I'm thinking of doing Grade 2 piano and am interested in how to choose my pieces. I've had a look on YouTube but am now a bit depressed seeing all those sweet little children with tiny hands whizzing up and down the keyboard (I'm a VERY adult learner).

I will ask my teacher but I think she will just play them all through and ask me which ones I like best. I must resist the temptation just to choose the slowest pieces ...

I do remember seeing on the forums somewhere, people commenting on the different pieces (and something about the older pieces being marked more severely?), but when I try to search, it either returns nothing or loads of seeingly irrelevant stuff. Any tips either on choosing pieces or on using the search engine?

Pat

Don't be too disheartened by what you have seen on Youtube - the recordings on there are a very mixed bag, and speed does not necessarily equal quality. Choose a piece that you like the sound of - you will be more motivated to practise! However, do listen to your teacher's advice - he/she may encourage you to learn something that is outside your comfort zone, in order to teach you something new. And remember that there are just as many alternative pieces as the ones in the standard exam pieces book. Some of these are lovely (and a nice change for the examiner!!)

Good luck.

Hi
On You Tube there is a piano teacher that plays all all the G1- G5 pieces in the syllabus.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=60...m+grade+3+piano

The above link should help. If it does not work: his You Tube username is 'mqbdp'

Good question Pat

I agree with other posters - pick the pieces you like and forget about their speed or other technical dimensions. You can be sure that a slow piece will contain techniques that are absent from a faster piece, so 'slow' does not necessarily mean easier than 'fast'.

When choosing my grade 1 pieces, I wish I'd taken a bit longer to decide what I'll play. I'd have liked to learnt bleumerang (excuse the spelling?) for the exam. Instead I just chose between the selected pieces. I'll now have to track down the music for this piece and learn it anyway, just for fun.

I didn't like any of the Grade 2 pieces so decided to skip it... I don't think the grade 3 pieces are *that* much more tricky although the scales/arpeggios certainly are.