Just wondering... for those of you taking grade 8, how long do you take to learn one exam piece reasonably well ? i don't mean fully polished but at least be able to play the entire piece without stopping every now & then.

I'm asking because I've been learning 2 pieces for 2 days & i don't think i'm having a very easy time . So how many days did you take?

About 6 months for one... about 3 months for the second... just starting the 3rd... my teacher expects me to have it more or less together in about 3 months.

To be very unhelpful, I don't exactly remember - it was a long time ago, but what I do remember is that my teacher had made me learn lots of grade 8 and diploma level pieces before I did my grade 8 exam, so when I did finally learn the pieces it didn't take long. It's now what I try to do with my pupils - work up to the correct level with other pieces so that the exam pieces are easier, rather than just using exam pieces to work up to the next grade. But hang in there - 2 days isn't very long! You didn't say how much time you spent practising either!

To be really honest, you haven't really given them a chance yet. You've only been learning them for two days (obviously not 2 days straight otherwise you would be crazy!) so you're probably not going to be able to play them that well yet. I'm not learning grade 8, I'm doing grade 6 at the moment but it took me a couple of weeks to get the hang of those so it'll probably take a bit longer than that for grade 8 pieces. It's different for everyone because everyone learns at different speeds and it also depends on how much time you spend practising them. You sound as though you have been working hard on them but stick with it as you'll only get better with practise.

Good luck

Lisa xxx

I know i sound rather impatient but up to grade 7 i was able to learn a piece like within a week ( provided it's a piece i like a lot ). I don't remember having to put in alot of effort to learn pieces although SCALES took like eternity !

But i must add that i've stopped playing the piano for 10 years and have just started taking lessons again. So i was a little worried whether i should have started with a lower grade . But my teacher thinks I should do grade 8 instead.

Another question is : how many of you are actually able to play like those on the exam CD ! The speed they play seems like mission IMPOSSIBLE to me , at least for now!

I havnt got a clue why, but somehow or another i really dislike the way they play exam pieces on the CD's i duno if its the quality or sumthing, but its horible in my opinion... even if the player is world class lol...

Learning a piece of music, learning to perform it and to do it the justice it deserves is an activity that shouldn't be rushed in my opinion. Even if you can sight read well and give a reasonable rendition of the music on first reading etc, it is important as an artist and a performer to give the music time to develop and for the reading to mature....to find the emotional centre of the music. I like to play pieces over a period of weeks, on a daily basis if possible. While I am "learning the notes", I also search out and listen to other music by the same composer and/or different interpretations of the same piece by various pianists, as well as read about the Composer and, if possible, the Historic context of the Piece too. At the same time I regularly record my performances on a day to day basis, reflecting on the music each time, what works, what doesn't, analysing the tempo, phrasing, dynamics... everything. I am constantly listening, questioning if my interpretation is working or if it is a valid one based on what I have learnt about the piece and composer. At some point down the line, I start to find my own feet more and more and make more decisions about how I want to personally perform the piece. The performance is not always exactly the same, of course, but I usually know what parameters I want to stick within. I like to put my own stamp on the music once I have the confidence that my interpretation is a valid one, once I am "inside" the music and have explored several different avenues of interpretation.
All of this valuable time spent constantly working a piece of music, especially a Grade 7/8 piece, will show in the final performance and both performer and, if there is one, audience will gain immeasurably from all these efforts by hearing a mature, confident and hopefully spiritually uplifting and/or moving performance.

Gae

im learning all three at once and ive been doing them all for about 6 months now...and making very slow progress...im on 3rd page of each, a1, b1 and c3 or 4 cant remember, liszt