Our son is doing his Grade 3 in November but has said he's had enough of exams. I can't go into details, but he's been through a lot recently and I promised him that after these exams he can have a break and won't have to look at another ABRSM book for at least six months. He can play pieces from other books and 'relax'. His teacher isn't the pushy exam type so is very happy to go along with this.

But, Baldrick, we have a 'cunning plan' We want to get some of the pieces for Grade 4 from other books. i.e. not the selection of 9 pieces you can buy from ABRSM. In this way, he'll be able to practise pieces at the correct level, but not necessarily for the exam.

Has anyone any recommendations for pieces not from the 'Selected pieces' books? The syllabus is here:

http://www.abrsm.org/resources/pianoSyllabus0904.pdf

Suggestions?

Steve

The Carroll, the reef from the B list is a fantastic piece, he will love it, great crashy chords intersperced with light little runs it's a great show piece and he certainly won't suspect your cunning plan

Also the Mozart from the A list is a good book to get, they are all very approachable at this level and would give a nice classical contrast to the Carroll.

steve, I just wanted to congratulate you on a very cunning plan :-)

sorry I don't have advice for you, I'm only grade 2 standard myself.

'First Loss' is a beautiful piece and quite famous. You can buy it in the book suggested by ABRSM, or you could buy Classics to Moderns Book 3, which has got this piece in, plus others of about Grade 3-5 standard. I think there are a lot of enjoyable pieces in it and it would be something that your son could grow with.

We have a similar plan. My son doesn't want to take any more exams so his teacher is giving him pieces with techniques he wants him to learn, but which are also on the list - so we can say 'actually, you can already play several exam pieces, why not give it a go?'. It's easier to implement for us, though, as our son plays the trumpet and there isn't a book of exam pieces for that - although it works out very expensive.

Some good suggestions so far.

Another would be to get hold of a copy of Alan Haughton's Rhythm and Rag. There are 16 pieces in varying styles - plenty to keep your son interested: no 10 is on the current grade 4 alternative list.

How old is your son Steve? I agree that the first loss is beautiful, but the reason I didn't suggest it is that it does need a level of maturity that I often find younger boys don't have and they prefer something a bit more noisy.

Having said that the C to M 3 is a brilliant suggestion, as there are alot of enjoyable pieces, a couple of which are set a TG grade 3 and previous grade 4 so is perfect for consolodation at this level, and a useful book to come back to later when learning cadences for grades 6 and beyond aural tests.

How about listening to some snippets to see if anything sounds appealing?

http://www.abrsmpublishing.dloadshop.com/

I've just started On The Swing by Heather Hammomd. It's a nice jazzy type piece and there are some other nice pieces in the Cool Piano Book.

The Reef as others have said is a great piece to have fun with.

Lois

I think the current Grade 4 piano syllabus is absolutely brilliant I want to learn pretty much everything on it... if only I had time!

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions! I've printed out the list and I'm marking all the recommended pieces. I can't wait to get this exam over with. Then I guess my credit card will be busy!



He's thirteen and learns pieces quite fast, but tends to play them like a computer! Yes, the noisier one are best! But we'll try everything. The idea is for his teacher to have loads to choose from without him realising they're exam pieces.



Cos that would immediately give the game away! The whole point is that he shouldn't realise they're exam pieces!



To paraphrase Blackadder: 'He wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it danced naked on the piano singing "Cunning plans are here again"'.


Steve

I agree - the Walter Carroll piece is brilliant - and the book has other good pieces too.

Remember, it doesn't have to be the alternative pieces that he learns in other books.

I love the Kabalevsky sonatina (and great for boys who like noise) and I'm getting two of my just-passed-Grade-3s to learn it (from other books that I'm lending, not the Grade 4 book) because I know that when the time comes round they'll want to play the ragtime C piece and this way they'll already have learnt one Grade 4 piece which is completely different. (If I show it to them in the Grade book and ask them to learn it as well as the ragtime piece they'll drag their heels and it won't happen).

The Handel allegro is widely available in anthologies or downloadable from the net (other A pieces probably as well).

N.B. I think your son is right - 6 months is the minimum of time to have off in between Grade music. After all if he learns these alternative pieces well and thrives without the official exam pieces you can always skip grade 4 altogether.

And, yes, Digby, I have a 12 year-old boy doing First Loss and he's not really getting to grips with it though he plays well. It's a good exercise though.

So do we feel this plan is "so cunning, you could tie a tail on it and call it a fox" ?

If you want more pieces at the right level, why not check out the Trinity Guildhall and London College syllabuses as well. I often do this with my students. When they eventually get to the exam, I think the examiners appreciate a change from the usual pieces.

I am currently employing this tactic with 2 of my pupils whom I would prefer to keep in the dark for a while longer.

One of my girl pupils age about 13 played First Loss for her exam in the summer and did well although she found it rather a challenge to keep it controlled, so it is for the more mature, but nevertheless with a bit of word painting beforehand it's good experience.

I did this for G4 and really enjoyed it




Not recommended in the exam lol




Not recommended in the exam lol

I'd like to endorse the Rhythm and Rag book - one of my pupils did his Grade 4 exam in the summer and played Stephanie's song from R and R. He's 13/14 years old and he too tends to play things as fast as he can, and like a robot. However, he loved Stephanie's song and played it really sensitively - got good marks too. Like others I often introduce pieces set for an exam from other books without telling my pupils they're exam pieces. I'd also recommend Kabalevsky - lovely pieces.

Well, today I ordered four books:

Mozart 25 Early Pieces
In Southern Seas
Cool Piano3
Rhythm and Rag

I also plan to get the Classics to Modern book later on.

As usual I searched for prices all over the net and I was rather surprised to find that all the books were cheapest at ackermanmusic.co.uk I've never even heard of this site before.



Yes, in fact I found the Mozart, Schubert and Bach pieces very quickly - all out of copyright and free, but I'd prefer to get the Mozart Early collection book and the Bach is already in the ABRSM selected pieces book. Since I don't want him to know that any of these are part of the syllabus, I may use the Bach download anyway.

Steve

I know them as www.netmusicalinstruments.co.uk but it's the same firm. I bought my soprano sax from them, and a few other things since, and they've given me really good service