Has anybody any thoughts on the TG grade 3 piano pieces for 2012-2014?
My first look through the pieces in the book has left me less than impressed.
The books listed for the alternatives are ones I don't have but I'm going to see if any are in books I do have....unless anybody has already found some in other books....

The Zilcher Wiegenlied from the book Nacht und Traume is rather lovely, easy Schumann-esque, and I'd have put it in grade 2 but for its length.

I have quite a few of the alternative books becasue I bought them in a fit of extravagance as the TG books will last for anpother couple of years. Nacht und Traume is a bit of an odd book, though, as the pieces are all about (guess what) night and dreaming, but go from quite easy - I think one is set as an alternative for grade 1 (2?) up to probably grade 7/8, so it's not a book that's likely to be used by one person all at once.

I thought that in the past they'd been pretty sensible over alternatives by having several from readily available and commonly used books.
Had a browse on Musicroom who have book listed under TG grade 3 piano which have no pieces from the syllabus..... someone needs to sort that out!!

Just having a listen to Alan Chan's playlist for this on you tube.
Is it me or does it cone across as a bash through the pieces?
To my eyes and ears he plays everything with exactly the same touch.....
Sort of useful for a rough idea but not sure about telling my student to have a listen.
Or maybe the pieces are mostly uninspiring as I first thought.

That guy does far more harm than good with his terrible videos. I haven't heard a single one that sounds in the slightest bit musical, and his interpretations of the jazz/swing pieces from the AB syllabus are simply shocking.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think he's trying to do anything more than give people a rough idea. They aren't intended to be polished, musical performances.

Yes but how many self taught people are going to listen and copy?
How many students with a musical ear are going to think that there is nothing there worth taking the effort to learn?
Do teachers want their students listening to these and copying?

I agree....

On the other hand - It's a good example of NOT what to do. The pupil could follow the score and notice all the missing details perhaps?

Compared with the AB grade 3 and with a 10 year old boy pianist in mind, we're going to have a go at Trinity, because frankly the pieces (even those in the book) look more pupil-friendly. I have had a couple of pupils go through the current AB grade 3 pieces, and I have an older girl doing them at the moment, but I find them rather uninspiring. [I find there's usually one grade that leaves a bit to be desired.]

I haven't found any of the alternative pieces, and I'm not really relishing spending lots of money on alternatives.

I enquired in our local music shop and was told there wasn't much call for the books so they didn't have them in stock. So how can you look at the books to see if you want to buy them, if they haven't got them on the shelf? No wonder there's "no demand"

A few thoughts from having had a look and play through the Grade 3 pieces in the book - some of them are distinctly uninspiring. The Burgmuller; the Mendelssohn, Catherine Rollin Jazzy Joey piece and the Song of Twilight by Nakada were the best. The Jazzy Joey one is quite repetitive though.

I thought the Polonaise, the Mozart Minuet and the Max Reger were particularly uninspiring. I also think the Max Reger is very difficult.

I haven't tried looking for any of the alternatives.

A very good exercise!

On the other hand the simple search string minus sign"alan chan" is useful here!

There used to be a lot of youtube vids for exam pieces from a person with a pseudonym something like mqdlp to whom I used to refer some of my pupils. I can't find them now unfortunately, becasue they were very reliable.

Here's the man (mqbdp) you're thinking of playing the Fiocco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ2PtEVLpeE...;feature=relmfu

and here's his playlists:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mqbdp

I quite agree - he's my favourite too and I often send his links to pupils.

I do hope he carries on . . .

Between the ages of 11-14 I often listened to MIDI (completely computerized) files of pieces I was interested in to get an idea of how they sounded, because I wasn't quite as good at finding acoustic recordings as I am now (there also weren't as many available to me). I was almost invariably able to find out which pieces I enjoyed and found musically interesting from these completely unmusical sound files, and based on evaluations from my teachers/other musicians I never had problems with playing too mechanically. That considered, Alan Chan's recordings don't seem harmful to me

Also bear in mind what the pupil's own performance is going to sound like at first if they learn it themselves by sight-reading (this is why I try to video myself playing most things from most of their lesson books and exams - if during the week they hear their own faltering performance and nothing else, that's what they will get used to, almost that's how they will think it "goes" - and often after hearing it once, saying "yes, that's the one I like" they come back a week later saying they don't ike that song, and of course the reason is that it doesn't sound very nice when they hear it. Played by themselves.

I agree.

When I play a coupe of pieces for the first time to a child, if I'm giving them the choice of which to pick, I often play them deliberately quite slowly and very 'straight' (as long as that still gives the flavour of the tune) otherwise, as you say, they often bear no similarity at all to how they sound in the first few weeks.

Later on, I'll play them as well as I can (or send them the mqbdp link!!!).