Yeah I thought it must be around the grade 8 region...anything after the first page is too hard for me!!

yes, it is really grade 4. anyone who told you its grade 6 is lying....

The Storm is about grade 5-6, probably nearer grade 6.

Does anyone know the standard of Chopin's nocturne op.27 no.2 and Debussy's Reverie?

ShArOn

Ok thanks!

I'd say Clair de Lune is the same level as most grade 8 pieces - it took me around about the same time to get to it to a similar level, anyway. Although, my piano teacher told me it was grade 7.

Does anyone know what grade Satie's Gnossienne No.1 is? Because I always thought it sounded/looked fairly hard, but tried it last night and learnt it really quickly

Chopin's Military Polonaise:
Ths is one of the display pieces of top virtuosos. It requires great dexterity, mental stamina to sustain concentration, and a very wide range of skills and techniques. Will take by far the most work of the pieces you've listed. I would learn a few Chopin waltzes, mazurkas, nocturnes and etudes, as well as one of the easier Polonaises before attempting this one.

Moonlight Sonata
The technical difficulty of the third movement is overstated. It is not that bad. Musically getting the right atmosphere in the apparently simple second movement is the real challenge. It is all too easy to make it sound very jolly. The hardest thing in the first movement is getting the tempo right. The better the piano (=long sustain), the slower you can take it, but the harder it is to get just the right amount of pedal for the same effect as plonking it down and keeping it down on an early 19th century instrument.

In the third movement there are a handful of techniques that will trip you up, and may need work.

Short trills or turns with fingers 4 and 5
Arpeggios and broken chords
Tremolo accompaniment
Some moderately sized leaps
Sudden drops to piano from forte

but they can be broken down and practised separately.

There is no need to worry about the scary speed that concert artists play this at. That could take a few years to achieve. But a first step iss to be absolutely accurate and secure at a moderate speed.

Clair de Lune
Is the easiest piece in Suite Bergamasque, and the easiest that you have listed, and some pianists can play it well long before they sit the grade 7 or 8 exams. It needs sensitivity and control. It is important to count or mark the main beats so as not to mess up the basic pulse when switching between two notes to a beat and three. It is also imporant that the notes in chords sound precisely together. Any splits sound especially dreadful in this piece. The rippling semiquaver accompaniments in the middle section need a lot of practice to get smooth and accurate at the right tempo. Imagine the sound of a harp. The high notes on the ledger lines in the RH should be memorized - it takes too long to read them accurately erach time. It is generally a mistake to sentimentalize it with exaggerated changes of volume and addditional accelerandos and ritardandos. It sounds best played straight, in strict tempo.

Hooray. The rain has stopped. Time to cycle to the practice rooms!

Difficult to say - notes are fairly easy but to play it convincingly needs expression and interpretation which some people find difficult.

PS They are nice pieces, especially no. 3. I once played all three at a music festival in a French music class.

They are lovely! I find the lack of bar lines makes my eyes go funny though - it's funny how you miss them!

Yeah that's what it did to me at first too!!

So do we reckon it's harder or easier than, say, grade 4?

I would say that they are all about the same standard (Gynmopodie / Gnossiennes) with Gnos 3 possibly being a little harder. The grade is not a feature of the piece - you could use the same piece at different exam levels but tell the examiner to pay closer attention to different aspects of the playing. In fact this often happens.

If you enjoy playing them then play them - if people (that is people other than your mother / grandmother) enjoy listening to you playing them then you are probably playing them pretty well, if they don't then you're are probably attempting pieces that are too hard for you!

It's been said before and would doubteless be said again but just because a piece is set in a grade exam doesn't mean that the piece "is" that grade. There's a nice double CD set called "The Art of Ashkenzy", and one of the disks has quite a few standard pieces used in grade exams on it (Fur Elise, Traumerie). Listen to a very good grade 4 student play Fur Elise and then listen to Ashkenazy playing it and you'll realise that the piece isn't grade 4!

The other side of the coin is people who struggle with a hard piece, get to the point thet they can play the right notes in the right order and vaguely the right time, and then maintain that they can platy to a high standard. Some people may remember Le Cathedral Engluotie (how do you spell that?) episode on this board.

Sitting at my desk working on Sat AM - just put Ashkenazy on!

Do we have to? Couldn't I just stick pins in myself (quicker and less painful)

<-- right notes, right order (eat your heart out Eric Morecambe)

Any ideas of Op71 / 3 Summer's Evening (Sommerabend) by Grieg? I love this piece and got given it the other day

My piano teacher is going through a phase of Grieg worship, so I know about this! It is quite easy to play - a grade 8 pianist should be able to make a good job of sight reading it - not that it won't take a lot more work to get it sounding really good. But it is a lovely piece (I presume we are talking about the same one: 6 flats, C time, pp, Allegro Molto. Because my edition [Konemann] calls it Smatroll, not Sommerabend).

Yes, the same one It's so pretty... Thanks.

If we're going by the rule that sight-reading is approximately two grades above the piece standard then it's Grade 6?

Just came across the music for Chopin's Nocturne in Eb Op 9-2, and decided to give it a try as it sounds BEAUTIFUL!!

Wondering if anyone knows the grade? Looks too hard for me !!!

Thanks,

Laura

Well, that one and the two in G Minor are probably the easiest of the Nocturnes. But still Grade 7-8 to play welli

This thread has revealed just how much variation there is in how hard people find a piece. Also to the person earlier who said that the Minute Waltz was above grade 7, I concur! I'm grade 8 and I find it annoyingly fiddly.

the chopin mazurka in Bb op 7 no. 1 is currently listed as ABRSM grade 7 which I have to agree with the board. Its got just about everything in there except counterpoint!

i would class the beethoven moonlight sonata full sonata as post grade 8. the second movement i would say is grade 7.

I'm a grade 8 piano, so i'm now going to tackle the 3rd movement of the Moonlight. I'll let you know how I get on!.......


.........I failed.

Get someone to play the arpeggios and tremlos etc with you for the third movement. I managed to play them with the aid of someone playing the same thing