Hello!

The last Piano exam I took was Grade 5, which I passed with Merit. This was before I went to University and though I played a bit then, my first instrument was the Recorder and I concentrated on that. Now I find myself teaching and wanting to get my skills and repertoire back up to scratch on the Piano.

The one thing that kept me from wanting to do my Grade 6 was my sightreading on the Piano, it wasn't very good at all, despite the fact that my sightreading on the Recorder is really good (I got almost top marks for sightreading in my Grade 8 Recorder exam). It wasn't something I could understand at the time, I didn't know whether it was 'my fault' or whether I hadn't been taught sightreading properly; I did take lessons for my Grade 6 Piano but I was so slow at even reading the pieces that I became demoralised and soon stopped.

I have been practicing sightreading recently, just through hymns and old Piano books I have, and after doing this and going back to sightreading exam books, I think my sightreading is only of grade 3 standard. Yet I can still pick up some of my Grade 5 pieces and play them, although it takes a lot of work. I want to start Piano again not necessarily for exams, but just to become a better all-round musician. I can't even accompany my pupils in their ABRSM exams because of it, and I would love to do that.

I was just wondering if any Pianists out there would recommend some pieces for me to restart with? I have looked over some old Grade 4 and 5 exam pieces and I can play some of them, like a few Bach or Scarlatti pieces, and the last one I played which was Grade 5 was An Evening in the Coutry by Bartok (I think!). I would love to increase my repertoire more and play some well known pieces, but I want to make sure I do this at the right pace as relearning all the things I have done before. I eventually would like to learn all the pieces I have always wanted to learn, like Song Without Words or Moonlight Sonata... you get the jist!

Any advice?

Hi

The ABRSM piano syllabus is listed on its website for all the grades, which you can print off and get a wide variety of repertoire. My sight-reading is appalling, despite having passed grade 8 piano and only yesterday I purchased grades 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the ABRSM piano exam syllabus and am going back to basics as far as the piano is concerned. Sorry, if that is not very helpful. I am sure someone more experienced will be along soon.

Thank you melody; it is helpful, especially to know that someone else is in more or less the same boat as me! It makes me feel better!

You are a Grade 8 Pianist? That's great, I wanted to get to Grade 8 but my sightreading got in the way, it took forever to learn my pieces.... grrrrrr...

Right At Sight is what I am using for sight reading. My teacher prefers these to the Harris books. That's just her opinion, but they are great books.

You're spoiled for choice repertoire wise! Depends on your tastes really. Do you want modern (Wedgwood, Einaudi), Jazz (Cornick, Mier, Haughton, Norton), Classics (early Haydn, Mozart, Bach Inventions/Litttle Preludes, Beethoven Bagatelles, Classics to Moderns, Hours with the Masters, Romantic sketchbook) the list is endless.

You will get there. I have a piece of paper that says I have passed grade 8 but no way am I anywhere near that standard. I have typed out a document entitled My Project to learn the piano and listed all the things I have to do before I am able to teach. It runs to two sheets of A4 paper, double-spaced. I showed it to my teacher on Friday and she was impressed, and has a copy and we are going to have to work hard for the next few years. You will be able to get your grade 8 even if your sight-reading is bad, but it is better to be on top of it in the way that you are suggesting as you just end up learning pieces by rote as I have done and my sight-reading is like a young child learning to read. At least you have identified the difficulty and are going to do something about it. That is half the battle.

The best way to learn sight reading is to sightread! Try to get hold of lots of music and bash your way through it. Eventually you will get better! At the stage you're at hymns are fine; there are probably lots of tunes in any hymn book which you've never heard before, and because there are lots of chords you have to get used to reading several notes at once. Make yourself learn a couple of hymns really well, up to speed, and then try to sightread others at maybe half-speed.

Once you've got the hymns going, try to pick up some fairly simple music cheap - let people know you're after some and you'll be amazed how many folk have elderly relatives who've been wondering to whom they could give their ancient collection of piano music! The more you sightread, the more you will be able to - it's like anything else, there's no progress without practice.

Best of luck!

You could have a look at some of the pieces in the book called "Recital Repertoire Book 1" by Fanny Waterman & Marion Harewood - Faber music are the publishers. There are some lovely well known pieces in there that you could have a go at

I never had a problem with sight reading, but I used to play through the entire book that I was just playing one piece from to find out what the others sounded like. My advice would be to get hold of a load of music that interests you and give it a go.

I love the Great Piano Solos book, they come in lots of colours, vary in difficultyI would say G5 - past G8 but not very often! They comprise of show tunes, classical, film themes, jazz standards, anything you can think of really. Sight reading's so much fun, you get to play a new piece every time!