I am learning Minuet in G minor having learnt the G major version and downloaded the sheet music from a site called www.makingmusicfun.net.

They have both the major and minor versions listed as level 5 (not grade 5 obviously) and to me they appear to be the same level, however I am finding the minor version much trickier for it to sink in.

So I wondered whether it might be slightly harder than grade 1 perhaps (towards grade 2?). I know that Minuet in G major has been in the grade 1 ABRSM syllabus before as my music teacher found it for me but it didnt have any phrasing (perhaps to keep it within the grade 1 level?). Both versions I have been playing have phrasing. Not sure if this affects the grading somewhat?

These version dont have any trills by the way.

Thanks

It looks about grade 1 to me although it's a bit longer than your average grade 1 piece. Phrasing that's written in is generally an editorial edition and just because it's not written doesn't mean you don't have to play it, so, in a way, the less that's written in, the harder it is as you have to work it out yourself.

music doesn't have grades. just because something is on the G1 syllabus doesn't mean a grade 1 player can play it properly--just that they can manage the notes well enough.

instead of getting hung up on what grade something is, just enjoy playing it (or, if it's really to difficult, put it aside until later).

Thanks for the feedback.

On the contrary, I think knowing the grades of the pieces are important, especially to a beginner. I do not have the ability yet to accurately assess the level of a piece and do not want to tackle anything that is beyond my ability as yet, as it will not be productive to my learning if I am slogging over a piece that I cannot master.

I want to play pieces that present an element of challenge but are within my abilities and that I can enjoy the playing. This is the aim, to enjoy rather than say I can play a grade "whatever" song!

I don't mind "slogging over" something difficult, as long as I do it piecemeal and don't bore/frustrate myself. I deliberately picked quite a few tricky pieces to tackle recently as I knew they'd deal with some of the issues I have (speed in left hand being one)

I think if you stay within your comfort zone you won't push yourself enough so don't stick to stuff that's *too* easy.

A bit of a challenge is a good thing, but to choose pieces that are way above where you're at can be depressing, if not counterproductive. Learning a piece that has a difficulty of more than about a couple of grades higher is probably not really a good idea as you'll probably spend ages and ages getting nowhere with it.

Obviously, it's not really the grade of a piece that's important but, given we can't see how other people we've never met play and cope with different technical elements, it's probably the best guage of difficulty to use in the situation. It's true that pieces don't automatically come with a grade attached but it's easy enough to compare them to other pieces that have been set on syllabuses to get a rough idea of where they are on the scale.

I wouldn't say any of the pieces I learn are easy! I probably spend about a week per page of music to get to the point where I can it reasonably with a few mistakes. But from that point I seem to struggle to perfect, so I don't think its a particularly good idea to tackle harder stuff as yet.

Would you say a week is a short or long amount of time for a grade 1 piece? I play lots of other things inbetween so I would say in hours I probably spend about 4-5 hours on a page in total (it may be more, may be less, hard to estimate).

Would tackling harder pieces improve the playing of the easier pieces? I do find that some pieces frighten me and put me off!

It took me about a month or so to be able to play all my grade 1 pieces as near as I could to flawless for the exam so a week is good!

I know how you feel when you look at a piece of music and feel terrified... I'm gradually getting over it though and getting braver with what I try to play, it's all about pulling it apart and working it out bit by bit for me

There is some stuff I really like that I know I can't play at the moment, but what I've done is jump in and learn the easier passages which is quite nice - it'll give me a head start later on, too

Sarah is right though, don't go too mad. Sometimes you hit a brick wall and don't seem to be improving which is quite frustrating. I've lost count of the amount of pieces I've part-learned and given up on for now. It's rewarding when you do actually manage to make it all the way through, however!

3 pieces over a month is pretty much a piece per week and a bit so same as me! It took me about a month to do do all my grade 1 pieces but I still make mistakes.

Don't get too worked up about it, everyone makes mistakes. It may take a month to get a piece up to a level where you really know it, but to eliminate every single possible mistake, it will probably take a lot longer.

4-5 hours per page is pretty good going, I'd say. I remember spending an entire day on 4 bars of one of my grade 8 pieces and I still wasn't happy with it.

Oh I still make the occasional mistake playing those grade 1 pieces even now so wouldn't worry too much. A week before the exam I practiced tonnes until I knew I couldn't possibly mess them up... Things fade from my memory quite quickly.

I'm going to have a mad week of practice coming soon for this student concert, I'm determined to get everything 100% as I think I'll curl up and die if I make a mess of things in front of the others



4 bars What piece was it? I'm guessing this must have been a very fast run or something with a load of ornaments?

Oh good! I feel more positive now that maybe I am not so bad! Sometimes I get my "Everyone is doing well and I am struggling" head on !

I have days where I just feel pretty rubbish and just ask myself, "why can't I do this?" when I'm convinced that I should be able to

We all progress at our own rate so its best not to try to establish any sort of barometer reading from other peoples' experiences (also remember that certain types of people will embellish things on t'interweb!... "I did grade 8 in 3 weeks" etc )

I suppose the maxim is, "don't wish it were easier, wish you were better"

It was semiquaver runs in both hands (which isn't normally too bad), but what got me was where they changed direction at different places. It was on the last page of the first movement of one of the Clementi sonatas on the old syllabus. (op.7 no.3 if you really want to know)

That sounds terrifying The single hand one in K397 is enough for me at the moment. It's going to take a while for me to get that up to a decent speed, my hands refuse to cooperate

Yes I am afraid You tube is to blame for showcasing many a "look at me playing this flawlessly and I've only been learning for 2 months"! Plus not to mention all the 4 year old child prodigies!

I will be happy to do a grade a year (even that might be optimistic!) However sometimes i think I wont even manage that!

I'd better get practising.......

Yep, I did my Grade 1 quite quickly *but* I've messed around playing keyboard on and off over the years, and had a few lessons when I was quite young, so I think I had a bit of a head start The child prodigies on youtube are quite intimidating as you say but meh - kids have a lot more time to spend practicing than I do

Also, remember that people will probably do several (or more) takes to get that perfect performance captured on video!



That's a good pace I think and probably what I'll be looking at after Grade 3 You might do better than that if you skip one or two grades along the way

I agree there!
I'm a grade 3 pianist, and just a few weeks ago I was having a go at some of the Chopin etudes, (op 10 no 12 and op 10 no. 3). More fool me
Although, I still managed to play the first page of each quite well