I've just taken on a new pupil who has recently moved from Ireland. She was preparing for grade 2, but isn't sure which board, and I can't find the pieces on the AB, TG or LCM syllabuses. She is working from Piano Lessons (Waterman and Harewood) Book 3 and can already play quite a few of the pieces in there pretty well eg Bach Prelude in F, Kabalevsky Clowns. Just on a brief assessment, I'd say she is well beyond grade 2 level, but I'm a bit puzzled which exam she was working for. Is there another board that is commonly used in Ireland, or do music schools have their own grades?

Could it be the Royal Irish Academy? I can't find a list of pieces for their grade though.

Thanks for that - I will investigate further.

I've managed to find an e mail contact for the school, so I've contacted them and hopefully some more information will be forthcoming. English isn't the first language for the family, so detailed discussions about exam boards are a little tricky!

One of my pupils recently brought some old grade books of her mum's from the Royal Irish Academy, thinking they might provide her with some extra repertoire. They were well out of date, of course, but we were struck with how much harder they were than the same grade in ABRSM. The girl found the grade 4 quite hard, although she can easily play ABRSM grade 5 pieces.

Hello! I have been having trouble logging on so could only reply to this now!

Yes, in Ireland we have two different local boards; Royal Irish Academy of Music and Leinster School of Music. I don't know anything about the Leinster School as I've never used it, but I use the RIAM all the time.

The Grade 2 pieces for RIAM for this year include Pony Ride (Anthony Hedges I think) Deutchser in A by Schubert, Jazz Etudiette by Seiber and March in D by CPE Bach, if that is any help. The website doesn't carry names of pieces for piano because they change every year.

Pupils usually have the pieces in a volume from the RIAM for piano. This year's is a slightly violent shade of pink.

That's an interesting point you made there Bev about difficulty. Over here the AB is generally perceived as being more difficult than the RIAM, although pieces-wise that has recently been redressed and the RIAM have had a new lease of life with improved piano scale lists and some lovely new repertoire in recent years. It is easier to get a more impressive sounding mark however because it is marked out of 100 and not 150. I have heard examiners say it can be quite tricky to give a candidate the mark they deserve (if they're not so good) when they are prepared for the supporting tests. You can pick up 5 marks for answering theory questions, which can drag someone up from just passing to a merit. The pass mark is 60, merit is 70, honours in 80 and distinction is 90. The attitude most teachers take is that if you don't get in the 80s you didn't do very well! So you can see it is very different.

The old repertoire books (from the mum) were probably from a time when the exams were extremely tricky, about 20 or 30 years ago. I know some of my parents have shown me the pre-grade 1 exams from then and compared to what is on now, they are like grade 2!

Sue if you need any further info feel free to PM me!