I am about to take my Grade 2 piano in a week or so. I'm quite pleased as I'm getting a bit tired of the pieces to be honest. I'm currently working on my Grade 3 pieces/scales and they're coming along albeit slowly. I'm also learning Beethoven sonata in G major (on to page 3 this week after 3 months woo hoo!!)

Anyway - I got thinking about what I'd do when my Grade 2 is over as I like to have a few pieces on the go at any one time having an attention span that can be measured in microseconds.

Does anyone have any suggestions for any pieces that would be good to practice to bridge the gap between grades 2 & 3 in terms of technical ability?

I am also having music purchase withdrawal symptoms not having bought any for ages (ages in my case being 5 weeks)

Thanks

Lois

More Romantic Pieces book one and also Short Romantic Pieces book one, they have a nice selection of pieces, some of which are relatively unknown and others that are more familiar. Both are published by ABRSM.

I'd recommend looking carefully at the AB collections - because although they are good, they don't always bridge the grades in the way that you need.

Some of the collections are graded roughly as follows -

book 1 - grades 1-2 (eg More Romantic Pieces book one)

book 2 - grades 3-4

So moving between grades 2 and 3 may not be so well catered for by these books.

I would suggest the "What Else Can I Play series.

What Else Can I Play? Grade 2 ISBN 1 -85909-298-5

What Else Can I Play? Grade 3 - ISBN 1 -85909-299-3

These are books to use either after you have taken the grade or working towards. Not only that they are great to play anytime even once you have passed that level as they have pieces like Moonriver in them. I still go back to them now, particularly when my confidence needs a boost.

Alison Bells "Graded Pieces for Piano" Book 2 "Easy" is also a good book.

ET

Thanks all for your suggestions - just ordered the russian school of piano playing as I love the eastern european composers. I've already got a couple of the romantic pieces books so will have a trawl through and see what takes my fancy.

As I'm getting on reasonably well with the Beethoven sonata in G maj (yes I know it's one of the easier ones ) my teacher also thinks I could manage some of the easier of the Bach 2 part inventions so that's another book on order although I still reckon you need at least 7 fingers on each hand to be able to play anything by Bach!!

Just need to get through my Gr2 exam on Weds now

Lois