Hello!

I have a pupil doing Grade 3 in the summer. He is doing "Equivoque" wwhich he really likes and is interested in, but I just find it so bizarre, and even reading the "teacher's notes" published by the Board, I still cannot get any enthusiasm for it. I feel, though, that the most popular piece for this grade will be the "March of the wooden soldiers", which he is doing as well.

It would be interesting to take a straw poll of teachers teaching these two pieces. Email me if you'd like.

Best wishes

Hugh

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Regards

Christine Morris
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I've got 3 pupils who have recently started on the Grade 3 pieces, and none of them liked either Equivoque or March of the Wooden Soldiers enough to choose them to work on. I must say that I thought MWS would be chosen by at least one of them, but all three of them went straight for Song (which I must say is a lovely little piece) in the B list.

I have just one student doing gr3 at the moment.

He really likes Dance (C1) and the Bflat Sonatina (A3), both of which are going well.

We had a problem choosing a group B piece, and we have ended up with the Stravinsky Cinq Doigts Lento. We both admitted this is a bit unusual, not like anything he's done before, but he is now starting to quite like it.

The Wooden Soldiers one is delightful, but I just did not feel it was right for him.
I have to say I quite like Equivoque, I had a hunch that he might not.

We have started the Cha cha as an "optional extra " for some variety.

Maggie

I have a couple of grade three students who have opted for a range of pieces. I am finding myself teaching all the A and B pieces in the book with some opting for the alternate list. I think Bartok will be a popular choice. I asked my pupils - who chose this and I though were capable - why. They said they wanted to try 'something new'. I do have a couple of pupils doing Sue's Blues because it reminds them of 'Changing Rooms'! I wish I could teach 'Equivoque' and 'Flamenco', which I had a look at a couple of days ago.

Would anyone agree with me that Cha Cha is a lot more difficult than the Bartok. I do think the Cha Cha is a great piece with lots of interest and unusual rhythms but we are working at the Bartok as well.
I do like all the pieces for Grade 3 this time around.


Katie

I have pupils doing all the pieces apart from Cha-Cha, which is quite interesting. Maybe I've scared them out of it by playing it top speed on the minim beat!
It is quite a rhythmically tricky piece, especially if you've not played in the style of a Cha Cha before.
I'm very happy with the Grade 3 syllabus as there are a lot of diverse pieces to maintain the interest. There are quite a few compound time signature pieces too which always tests a pupil's counting!

Gae

QUOTE (jo.clarinet @ Jan 19 2005, 03:18 PM)

but all three of them went straight for Song (which I must say is a lovely little piece) in the B list.

I quite like "song" myself, and I think my student is going to choose it for list B as well!

QUOTE

I'm very happy with the Grade 3 syllabus as there are a lot of diverse pieces to maintain the interest.

Yes - I agree with Gae and Katie, and others who are enjoying the grade 3 syllabus this year. There's a really good choice of pieces. I love the Wesley, though the middle section isn't easy.

(Much less happy with grade 2 so far, though )

Whether the Cha-cha is more difficult than the Bartok - maybe, I think it depends what your pupils' strengths are. If Johnny hasn't done syncopated rhythms before the cha-cha would be tricky. I have someone just starting it, the first time I 've taught it. We took the first couple of lines like a slow sight-reading exercise, rhythm first, important to hear every single quaver, particularly noticing the rests. It seemed to start well, but we only had about 5 minutes on it - next week will tell! I wouldn't have attempted starting it in that short time with a less able pupil.

Maggie