I just found some good performances of Grade 8 pieces on You tube by a piano teacher. I am sure other grades are available but I haven't looked through all his videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6veOqXSeT4...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5hqrSKnG5s

Now that is awesome! (same guy!)

Yeah that version of Fever is great, I'm going to give that a go this morning, I've been playing (and teaching) a much blander version!

I encourage all my pupils to have a look on Youtube for their exam pieces. I think it really helps to hear other people play them so that they get an idea of how they should sound. Having me demonstrate in their lessons once a week is sometimes not enough, especially when there are tricky rhythms involved. But I do warn them that young people playing them on Youtube may not always be giving an accurate performance - better to watch the teachers!

I encourage mine to do this too. I usually look for a version I like then direct them to that version. I used some great ones for Grade 4 this summer.

This guy has posted graded 1-5 (not the alternate pieces).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWoWl1ytxVY

That's the one I used. I thought they were well played. I always feel the CDs for ABRSM exams are too "professional" whereas this chap plays them in a way that made my pupils think that it was possible to get their performances something near to his.

I agree. I find the AB recordings quite discouraging sometimes and often lacking in musical imagination.

So do I. Mine used to be so daunted by the AB recordings!

Yes, I am often convinced I hear the pianist using pedals in the early grade CDs and I don't think it's appropriate because the student hasn't got there yet, how can they produce a like performance?

There's an awful lot of pieces on YouTube which are actually the CD with a photo of some tiny child just to wind everyone up, though. Not sure how much it's worth AB's time and money following up the copyright issues cos first you have to prove it's the CD, then get YouTube to care, etc. all time and money.

Just paid an absolutely breathtaking amount for the viola CDs though, could have done without that expense, but it seemed cheaper than getting each of the books (some of them big volumes at £20) this way I get to choose my pieces from the CD then get the books. (To prepare the current grade 6 pieces for the Dip teaching)

The AB CDs are always played at breakneck speed too which puts off all my pupils when they are learning new pieces. I usually play them the pieces at a slower speed then once they are making good progress with it, play them a faster version approaching the suggested speed.

Watch out on You Tube, there was once a video of a girl playing a grade 1 c list piece from a year or so ago, 'The Old Cuckoo Clock' if anyone remembers it, and she was playing with absolutley no staccato as fast as she could possibly play, and it sounded pretty rubbish. Could be more of a hindrance than a help if a pupil stumbles across it and thinks its the way it should be played.

Has anyone seen this one? [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP2vKXyoVKA[/url]

And the related comments that she's amazing and all her problems are down to a poor violin. There's some stuff on YouTube that I think cripes if she passed her exam then boy I've been overworking! Grade 8 should show excellent competence in the instrument, certainly shouldn't be hearing hesitations and big patches of dodgy intonation.

And things like this one where this extremely shaky rendition of a grade 7 piece is taken to be proof the girl is grade 7 standard. The mind boggles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEjiC9X-eZ0

What do you think?

Youtube is a great resource for visual learning and provides a very direct aid to teaching different aspects of music.

For instrumental teaching it has many uses as has already been said, it also is a great resource for a wide range of musical styles and performances.

Well done Youtube, just remember to pay artists their royalties!

it's not YouTube's job to do that; the person uploading the video needs to make sure they have permission to do so. if it's copyrighted and the license requires royalties to be paid, it probably shouldn't be on YouTube to begin with.

royalties dispute ends
Music
MUSIC VIDEOS BACK ON YOUTUBE AS SIX-MONTH ROYALTIES DISPUTE ENDS
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DISPUTE: YouTube blocked thousands of music videos to UK users in March

Thursday September 3,2009
By Emily Garnham for express.co.uk

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A MUSIC video block on YouTube has been lifted after a six-month royalties row ended.

Songwriters’ association PRS for Music reached an agreement with the video-sharing website after a dispute over fees saw thousands of official music videos made unavailable to UK users from March.

Google-owned YouTube announced it will pay an undisclosed lump sum to PRS - backdated to January 2009 when the website's previous licence expired - in a deal which will last until 2012.

The deal with PRS, which collects licensing fees in the UK for 60,000 songwriting and publishing members, is understood to be worth millions of pounds

YouTube is expected to take around a week to reinstate the thousands of deleted music videos back on the site.