Anyone doing grade 7?

I'm doing mine in November (hopefuly) or if I'm too nervous to play well infront of my teacher when I come back from the holidays, March.


What pieces are you doing?

I'm doing

Gigue
Traumerei
The little shepard


Yep. All the 'easy' pieces that are only on the list because of the musical side of it.

Possibly.

Allegretto in C minor, Traumerei, Wagglestick.

I've just done it in the summer exams,,,i'm still waiting for my result.

I took the exam in June. I played (in this order):
Debussy The Little Shepherd
Beethoven Allegretto in C minor
Tchaikovsky Octobre: Chant d’automne

I did mine in June, and played those exact pieces. Good choices!

i did my exam in july. i did giga, traumerei and Wille Wagglestick's Walkabout.

you'll enjoy playing traumerei-it's a beautiful piece and the gigue is ok but a little hard to play on stiff pianos as it is a fast, continuously-moving piece.

I've started practising now for next Spring.

I'm doing

Giga
Traumerei
Time Remembered

I hate the scales. I'm doing group 2, what are others doing?

Yep, group 2.

I'm doing group 1.

Hi

Am new here so this is my first post ever!!

I've just started back to my piano lessons after almost a ten year gap (I stopped them when I started university) and am starting straight back into Grade 7, should be a challenge!!

Am doing the Scarlatti Sonata, Swedish Dance and The Little Shepherd and the group 1 scales so fingers crossed everything will go well.....

It's good to be back behind the keyboard though!

Hopefully will be but it won't be for a while yet!!!! Like the wagglestick! :]

Good luck! My pupil is currently learning Traumerei for list B. They aren't the easy pieces at all

Traumerei is deceptive, and the pedalling can be tricky. It takes skill to play it well. The Little Shepherd also needs a lot of thought put in. An easy piece isn't always the piece where you can learn the notes the fastest, and I'm sure an examiner will be just as impressed with a stunning rendition of the Debussy, as with one of the more "technical" pieces.

xx

im doing:
A4: the Clementi piece, 2nd movement
B6: traumerei
C5: the little shepard by debussy.

i'm probablly doing it in march or july, dunno yet.

good luck to everyone taking there exam in november!!!

Aha - I have now started the Little Shepherd and the Wagglestick. Who cares if they're both C list! Not like I'll be doing the exam till next July or the December after that. After all this way I'm skipping G6!

Hi, I am playing Traumerei as I have said. I have found a version in one of my piano books, which sounds exactly like versions I have on CDs. I can hear and see it is the same when I follow the score. However, when I took it to my lesson last Saturday, my tutor said I was to be careful as the book I have it in is not on the list in the gde 7 exam book.

My point is...my version is in the same key and everything suggested by the AB, and I have never seen a "simpler" version of Traumerei. Does it matter that my version is not in a book suggested by the AB? My tutor seems to think if it's wrong, then the examiner will not mark me.

One more thing...do we do the repeats in this one? I've tried it without, and it doesn't seem right.

Thank you

Why not take your copy of it along to your next forum event and perhaps another forumite can also. Then you can compare the two.

Unless a particular edition is specified then you can use any edition.
The only thing you need to be sure of with a piece like this that probably has several simplified or altered version around is that it is a full version.

Good idea, Petra! Maybe I'll take it along on Saturday. (Hint, hint, sbhoa!!)

A particular edition is not specified, just the key. Mine seems a full version as it fits in with my CD versions..

Have you an edition of this by any chance, sbhoa??

I have at least 5 versions of Traumerei in different books - It's so well known

They are really all the same. The only things that vary are the performance directions. I've actually found it quite useful to compare these as they throw up lots of new ideas! I'd say the version you have will be fine.

In my grade 8 I used different editions for two of the alternative pieces. The book I played one piece from was ancient and covered in coffee cup stains, which I tried to hide from the examiner (I'm such a cheapskate...)

Me too!! That's why I want to use the book I already have!

Thanks for your replies x

I'm not sure but I'll have a look.

Thank you xxx

I'm hoping to do it in the winter (ie november/december) and will play Giga, Landscape by Sibelius, and Willie Wagglestick's Walkabout you just gotta love that name!
My teacher seems to think that Willie is pretty much there - i'm sooo pleased as i taught it myself in three days in the summer hols
Landscape's the one i'm finding a bit trickier, but the 40mins i spent on it last night seem to have helped. guess i should be doing that again now
And i'm doing List 2 scales; anything to avoid C Major!!

What are list 2 scales? I hope I'm not sounding really ignorant! Is this for ABRSM? I though the scales were just the scales, with no alternatives?

At grade 7 there are 2 sets of scales to choose from.

Thank you! I'll have to look into that... feeling a bit stupid now I'm always poring over the regulations and syllabus to make sure I haven't missed anything important

I'm doing

A1 Giga
B3 Octobre
C3 The Tide.
Group 1 Scales

My god I really hate them all apart form A1 Giga. That's the one I love and can play well for. The rest I can't play verry well.

I'm doing it in December.
I am playing
1. Giga
2. Traumeri
3. Jack in the Box (I think that's what it's called! It's by Bartok - is anyone else doing it?)

I was originally going to do the little shepherd but for some reason I just couldn't stand the tune, it really annoyed me! I really like Traumeri though, I remember playing a really easy arrangement when I was about 9. It may not be the most technically challenging, but to play it really beautifully is difficult!

Does anyone else find the Beethoven in Group 1 reallly difficult?! I am doing the exam in November but am really having problems with this one!

I am doing Traumerei and The little Shepherd as well and I love both those pieces.

I'm doing actually the same pieces as you... I'm taking my exam next year.
Seemed like Giga & Traumeri are popular pieces.....

a month 'till the exam, and my aural tests are awful

Am Doing The Beethovan One,
The Traumeri
And The Tide Came In
Im Having Trouble With The Hand Crossing Though

I just got the date...



12 of november And I can't realy sing the bottom line of a piece most of the time...

I did it in April: Beethoven, Wagglestick, and the Chpoin Mazurka.

Why isn't anyone else doing the mazurka?!?!

I'm deffinately doing the Wagglestick for my C piece. For the B piece i'm either doing the Traumeri or Octobre. I haven't looked at the A pieces yet ..

I had it today!


Scales: Went realy well. I sometimes started before the examiner finished saying what he wanted me to play

Giga: Went quite well. A few untidy bits, but not too bad
Traumerei: Went well. I made a mistake, and I forgot a rubarto in the middle, but still good
The little shepherd: No probs. Prehaps I could've made some bits tidier.

Sightreading: Went well, but forgot dinamics

Aural tests: The cadence was a bit bad, because I was too confused with the piece itself to notice what 2 chords made up the cadence. I don't know why, but I confusd 'inperfect' with 'interupted', and then whan I had to say what 2 chords made it up, I was too confused with the cadence to notice the bass line, so said '1 and 5' when it probably was '1c and 5' ... The other tests went fairly well.

Well done lizbun. I expect you have done enough to pass.

Argh I just got my date - 26th November

I'm playing

Clementi: Sontata
Bruch: Swedish Dance
Villa-Lobos: Tide Came In

The only one I feel vaguely sure of is the V-L, except the first 2 bars or whatever. And my group 1 scales are killing me - I've only done scales for so long I've forgotten the Clementi.

I've got a bad feeling about this....

Good luck everyone!

I'm doing mine next term but I'm playing the Beethoven, Sibelius and Hakim pieces

I was doing the Mazurka, but we changed to October a few weeks ago. And I'm doing Giga and Wille Wagglestick. Fun pieces!

I did mine (Grade 8 that is) back in 1972. I am glad I don't have to face it again. All those scales, and recognising cadences, and sight singing. My sympathies go out to everyone that has to face them.


After a couple of long breaks from playing I have rediscovered my love for the piano (mostly at the expense of my slightly less strong love for chess - thank you Robodoc).

I am working on programmes for the Diploma and Licentiate: No scales, no theory, not much of a Viva. Just lots of lovely playing!

Ha!

Yes! I love Beethoven, but this piece is really quite difficult. I guess the only wasy to get round it is to keep practising.

I had my exam on Monday, it went ok:

- only had to restart 2 scales,
- Clementi - played the best I've ever done,
- Bruch - I felt I didn't put enough into it but the piano was very dry and dull even with the pedal,
- Villa-Lobos, when I'd finished, the examiner said "you like playing that one, don't you?" so I hope that's a good thing!
- Sightreading I went a bit mad with, had some chromatics and ties, got the articulation but not the majority of the chords... hmm...
- Aural was ok, the last piece was kind of Scottish and modern, I suggested 20th century and he asked me to name a possible composer and I was out of ideas so said Britten, and was told it was a "sensible answer"... good? Dunno.

So hope it went well, I think I probably let myself down even though I wasn't that nervous. Sigh.

Good luck to everyone else!

Could anyone describe Giga (list A) a bit, so that I can work out if a piece I have a copy of is the same one or not? Going to be a few days or more before I get near a copy of the exam book and can take a look for myself.
Key sig, time sig and notes of first bar should do.

Thanks,
T.

Hi!

I have a pupil doing this one. It's in g minor, 12/8 time. The first full bar begins g (crotchet) g (quaver) twice, then quavers g a f sharp, g a b.

Hope that's useful and my wording is OK!

Yep, very useful and wording was fine. Enough for me to be certain that the piece I have a copy of isn't that one.

Thanks for the info. :-)

T.

I got my results for grade 7


127 merrit


I was aiming for a distinction, but it's still good.
I mucked up the aural (wasn't realy ready).

Well done lizbun!

Can anybody point me to a website where I can listen to the beethoven (for free!)? I'm looking at options for a pupil and don't have the music for this, and don't know it! Is it a bagatelle? If so, which number? Several websites have the bagatelles but only by number, so I don't know which might be the allegetto in C minor! (If it's a bagatelle at all. )

Congratulations, Lizbun, that's a great result!

I wasn't ready for the G7 aural either, and the G8 is even worse.