece Rumba Toccata. At bar 46 should the A# be played an octave higher than written as that seems to be what is played on the accompanying CD and makes more sense musically (though who am I to criticise a composer!) Likewise at bar 47 should the final G be played an octave down. I can't really hear it on the CD at all even when I slow it down.

Thanks y'all.

I can't understand anything about that piece, but do it as you hear it on the CD

Personally, I would say do it as you see it on the page because not every examiner may have heard the CD and might, therefore, think you're playing it incorrectly, even if it makes more sense musically.

Alternatively, why not give the ABRSM a ring and ask? If there's a misprint, they might like to know and could put something out in Libretto etc about same or at least alert examiners to the possibility some people might play it differently perhaps.

Don't know the piece personally as I don't teach piano to Grade 6 level and haven't encountered it elsewhere. So please accept this is a "generalist" response, not one based on specific knowledge.

Might go and buy the Grade 6 book just to look now!

Rumba Toccata isn't in the current syllabus. It's a 2007-08 piece (C2).

I've yet to buy them, so can't comment yet. The title sounds like it's going to be popular piece to play.

Well, I'm a bit confused now.

I have a copy of Rumba Toccata which I was given before the new syllabus was published. And I have a copy of the new syllabus Grade 6 book. The notes and rhythms are identical in each, so unless my previous copy was a misprint too, I think that the new book must be printed correctly.

And in each of them there is precisely one A#, and that's in bar 19. When it's in a sequence, and wouldn't make sense an octave down.

Looking at bar 46, the first note for the left hand is on the lower stave and is an F# as the stave changed to treble clef in bar 45. This makes it an augmented third higher than the last note of the scale in the previous two bars. I think this makes sense musically, although I could see an argument for it being played an octave higher to start the next sequence - but in that case I think they'd have written it on the upper stave not the lower one. This is because the 8va sign, I think, only applies to the upper stave so you then have a jump of a sixth up to the next LH note which is written on the upper stave.

Similarly in the last two bars, the 8va sign there applies only to the lower stave, and I think that's why the four G's are notated as they are, so that the third of the four G's is an octave below the others without having stupid numbers of ledger lines.

So I think you play it as written, quite honestly. I don't know what the recording does, but I'm not fussed about it as it's my performance that interests me, rather than someone else's.

Hope this helps

Cheers

katyjay

You're right - it is F#, not A# (hehe, is it any wonder I failed grade 8 theory!)

Thanks for the advice everyone, confusing though it all is - keep it coming!!