Why don't ABRSM publish all of the pieces for a particular grade in ONE book?

They go to the effort of making a CD, so it seems slightly wierd in my opinion that they wouldn't publish one book. Not only would this cost less to the student, it would enable them to make an informed decision on which pieces they would like to enter into the exam. I always end up exhausting the other pieces in books containing the exam pieces, and I'm sure others do to. If all of these were at the standard of which the student is working towards it would surely only benefit them, raising their standard in more than one area.

Plus, less chance of forgetting a piece of music on day of the exam

Let me know your thoughts...and sorry if the above doesn't make sense, I be tired!

Erm...

They do

I agree - it would certainly be welcome for the earlier grades, say up to Grade 5. And I am sure that the examiners would appreciate it as well. They might have heard more candidates playing " The Vamp " instead of " Creepy Crawly" in the 2003-2004 Grade 1 piano Syllabus! The cost would clearly rise, but I am sure this would be acceptable. How about making a start by putting 12 pieces in the A.B. books, and leaving 6 as alternatives?But the tendency might be then to just use the A.B. books as teaching material. Having to get the alternatives pieces does mean that the books are supplementary resources.

Not so sure of freeda bloggs reply

" Erm...

They do "

QUOTE (freda_bloogs @ Mar 26 2005, 02:03 AM)

Erm... They do

Not all of them! Flute pieces are published separately, and at around £10 each

It would be good to have them all in the same book, but, alas, ABRSM said there was not enough interest or something, and also cost etc

QUOTE (freda_bloogs @ Mar 26 2005, 02:03 AM)

Erm... They do

They don't! For a few instruments they publish a book with selected pieces from the syllabus in it, but there is a selection of alternatives in individual books which may be used. For most instruments exam pieces are selected from different books which have to be bought individually.

Funny, I thought last night, all piano pieces are in one ABRSM book, woodwind pieces are spread around. Why not put them together too?

There are only exam books for piano and violin. And even these only contain about 3 pieces from each list. I dont play the piano or violin - and I dont think its fair that woodwind and brass players have to pay around 10pounds for a book that only will be used for one piece. I think that ABRSM should publish books for most instruments for grades 1 - 5. We know its possible becasue they do it for piano and violin. And I'm sure there would be a demand for flute, clarinet, sax and trumpet books. However at grade 6 - 8 sometimes its handy to have the entire book. I recently sat my grade 8 exam. And althouhg I only played 1 movement from a sonnata - I want to learn to play the others. But when I was grade 1, I wouldnt of wanted to play the rest of the pieces - I waould of just got the next book up and work on my grade 2 pieces.

ABRSM give us woodwind players exam books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* Also other exam boards such as trinity publish these books. When I was having proper recorder lessons I had a book with ALL the recorder pieces in it. It helped alot and it only cost about 3 pounds

Consider my wrist slapped.

I didn't know this until a few months ago, because I only play piano and violin!

I know, I didn't realise until I started to play viola!

The art is to look through the syllabus (for e.g. flute) and see which books are used for a few grades in a row (and are good quality music too).

Studies books are often no problem in this respect, particularly. Music Through Time is good for flute - one book per grade, often containing two or three of the exam pieces for one grade (lists A and B ).

I agree for flute the best books to take pieces from are 'music through time 1-3' which cover grades 1 - 5. Another book to get is '76 graded studies for flute' This has been into many exams with me!

I agree this would be a good idea to have them all in the same book.. it would encourage me to take a flute exam sooner if the pieces weren't so hard to find on the odd occasion!

Joy

there was a discussion on this a while back and one of the reasons they only publish books for piano and biolin is because more people take exams in those instruments

QUOTE

The art is to look through the syllabus (for e.g. flute) and see which books are used for a few grades in a row (and are good quality music too).

true

take clarinet and flute for example. if you bought the 2 parts of 76/80 graded studies thats your study piece sorted right through all the grades (providing you like it of course!) and there are often concertos of other works thats movements are used in various grades e.g. Lutoslawski's clarinet dance preludes. they are used from grades 5-8

so while no books are available really look carefully at the syllabus and buy wisely. then you save a weeny bit of money!

I suspect that the reason they don't do it for all of the pieces (even in the instruments that they produce books for) is to keep down the cost of the book. Presumably the AB will have to pay something to the copyright holders for the rights to reproduce their music in the exam compilation book; this cost will have to be recovered in the selling price of the book (and of course if they put music in from their own publications it means that they may loose sales of that book). Given how much people complain about the cost of buying music (which is quite cheap compared to the price of lessons and the price of the exam...) the AB probably felt that a cheaper book with half of the pieces in would be more popular than a more expensive book with all of the pieces in. It also gives them the opportunity to have pieces on the syllabus which they don't necessarily need to have to negotiate permission to print.

It still remains an interesting issue why grade 8 list C has more choice on it than any other list though (and more pieces in the book).

Flute things are still really expensive though, and it is hard choosing pieces because you don't want to be paying out £10 each time just for a different piece.