I'm virtually sight reading the Beethoven symphonies 1-v (piano).Its fairly straight forward to read,but what sort of level is this standard of music, i mean its the first time ive seen a group of minims joined together by semi quaver tails and ive been playing for 12 years !

It's impossible to tell if its a transcription, it depends what edition you're using. Some were transcribed by Liszt, I doubt you'd be sightreading those; others are in 100 easy tunes and aren't much above grade 2...

Two minims joined together with semiquaver tails means to play semiquavers for the duration of two minims, ie a semibreve. This is a kind of tremolo effect often found in orchestral transcriptions.

I thought it would be for the duration of one of the minims only... ...maybe I'm just getting old!

Hey you're 99 in a week, give yourself a break.

Yes, that is definitely a consolation!
Can't wait for my birthday - though I am working that day!

But seriously, though I don't have my ornaments and abbreviations book here to double check, an example would be the left hand tremolo in Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique.

They are repeated quavers. Its shorthand often seen in orchestral music, instead of writing out a load of quavers. If there are parallel lines between them too then they could be semis or demi semis depending on the number of lines.

Get it lot in orchestra.

I cant see it being Grade 2-The notes in places go off the stave by at least one octave so its hard to read

Forget about finding out what level it is. If you have been playing for 12 years you should be able to tell by yourself anyway unless you were just playing for fun and didn't want to progress much. The important thing is, is that you can play (not just sight read it) and paly it well. Just because there are a few notes off the stave, it doesn't automatically make it higher than grade 2. It's like saying I'm at a grade 8 level becasue I can play the C major scale up four octaves.

I wasn't being big headed or anything its just that im branching out from exam pieces and just curious .The one im playing is Symphonie no. 1. /op. 21

Well firstly, what grade are you on the piano?

Can you scan a bit of it and put it on here?

(Yes, it was me last Saturday morning!)

Thanks for the email JohnS Beethovens symphony 1/op.21 is Grade 8