Is anyone working towards taking the grade 7 exam? If so, what pieces?

Well Im not doing Grade 7 , but I know quite a few of the pieces.
I'd go for the Handel, the Schumann, and the Ravel.

There are a couple of pieces on the list that I think are quite hard for grade 7, indeed harder than some of the Grade 8 ones. Butterfly (Grieg) is surely harder than the Nocturne (Grieg) on Grade 8.
The Beethoven sonata movemnet on Grade 7 is also not too easy.

There is no Handel or Ravel on the grade 7 list for 2007/2008...

I'm supposed to be doing Loeillet's Giga (unsure of quaver articulation in this), Schumann's Traumerei and Bonsor's Willie Wagglestick's Walkabout - fun piece .

Oooh, you lucky thing! Traumerei is one of my all-time favourites. I think it really helps if you love the pieces you'll be playing for exams - sadly I didn't really like any of my Grade 8 pieces (certainly not by the end, anyhoot).

I like the Schumann and the jazzy one. List A leaves a lot to be desired though, in my opinion. I find Giga quite hard to get my fingers around.

My pupil is doing the Giga, WW and the Scriabin which is beautiful but jolly hard! I like all three very much
The giga is indeed fiddly but it is a lovely piece when you get it going.

Oops sorry, I looked at last years syllabus !

I took it today (and will probably be redoing it next time ) and I did the beethoven from list A, the Tchaikovsky from list B and the Villa-Lobos. I think they're all great pieces, especially the tchaikovsky!

For anyone playing or teaching the Giga, what articulation is recommended for the quavers? All staccato, all legato, first two slurred second staccato? Does it change in places?

I'm learning the Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Debussy.

I'm doing the Loeillet, the Schumann and the Debussy.

Hi Scaramouche,

I just did my grade 7, although I'm still waiting for the results so don't assume I know what I'm talking about!

I did the Giga similarly to the way it is played on the cd (if you have it): Lone quavers (like the first D) staccato. Group most of the rest into 3s or 6s. For example the first couple lines like this (^ indicates staccato, [indicates bar]):

D^] G F# G G^ G F# G G^ G A F# G A B][A G A^ A B C B A G^ A B C]

[B A G^ C D E D C B^ D E F][E D C^ E F# G F# E D^ G___^][Eb__^ D__^ C__^ D__^]

I hope that wasn't too incomprehensible. The dotted crotchets are sustained but separated by a slight break. I played bars 9-13 mostly legato for the quavers, then bar 14 onwards mostly in 3s. This is just the way I did it - play around with it and decide what sounds best for you!

Best of luck! It's not too hard a piece once you get used to the ornamentation, although the speed is very hard to sustain.

Regards,

Fred

Hi Fred,

Thanks for that , I do have the CD, I should listen to it properly with the music when I get chance and mark on what the performer does there perhaps. I don't think it's really really hard, but the speed is definitely an issue!

What other pieces did you do? Good luck for your result.

Re the Giga, the teachers' notes comment -

all-staccato is probably best avoided, although dotted crotchet chords in the LH may be slightly separated. Mixed artic in RH is likely to produce the most interesting musical results. eg consider phrasing in groups of 3 between the second half of bar 14 through bar 15; phrasing could be slurred couplets plus a staccato third quaver and there could be continuous legato in bars 19-21. Turk said a giga should be cheerful and light (apparently).

suggested speed of dotted crotchet = 116.

Thanks Maggie. I guess slow practice and an awful lot of patience is the only way through this one.

I know what you mean about the Giga, I wasn't bowled over by it the first time I looked through it. Now it's growing on me.

I'm not a fan of the Wagglestick's Walkabout though...

I play, Giga... Album Leaves and The tide came in.

It's alright bu tI don't play my piano very often. ... I somehow manage to lose intrest in it..

Less pressure now anyway, as I won't be doing it this summer.