Hi

I was wondering if anyone could help me out there. Im stuck on what pieces to choose in the piano syllabus.

A:
Larghetto Maestoso - Allegro assai, Beethoven
or
Sonata in F, Casanovas

and

B:
Prelude in C# Minor, Heller
or
Moment Musical in F Minor, Shubert

and i already have a C piece.

any opinions or help would be appreciated greatly

micky

How far have you got with these four Gr 6 pieces? Is it just dabbling through, has your teacher played them to you?

out of the four the sonata in F and the moment musical are the most popular. I did the beethoven for the a-list. I don't have a preference for the A-list. I would probable pick the heller out of the two in the b list. What type of styles do you like generally?

Interesting question ... I inherited a student last term who had grade 6 pieces apparently 'chosen' for her by a previous teacher, including some of the pieces you mention.

As long as your fingerwork is really neat I would perhaps recommend the Casanovas from group A.

The Heller in list B is a wonderful little piece - one of my favourites - however it is not easy, and my pupil has not yet mastered it. I probably would have steered her away from it given chance. It needs a really good legato line with musical shape, and carefully balanced chords in the accompaniment.

Not knowing your strengths it's difficult to say of course. The Schubert is perhaps relatively straightforward - once you have sorted out bar 9 ! LH needs to be confident and accurate with small and not-so-small jumps.

I'm doing the Casanovas and I really like it!!!
I'm not doing either of the B pieces you mentioned.... but the Suk. I do like it... my teacher steered me that way on the B piece as I did a similar type piece for Gr 5 and did well with it... but I think she thinks it's an 'adult pupil' sort of piece......
What is your C piece btw?

I do't have any advice, or opinions for you I'm afraid....just thought I'd say I'm having real trouble deciding which of the grade 6 pieces to do as well!! I didn't like any of them really at first, but since practising bits of all of them, I love a lot of them and really can't decide!!! :S

Good luck deciding!! And for the exam!

From the A list, I would go for the cassanovas, which i did for my grade 6. I would have done the other one, but i decided to go with A3 simply because it's easier!

from the B list, I would personally go for the alternative piece called refrain de gondelier, (but i forgot thecomposers name), because its a beautiful piece! I really enjoyed playing it (i like all music similar to this eg. mendelssohn songs without words, claire de lune and deux arabesque by debussy), and I like the mark the examiner gave me! (29/30!), but if i had to chose from that list, I'd go with the Heller Prelude!

What piece have you chosen for Group C?

Jacob.

Burgmuller

And yes I agree, it's a really beautiful piece - and doesn't seem too hard to learn either? It's weird, it only took me a week or two to get pretty much perfect, yet things like Larghetto maestoso allegro assai I've been learning for a couple of months and still am so far away from perfect!!

It only took me a week or two to get it pretty much perfect too (obviously there were still things that needed attention, but it was pretty good), but the larghetto maestoso allegro assai took me a while, and i changed my piece anyway, so i've never actually learnt it properly! (i'll make a point of learning it, because its a great piece anyway!) the cassanovas took me about a month to get.

Jacob.