3 pieces for the Autumn grade 2 exam. I've finally decided to have a go!

I have asked our Head of Music to listen to my Liszt and Debussy tomorrow morning, just before I go to my piano lesson - a different pair of ears, first time performing the pieces outside the environment of my lesson. This should supply the run-up I need to perform the complete Recital in front of my invited audience, very soon!

GCSE performance requirements are really quite easy. The candidate needs to submit two performances (a solo and an ensemble) and each performance is marked out of 25 - thats to say 10 marks for accuracy and 15 marks for interpretation.
The performance standard for GCSE is about grade 2-4.

A level is a little more complicated.
For the first year of A level a short performance program needs to be submitted (I think about 10 minutes - cant remember off hand) containing pieces of approximately grade 5-6 difficulty. The pieces should be, but don't have to be, in a variety of styles such as one Baroque, one Classical, one Romantic etc.
For the second year of A level, the same applies except the program must be slightly longer (12-15 minutes I think) and the level of difficulty is about grade 7.

Hope this has been of some help.

I look forward to starting A level music myself next year.

Scottish qualifications are weird.

Standard grade 3 on two instruments. First instrument four minutes of material, one for second instruments.Arrangement/composition internally assesed.

Higher- grade 5, 2 instruments, 10 mins on first, 6 on second. 2 composisions of contrasting style and to last more than 1 min each.

Advanced higher - grade 5, 2 instruments. Dont quote me on this but 15 mins first intsrument, 10 for instrument. Same composition requirements but for double the time. Also an essay of some sort.

All levels contains listening exams that test different levels of concepts. As you can tell from my vagueness about AH, im doing higher. otherwise i am learning the second movement of beethoven op2-1. It is my goal to be able to play the whole sonata aptly by this time next year . That is if i can understand the concept of dividing stuff into demisemi triplets and get the flexibility and technique for the final movement.

I think my teacher was talking about something from Children's Corner, but he didn't have it with him (slight confusion, since he was expecting to give me a sax lesson ahead of my exam this Friday, but I was fed up of exam prep and asked to have my piano lesson as scheduled )

I ordered the Children's Corner and Preludes #1 books yesterday..

I've nearly finished Traumerai-well, the notes, anyway! Progress has been very slow indeed with exams.

That piece tied my fingers in knots! I shelved it for a while. First 8 bars are fine... the next 8 are AAAARGH!

It is a bit odd on the fingerings-some bits I seemed to find just lay under my fingers perfectly, others were awful!

Finally I get to post here again because I can actually practice again!!

I'm currently easing back in after nearly two weeks of no piano. Thus playing Prelude & Fugue in C major and C minor from WTC book 1.

the more I play Bach the more I realise that I hear other instruments in the writing - for example the Prelude in C minor reminds me so much of one of the cello suites, and the fantasia-like bit at the end is reminiscent of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (the famous organ one that everyone knows...)

Maybe that's a naive thing to say, maybe it's so totally obvious. but anyway, that's why I keep coming back to Bach and why I find his keyboard stuff so fascinating. there's always some other layer that becomes apparent.

Back-Prelude no. 15
Chopin-Mazurka in A minor
Joanna McGregor-Lowside Blues

All in preparation for my grade 7 exam in about a three weeks.

Bach I take it?

Yesterday my teacher told me to start learning the Chopin Etude number 14. This confused me for a little while as my brain counts up to 12 twice with Chopin etudes, but she means op 25 no. 2

I should think that's a good stepping-stone for the 'Fantasie' Impromptu in C# minor.

Not quite the same perhaps as preparing for a piano exam, but piano pupils of mine are taking grade 7 and grade 8 saxophone this year and I shall have the pleasure of accompanying.

One of the grade 7 accompanied pieces has some tricky bars - it is the delightful 'Bal Musette' from 'Picnic on the Marne' by the contemporary American composer Ned Rorem. One of the grade 8 pieces needed many of hours of practise but is a great piece - 'Schwarzer Tanzer' (Black Dancer) by the contemporary English composer Nigel Wood. Another grade 7 piece we did last year was 'Witch Hunt' by Ulrich Schulthweiss. Again this takes a bit of learning but, hey guys, accompany at that level and you can expect a bit of homework.

Beethoven Sonata op 53 'Waldstein'- 3rd mvt going very well, just started the 1st which has some evil passages, not touching the 2nd for a while.

Ligeti Automne a Varsovie- finally getting the hang of the mad rhythms this involves but at a VERY slow tempo

need to find another piece that is "beautiful" *wishes teacher had been more specific* thinking Rachmaninoff op 32/10 or 39/2 but still looking around...

Trying to get the middle section of the Chopin Nocturne in F# up to speed. Am hoping to have this relatively "polished" for Chets

Some of the Forgotten Melodies by Medtner, and Dialogues by Mompou...as always, i leave them, then return to them some months later...and hopefully each time i do this, they get a little better. The part written on the three staves in the second Dialogue is fiendish to get right.

Steve Reich's Six Pianos, part 4. It's impossibly difficult... I've probably been asked to play because I will sight read anything that is put in front of me, but this is just ridiculous. I can barely play the patterns, let alone look at the number of repeats and change/stop at the right time!

Most of what I have been working on for the last year or so is at last in reasonable shape. Much of it is not completely securely memorized, but it is all sounding much closer to how it sounds in my imagination ... as close as it is going to get until I break through to a higher level of skill.

So looking through my 9 feet high pile of pieces I must learn before I die, I wanted something that:

1. I absolutely love
2. Is challenging but not too challenging
3. I could use in an LRSM or LLCM exam
4. Would delight the listeners at a recital
5. Is not (too) hackneyed
6. Is not too long
7. I could take to Chet's to work on intensively

This produced the following shortlist:

Busoni: Etude en Forme de Variations
Scriabin: Etude Op 8 No 12
Prokofiev: Sonata No 3
Liszt: Transcendental Etude No 3 "Paysage"

The Busoni is a bit too long to learn in 10 days of summer school, the Prokofiev is still a little bit too difficult for me to do it justice (at least not at the speed at which Gilels used to play it and at which Glemser - amongst others - still does play it). The Liszt I just did not fancy starting on right now.

But I was delighted to find that the Scriabin Etude, that looked complex, fearsome, if not impossible just two years ago now looks comparatively simple in stucture and construction, and that left hand part (that I thought leapt about wildly) now seems entirely logical, and almost restrained. Not frightening at all!!

Oh wow, I love that Etude! Since hearing Tom Piano play it at one of Sol's gathering I've fallen in love with that piece. Hope I get to hear you play it sometime!

hello ^^ ... i've got a quick question for everyone:

Would you say that the Chopin Etudes (Op. 10 & 25) are as difficult as the Transcendental Etudes by Liszt or are those even harder?

Currently I am learning:

"Clair de Lune" by Debussy - Almost finished, I just have to memorize the last page

"Pathétique" Sonata by Beethoven - I just started with the 1st movement, which is difficult T_T ... but it sounds wonderful xD

Etude Op. 25, N°2 by Chopin - the only worry I have with this etude is the sheer amount of notes ^^

Waltz Op. 64 N°2 by Chopin - I discovered this piece upon watching Yuja Wang's recital at last years Verbier Festival online, where she performed this piece as an encore and I looooved her performance!

byebye ... happy learning/practicing everyone! ^^

Ultimately .... Chopin's Etudes are more difficult than Liszt's. But it is something of an academic question. With few exceptions, they are all hard enough to sweat blood over.

Just had my second piano lesson after the six year break, and am now starting on Shostakovich's Prelude No. 5 and 19 from 24 Preludes Op. 34 and working on Freundliche Landschaft from Schumann's Waldszenen. Sadly not quite yet in the habit of practising hard!

A nice workout in semiquavers - metronome marking: crotchet = 200

Have fun!

I am in awe of some of you! Is there hope for me? Realistically I can aspire..

I've heard you play Liz and the Diabelli duet you did was fantastic!!! It won't be long before you tacke some of the pieces mentioned in this thread I'm sure!!!

Yep, I feel I should try playing something faster than Moderato from time to time though...! Maybe I'll aim for crochet = 100 for next week

Don't worry scotliz, we all feel this way. Even Mad Tom will admit to being in awe of some players, I'm sure (even if they're not actually on the Forum).


I still don't yet play the pieces that my Head of Music colleague offered up for his audition to the RCM and RAM when he was 16/17!

However, when he went up to the RCM, there was the 17 yr old John Lill performing Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto under Adrian Boult! There will always be a hierarchy of ability; it gives us something to aim for.

You must enjoy the journey, because no sooner do you get 'there', than you want to be somewhere else, the next step up.

I am right now listening to Bach's B minor Mass on Radio 3. Last Christmas, within a period of 8 days I managed to compose a three-movement Sonatina for Saxophone to present to my niece, whom Santa had brought a brand new Alto Sax. What if I had never tried to compose, simply because in the wake of Bach, what would be the point?

I would rank them as equals; saying that I don't think any of the Chopin *quite* match Mazeppa in difficulty; just for the sheer stamina it requires.

Saying that, in a discussion I had about this on another forum one of the replies was that the person who could play all 24 Chopin Etudes could get around the Transcendentals, but it wouldn't work vice versa. In terms of the Etudes as complete sets, I agree with this.

I am a bit loud, but I am not (yet! ) a great pianist. I am in awe of plenty of people on this forum.

And at 50-something I am at last doing the work I should have done when I was 17

There are two important points:
1. The journey is such hard work ... if you don't enjoy it you'll never reach any destination.
2. If you enjoy the journey it doesn't actually matter where you get to!

Well, after some discussion tonight with my teacher, and after ticking off another piece, I've started on Schubert's Adagio in G, D.178. Best part of the 1st page to be in a decent state for next week...

It was really nice starting this in the lesson, I think if I'd have gone it alone, I'd have made a tonne of mistakes missing held notes for starters...

I was inspired to try this after hearing sbhoa playing it at Taxidriver's house party

This about describes what I've just been presented with in last night's lesson. Czerny's first 2 exercises in "School of Velocity" [and what a quaint name that is, by the way!]. Semiquavers with a metronome marking of minim = 108

Surely he was havin' a larf.....? I am sceptical as to whether that's humanly achievable. (I know for a fact it isn't achievable by me!!! )

Aside from such delights, I have to concentrate on 4 specific bars (1 from the Beethoven Adagio; 3 from the Granados Spanish Dance No.2), which have to be practised ve-e-e-e-e-r-y slowly so that I can get the ornaments sorted out. Currently they are a mangled mess, and as such, not very ornamental.

The promised Debussy didn't materialise after all . I am being put on a strict diet of technique-improving work for piano (hence the Czerny; I also have to do a Burgmuller study involving lots of movement in 3rds and 6ths, and also scales likewise). Expression and tone are being focussed on in sax, by way of a balance...

for a bit of variety alongside my grade 3 pieces I'm learning some of bartok's romanian dances. I've done no. 4 (Buciumeana) and I'm now doing no. 3 (Pe Loc). I think no. 3 sounds a bit like snake charming music which is a bit odd if it's supposed to be romanian folk music..... they are going relatively well but I get confused with the dissonances.

I'm also doing the first movement of the moonlight sonata - that one is going very well.

Totally agree with that... I sometimes think of my piano journey as having to circumnavigate the globe by swimming all the way. At present I have only just dipped my big toe into the water to test the temperature... I know I am never going to get back to my starting point and along the way I will hit clear, calm water and raging storms, but do I care? Not a bit, I am enjoying swimming along (ok drowning at points!).

All change!!

There is a novel Chopin event coming up in September - featuring all the Chopin Mazurkas.

I've been asked to take part. I don't know any of the mazurkas (as in I've never done more than sight read my way through them, and listen in awe to Rubinstein's recordings of them).

So instead of the Scriabin etude I'll be learning Chopin Mazurkas Op 7 Nos 1, 2 and 3 (and possibly more, depending on how many pianists decide take part)

They might be a lot easier than his Etudes and Ballades so far as merely play the notes is concerned, but it will take every bit as much work to make music of them.

24 bars in to the Adagio, going quite well, although bar 14 keeps throwing me for some odd reason, have resorted to writing every single fingering down in it - I'll be going over that several hundred times tonight, I think

Almost on to an "easier" part now.. roll on bars 31-54!

Absolutely <3 Schubert!

That bar is a bit tricky to get tidy.
I think I use some finger substitution ....not near piano right now.

Bringing 5 in the RH back under the 4 while holding E with the thumb felt a bit odd at first but it does seem to work (this is what seems to be suggested in my edition). I'd be interested to see what you do if you get a few minutes

I do a 4-5 substitution on the D natural which is the suggested fingering.

That makes perfect sense, maybe I misread the sheet... I'll give it a go, thanks!

EDIT: yes, I think there was a little arc before the 5 so that probably is it!

finally discovered the trick behind the Ligeti Automne a Varsovie and now it's a LOT easier =D

I love making breakthoughs during practise, it's less fun to have to go running to my teacher...

also I think my third piece is going to be the Rachmaninoff B minor Prelude (32/10); only thing is I've played it for a few years but never actually learned it if that makes sense? so... that considered I don't know if I'd be better off picking something to start from scratch because I can see this prelude being finished by the end of the year and me getting bored if it by April/May which is when final recital is...

Brilliant, will we hear this in November?

As for me, 44 bars into the Schubert D178 now. Still have a few bars to sort out, namely 14, 22 and 26 but I'm getting there Beaten my target of 1 page in a "playable" state by Monday!

Love bars 28-30! Didn't know my fingers could do that!

Yeah, I'm with you on that one! I'm currently working on my grade 7 pieces for November:

Bach (JCF, not JS) - Allegro assai
Faure - Andante moderato
McGregor - lowside blues

The Bach is coming along and I've almost got the trills sorted. The tricky bit is the speed, but I guess the "Allegro" in the name might have been a bit of an indicator!

The Faure piece is gorgeous (although less so when I play it). I want to play it well just so that I can do justice to how beautiful the piece is (oh dear, that sounds a tad pretentious!)

The McGregor I was initially not very keen on (and I chose it as a least worst option from group C). It has slowly grown on me, and it certainly makes a nice contrast to the Bach and Faure.

I tend to think that everyone else is working on pieces that are much harder than mine! When I see lists that include Chopin, Lizst, Rachmaninoff and so on it just reminds me how far I have left to travel. But, as MadTom said, I am enjoying the journey. Which brings to mind the phrase "perfection is a road to be travelled, not a destination"

N

After nearly three weeks missing regular practice, still working on Bach preludes and fugues, I can't do anything that's too taxing on the fingers as my RSI has flared up again.

Am working on preludes & fugues in C major and in C minor from WTC book 1. Have noticed that my finger independence is better (don't know why because I haven't been practicing it) than it has ever been. There has been a corresponding improvement in the Debussy Menuet, I can make the voices come out better now.

On the minus side.. my efforts towards the Debussy Toccata over the last few months have been largely undone by the three weeks off. The semiquavers are horribly uneven and I've lost a lot of control. I gave up because it didn't feel good and I knew I'd wreck my hands because of the RSI.

Oh well.. I will get it back.

This was not a piece I knew, but I have just taken a look at it. It is amazing that you can tackle such a piece after such a short time playing piano.

Seriously impressed

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous? I've had a tentative play with Bars 55-64 which seem OK, but 65 is going to mean a LOT of practice to get that up to speed...

Playing up to Bar 44 now but taking it no further until I tidy up the sloppy bits. Also need a bit of direction as to what pedal I can get away with (if any) in 32-44 so I'll wait for my lesson.

I think falling in love with a piece is a great motivator, it can push us to try to play stuff a bit above our station Beautiful books help, too! If I manage to muddle through this in a decent enough fashion, I think I'll try the Scherzo D593/1

I've craftily been playing through up to Bar 68 of D959 Andantino too... Shame I can't manage the middle part

Update - have discovered I scales in 3rd and 6ths. Something about the harmony is just so pleasing....

Ornaments are improving (yes!!!). And the Czerny isn't too bad, even though I can only play it at a very sedate moderato, rather than the marked presto. Given that usually my top speed is about that of an arthritic tortoise on downers (not my phrase - but isn't it descriptive?? ), that's still not bad. Am resisting the urge to take it faster until I can get it even.

So all in all, going well!

Hi saxophile, I find your comments interesting - you seem to be on a similar study track to me, but you're going about it in a completely different way. I'm avoiding scales and arpeggios like the plague, but tackling them in the pieces that I play in the form of runs and large spread chords/arps in context of the piece.

I have the Czerny book but haven't touched it. My teacher hasn't really suggested any more technical studies apart from the basic Hanon, and I'm beginning to wonder if she should be (not sure where the time to do them will come from if she does!).

I think my teacher's decision to try me on Czerny is a response to a number of factors peculiar to me:

- I suffer from an ingrained belief that I "can't" play fast [the belief stems from years of struggling with fast pieces as a child - I don't actually know whether it's correct or not, or whether I was simply never taught how to practise properly to attain higher tempi]. Since this is hindering my progress on both piano and sax, it clearly needs to be addressed as a priority. In contrast, I don't find expressive playing, dynamics etc, a problem, so these skills are more developed and can therefore be allowed to "tread water" for a while whilst my dexterity catches up.

- I don't particularly like trying to learn new / improved techniques in the context of a piece (or to put it another way, I want to learn a piece because I want to play it, and not because it'll be "good" for me). Possibly because of my lack of confidence in my ability to play at speed, I never seem to "want" to learn fast pieces !

- I also find it easier to work on skills in isolation at first - so trying to up the velocity whilst also paying attention to dynamics, touch etc etc is less likely to be effective, because the other elements distract my attention from the motor movements needed to achieve the desired speed. Scales, arps and exercises don't have the same level of 'distraction', so whilst they're possibly a bit dull, they do the job.

Horses for courses, in short. Your way is probably just as effective, and a lot more fun, but I don't think it would work for me (it hasn't to date, let's put it that way ).