Hola,
On thursday I'll be taking my Grade III piano, and my teacher has suggested I go out and buy some new books before my next lesson, so we can start on them. Id like some books that are grade 3/4 for us to look through, but I dont really know what to be looking for. I like mainly classical and also love contrapuntal pieces.

Is there any Bach around that level? Id like to do some baroque if there is anything around that standard.


Many thanks,
HC

Hi HC

Why not try John W Schaum F - The Brown Book. It is all Grade 4 pieces and I have found the pieces lovely. I think it gets harder as you go through it. It includes double sharps and double flats so all good for moving on.

ISBN 0-7692-3712-6 = £4.95

My teacher is so impressed with it that she has said that she thinks that she must invest in one herself. Mind you she has said that about quite a few scores I have picked up, she seems to like what I unearth.

Good luck for Thursday, mines Grade 4 on a week today!

ET

The LCM Grade 4 Piano Handbook has some lovely pieces (10 in total).

If you like Bach try the Bach mini preludes. My son, Grade 3 standard, is enjoying learning them.

Thanks
I shall invest in those books. What book is the mini preludes in, I can't find them anywhere myself.
Any more suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Oh, and before anyone says that my teacher is a bad one, she is far too busy accompanying exams, attending orchestra rehearsals, and at work this week to get to a music shop.

I think ive found the book of little preludes, is it a Brown ABRSM one?

You could try some Burgmuller, really nice pieces and all around grade 4 standard. Its the book with Ballade in, cant remember the op. number though. Just found it, its called Burgmuller, 25 progressive studies. http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/078803/details.html

Im not a huge fan of burgmuller, but ill have a look.
Edit: I do have that book somewhere....

Does anyone think this would be any good?
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/0202368/details.html

it might be brown but as the book's at school I can't check. The one he has is published by ABRSM and has 18 pieces in it, they may of course be published by someone else as well.

I would say that on average the two -part inventions are just a bit ahead of where you are at the moment, HC. That's not to say that you couldn't tackle one of them - but I tend to introduce them between grades 4 and 5.

Are the mini-preludes the one in the ABRSM Easier Piano pieces series no 18? I think those would be good, too.

(ed - yes, there are 18 of them in the book - sounds like the same one).

Oh yes, I could reccommend that, I did all of them, they run through from about Grade 3 to 5 I think and they are really lovely.

ET

Try the Anna Magdalena Bach book and Bach's first two-part invention in C. Also Keyboard Anthology book 2 has lots of good pieces at around your level, as does Short Romantic Pieces book 2. You may also enjoy trying some Handel - Easy Pieces and Dances (or something like that).

I was just about to mention Handel. Handel can be more melodic than Bach, too. I have the book somewhere that Czerny might be referring to; if I can find it I'll come back in a while and edit.

Agreed. He writes lovely simple pieces for keyboard.

Or wrote....

I though you said you'd turned your pedantic mode off?
Sorry - I still haven't got to look for that book! Teaching soon, but promise to later.

The book I have is pretty old and is simply called Twelve Easy Pieces For Piano, from Schirmer's Library of Music Classics. And they're all dances - minuets, courantes and the like - so it must be the same collection. Looking at them, I think I'd put most of them slightly above Grade 3-4, but they're short enough to make them worth a try. The book in itself is quite an education, actually, in the way that it describes how to play this sort of music and what to do with the ornaments. I don't know if you'd still be able to get this particular edition, though. I got it from ebay.

You could try the Fanny Waterman Marion Harewood level 3 book. There is a great Bach piece in that and lots of other interesting stuff.