Hi - I normally post on the Adult Learners' Forum and didn't realise this forum was here! Which pieces are you all preparing for Grade 4? I am still undecided but have started work on the Bach and Grieg (which I love but it sounds terrible when I play it! - Any tips on improving?)
Thanks!

Hi... it is quite interesting as I have not found any of the pieces in published Grade 4 book attractive for a teenage boy I teach... (possible exception being Bach) In fact, I am rather disappointed with the selection this year... At the moment, I am looking into the alternative pieces...

Sorry it is not helpful to you...

I've got my Grade 4 (new syllabus) exam this Thursday, and I'm doing Air (A2), Cattle-Call (B2) and Alarm (C1). All of them in my opinion are good pieces to do.

Car Expert

I've also been preparing for grade 4 - doing bach prelude, petit bateaux and bop goes the weasel. Though i'd pick a variety. I love the bach, the best way to improve in my opinion is just to keep playing it without stopping. if there are certain bars that bother you sort them out by constantly playing starting slowly until the problem is solve. Then slot it back into the whole piece slowly then build the speed back up. also dynamics and articulation will make it sound much better - just go with the music the rest will come.

Not much help to you, but I like things from last year much better (I have the book for sight reading purposes!!!) - Danse Orientale, Freeway etc.

All the best for Thursday Car Expert! Those are the three I would choose too. I especialy love the Grieg.

I'm preparing my one grade IV girl for the same as you blanx..piano ... newbie. It was my pupil's choice. She always prides herself on choosing challenging ones, with my say so of course. Great minds ......etc.

LR

Good luck for tomorrow!

I'm preparing my one grade IV girl for the same as you blanx..piano ... newbie. It was my pupil's choice. She always prides herself on choosing challenging ones, with my say so of course. Great minds ......etc.

LR
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hahahahaaa!

I've got several pupils doing this exam next term. They're all particularly keen on the Heller alternative B piece ("Blustering Wind") - I think it's lovely.

My grade 4 pupil is a teenage boy - 2nd year ....... and he likes Alarm ............ can you make it appeal to his imagination somehow???? Like a film score or something? I agree that the AB selection generally this year is not a very good one - and not just for grade 4 - I'm not keen on grade 1 either......except that it's always worth looking at the alternative pieces if you can as there are often some absolute gems hidden away in other books..... (although it's obviously much cheaper having the one AB book..... )

Hard to say what you need to improve - not having heard you play it. But I think this piece needs a beautiful tone - so experiment until you can achieve this on a very simple sequence of notes and then try to apply it to the Grieg.

Also it needs sensitive pedalling and again you can only find a solution to this by self critical listening (the old advice about pedalling with your ears holds good for this piece!) I think ideally you'd use the sostenuto pedal for those sustained chords with melody above - I don't really like the muzziness the melody notes have with the damper pedal.

Alongside this you also need the confidence to give the piece a lot of space - room to breathe kind of.

Try 'stopping practice' - ie play short phrases at a time - stop, listen in you r head to what you want to play, play, 'listen back' to what you played and decide whether you liked it. Recording your playing is helpful too.


The fact that you love the piece is a great start though - you clearly have an idea of how it should sound!

Good luck