The grade 3 music for viola doesn't appear in one book apparently because the exam isn't popular enough for them to do that.

So I just tried to find the book for one of the pieces I really liked from the CD.. I could only find it America for �14, before the postage and without the piano accompaniment which has to be bought separately! And that was exactly the edition they specified.

That's hardly fair! One piece could end up costing over �30!!!!

I might have to give this exam a miss.. at this rate the music alone will cost nearly �100!

(edited to say, okay, I've had another look and not all the music is that expensive but I really wanted to play that piece.)


Edited again to say ( ) I've just found the book on Boosey and Hawkes website for £7... but they still don't sell the piano accompaniment... this is just silly (I'll go away and shut up now.. sorry for the rant but I haven't had my morning coffee )

Which piece/book is it? I just searched for almost all (except the easy to find ones) of the G3 viola pieces and found them all in the UK, with piano part and not bank breaking. Maybe I missed one???

Tried e-bay at all? What about your local music library? Isn't there one in the books you have that you could do instead? I know you like this one, but it mightn't be possible under the circs and, once you've made your mind to do another piece, it won't feel such a disappointment.

Its a bit of a long shot, but I used to play the Viola and have a hoard of music that people plyed me with, that they no longer used or wanted. I still have it all, but don't play really anymore.

If you tell me what it is, I'll have a look through and maybe I could send it to you?

The book is called 'Session Time for Strings - Viola'

Boosey and Hawkes (who publish it) have it on their website but don't say if it includes the piano part and musicroom.com say you have to buy that separately!

It's for the C-list; I'd like to play 'Summertime' from Porgy and Bess - it just sounds gorgeous on the CD.

If you have it Cadence, and don't need it, I'd be happy to buy it from you

I think you'll just have to get both parts seperately They're £7.50 and £7.99 on there I think

Dunno if this is the one?? Might save a couple of quid anyway, even if it's minus CD. I daresay the piano part isn't included as it's a book that's adapted for umpteen instruments, thus the separate piano part, I suppose, but seems to be fairly easily available in the UK after all.

I agree though, it is a pain that there's no 'Selected Exam Pieces' book, but they have re-worked it this time so that, at lower grades at least, you can do the exam with just one book. You could take the entire of Grades 1-3 with just 'Time Pieces for Viola Book 1'! Not sure if the same feat could be worked with Book 2 for Grades 4 and 5, but you never know. There not being a grade by grade exam book at least widens the repertoire the poor examiner has to listen to somewhat, even if relatively few peeps take viola exams.

That's strange - I had already searched ebay and couldn't find it

(Don't think I'm on planet earth today )

P'raps it's newly listed.

Hi Lottie,

I don't know exactly what music you need, but you can download a lot of sheet music for free from the Internet these days. Two particularly useful resources are the International Music Score Library Project and the Werner Icking Music Archive.

Most of these tutor books and collections are strictly copyrighted and aren't likely to be on these download sites at the mo. Maybe we can try back in 20+ years!

I know nothing about Viola exams - but on Clarinet the C list pieces are unaccompanied - so do you need the piano part for the exam?

Look at the bowed strings syllabus, page 17, section f.

You can use any edition.
To be on the safe side, I'd want something in exactly the same key (particularly relevant if you have an arrangement for a transposing instrument available) and that's not simplified compared to the one they list.

I've seen something in the piano syllabus before now which said "this arrangement only", so that would seem to be what they mean about "where a specific arrangement or transcription is indicated". So in the absence of anything to that effect, you're free to find a cheaper and/or more readily available edition.