Sorry if this has been asked before...did a search but couldn't find an answer....

I have a pupil trying Cattle-Call from list B. A couple of the chords on the 3rd line are not possible for her hand span (bars 12 and 13). The one in bar 12 she could play the top note (B) with her right hand and spread the chord in bar 13, but would it be better for her to spread the chords in both bars? (if that makes sense!). Or would you suggest an entirely different way of doing it?

Also, in her lesson she added more pedal than is written on the page. Do you think this is something that would affect her marks, as it is not in the music - should I perhaps stop her from doing this and stick to the markings on the page?

Thanks

Hiya,

I'm not a teacher, but I did this song for my grade 4 in July.

I couldn't reach the chords you have mentioned either, so I spread both of the chords (I think it sounded better!).

Also I did use the pedal more than it said to do so. I don't think this effected my overall mark (I got 26/30, and would have got higher than this if I hadn't of been playing on a piano with very weighted keys - I couldn't do the trills/triplets!!).

Hope this was of any help! I'd advice you, however to not just rely on my above points as your pupil's examiner could well think differently, and I'd hate to be the reason why she lost a few marks!!

Laura

Thank you Laura

I think you're right that spreading both chords sounds better. It will seem more consistent too, so I'll probably suggest she does that - it'll need a bit of pedal there too if she does it this way.

Thanks again.

I started a thread with the same query last year:

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=17447&hl=

But yes, spreading the chord and using the pedal I found was the best approach.

Car Expert

I had a feeling I'd read a thread about this piece - sorry about that!

Thanks for the help

This is always a tricky one - I always feel one needs to be careful of using too much pedal when one should be using legato playing instead. I don't know if that would actually affect the marks, but I wouldn't want to take the chance...

Good point Pedalling can hide unsmooth playing. I think my best option is to get her playing it as written and then once she has it well learnt, think about odd touches of extra pedalling here and there (but nothing excessive).

Isn't this a good thing? I hope so! As my cattle call sounds a bit too cattle-ish without a little bit of extra pedalling.

Not really a good thing, no! Pedalling should be in addition to smooth legato playing not instead of it!

Oops, better get practising!