I started learning for grade 1 in 1970 - which came to a grinding halt with the three day week. Started again in the 1990s when my children started school - only for us to have to move abroad with my husbands work. Began again in 2019, aiming to take ABRSM grade 1. The first teacher treated me like a 5 year old, but found the second, who is my current teacher, and is awesome. Was all ready for the exam when Covid came along. Planned to roll things over to 2021 but then I was in a serious accident and lost the use of one arm, so no piano playing or course. It took a year to regain full movement. By then of course the syllabus had moved on, so had to start learning the new syllabus. Am finally ready for my exam which is booked for March. Not sure I’ll even be able to recognise a single note due to anxiety - but honestly, just to get there, after 53 years, will be a triumph! PS - Update - got to the exam - absolutely terrified and made a couple of errors - but passed with a Distinction! Yay! Quite sure it was because of my awesome piano teacher who makes it all such fun.
Goodness this sounds like me! I learnt at 4…went from grade 1 to 6 and failed grade 6 Then again as a working adult….started from grade 1 and went to grade 6 only to fail again! I just started last year (June 23) and started with grade 1 yet again and doing grade 4 now! And yes I finally have a teacher who inspires!
As a child the ABRSM exam probably would have stressed me a lot but now as an adult it helps me a lot to be much more focused in my practising. I take it much more serious and now I make better progress. Unfortunately in my country isn't such a similar system, but now we can at least do the ABRSM exam online. One of the good things of ABRSM is, that this is also good for teachers to teach more concentrated. In my country the quality of teachers is quite different: If you are lucky, the teacher is very systematic and teaches aural, theory, sight reading and so on as well. But some teachers don't teach those things at all. There ist no quality control at all, it is a thing of luck, if you find a good teacher or not. ABRSM is not only a quality check for students, but also for teachers to teach more concentrated and systematic. I am very happy to do these ABRSM and I like the mixture of pieces. A lot of composers I've never heard of before, but I like them very much.
With child lessons, it also very much depends on the teacher. I started at 7 and never got stressed out. The exam itself was a bit, but that's simply because I was formerly playing for a stranger - I would get this at any age. Unless they're instructing, lessons should be informal and fun, so the teacher knows exactly what the player's level is because they play confidently in front of them.
Excellent review as all of yours are. I am a self teaching adult. I have worked my way through all nine pieces in the Grade 1 and I am now half way through grade 2. I am not sure if I will bother with the actual exams, but I am lucky because I am retired I can spend time working my way through tutor books (I find Pam Wedgwoods is the best) as well as a variety of other learning. The exam pieces are only a small part of my piano practice, but they are helpful for gauging what level I am. I am glad I don't have weekly lessons because they are the reason I gave up decades ago, but I like the idea of one lesson a month for feedback and tips. Also, it is very helpful that you can find all the ABRSM pieces played properly on RUclips as well as all the pieces in the method books such as Faber, Alfreds etc. I find that playing along with these gives me good feedback, if I can play along accurately then I know I have learnt that piece.
I'm from the Eastern Europe, and also find abrsm grades to be very helpful. I started playing the piano one and a half year ago and am currently thinking about achieving grade 5 and preparing for the exam :) hopefully it's available online Thank you for the video and recommendations! ☺️
This video was so useful. I'm an adult beginner learner and thinking of ABRSM because I really feel like I need some more structure to my learning. Thanks :)
Hi there, and thanks for this video. Apologies for a mostly unrelated question, but if I were to do the Trinity piano course, would I also learn a decent amount of music theory. I really want to learn piano but my long-term interest is primarily in composing songs and pieces of music. Or should I do the Trinity music theory course instead. Or are we saying it is necessary to do both simultaneously but that of course might be a handful. The main reason I am asking this is because, as far as I know, in India, it is the Trinity course that is most common and available. Basically, most of the teachers teach Trinity. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks!
I agree with you that you need a teacher. As an adult learner who's almost 40 I was able to pass grade 1. Now I am preparing for the next exam which will be held next year.
Hi, what you said is so true, I have abrsm G2 theory which I self taught from the workbooks, & just done G3 Rockschool & got a merit. I have a teacher but it’s very expensive & all I have done is practice the material for the exam & feel there are so many gaps in my knowledge and playing abilities. I want to play modern/pop/dance music not classical which is why I chose Rockschool but there is no “teaching” materials..just what you need for the exam. Abrsm & Rockschool also align differently in term of what you need to know/perform. Although feels like going backwards I have just got the adult piano adventure books & going to work through these.
Yes, you can't learn piano from exam books. They are not method books, they are just a collection of pieces for exams. If you don't have a teacher, buy Alfred or Faber's Adult tutor books. Take it from book 1, even if it seems too easy, but you won't have gaps in your knowledge.
Hi, a very interesting subject. I am about to take Grade 3 Performance Exam with ABRSM and the choice of pieces, as well as the book, includes another 7 additional pieces for each category, hence a total of 21 additional pieces, so a total of 30 pieces! You can find the list for each grade on the ABRSM Piano Syllabus for each grade. Note, this is Performance Grade, I have no idea about the traditional grade choices.
I am adult learner, I start with flute at 17, self teaching no exam, and guitar at 20, after 10 years, I can play some sone I like, but I can’t just play any song I want just by reading the music, it have to be studied for a few weeks. I started piano at almost 30, and first self learning, until 1 year later by a chance I started violin, and I can’t self learning anymore this time, so I found a tutor and start to do Abrsm violin, the first year of system study changed me so much on the understanding of music, then I also started Abrsm piano, now after few years, I got piano grade 7 and violin 5, I can almost sight reading most songs easy and intermediate arrangement from movie, and pop, “not the classical”. My suggestions to adult learners , a system study is very helpful. A 5 years study of Abrsm violin now get me much better violin skills than nearly 20 years self learning of flute and guitar.
I am an adult learner and have just done the grade 3 exam. My teacher had been trying to persuade me to do it, but I resisted. Initially I tried the grade 2 pieces, but could play them fairly easily so switched to grade 3. I had bit of a nightmare with one piece (The Entertainer), which I could play at home, but could never seem to play in the lesson, forcing a late switch to another piece. It is a lot of work and there is no time to do other pieces I want to do, but it does give some structure to the lessons and practice. My tecacher has advised having a break before trying the next one, so at least I can do some other pieces for fun.
Very informative 👏 sir 🙏, Subscribed, I am from Guwahati, Assam, India 🇮🇳 . I am already completed Grade 5 with Distinction and preparing for next.....
Thanks for making this video, it really helpful and perhaps can you make another tutorial video on how to take the ABRSM exam (from submitting the application and the videos)? That’s would be very helpful for people like me who are very beginner to know and want to take the ABRSM exam.
An interesting and pretty comprehensive review of the ABRSM piano exam system. The idea of a database of graded piano music is a great one. I am surprised no one has produced one, or perhaps they have and I just haven't come across it. For that to work, though, the ABRSM would have to make up their minds. A Telemann piece I played in my youth for Grade 4 recently (2023-2024) appeared in the Grade 7 book, which is quite a jump, and I believe there are other examples. Or maybe the exams are just getting easier to encourage more children to stay the course? I very much liked your suggestion for the exams to include technical pieces. Scales and arpeggios are after all not the only characteristic structures in piano music. When I was a young learner I think the Burgmüller studies helped my piano playing develop and I recall most of them as being quite fun to play, too.
Great vid. I don't actually think the selection is that limited; yes the books have only three songs per selection, however the extended lists do have quite a lot more, and in particular the extended 'C' song lists are a lot better. My question is: In general what grades do you recommend skipping? For example quite a lot of people seem to skip Grade 7, and maybe even either Grade 3 or 4. Is that common? What Grades do your students skip? ty
As with a lot of other arts, many people want to “play” piano, but not a lot of people want to “learn” piano. The RCM and ABRSM are generally for people who really want to learn not just piano but music.
This entire video talks about the traditional A.B.R.S.M. format, which is called the "Practical" exam -- which covers: Aural (Ear-Training) ; Sight-reading ; technique ; and repertoire. However, in more recent years, ABRSM also offers an online "Performance" format. This new format only requires the student to learn and perform 4 pieces of repertoire and none of the other aspects of the traditional in-person exams. The first three pieces of repertoire must be chosen from the 'A', 'B', and 'C' lists/sets but a fourth piece is an "own Choice" piece, which does not have to be from any ABRSM lists of pieces/repertoire ; This relates to what is said 15m03s ruclips.net/video/Wh1J4V4Yj7g/видео.html
In the U.S. of A. it is not possible (in late 2023, and still - Jan. 2024) to register for any in-person traditional "Practical" exams. Instead, online alternative formats such as the "Performance" exam are available. One of my students just recorded her 4 performance pieces ; I uploaded the video file to the ABRSM website, and we are waiting for the judges to evaluate and award the student a certificate.
Examinations are certainly useful on the whole since it's goal based and no time to take things easy. The only drawback is you master 3 pieces and no real time to practice other music pieces and when you go on to the next grade you forget what you learnt in the previous grade.
Thanks for this video, very helpful. As a adult learner I had looked at the exam boards and decided against it simply because I don’t want to learn songs I have no interest in. I would like a grade but tbh, it’s only a small desire as opposed to playing the music I want. Thanks
After going through the AMEB system in my childhood, getting LMus by age 15, I think the main thing it lacked was improvisation. They really should make you improvise each grade in all exam systems. Also playing your own pieces is important as I felt overly controlled by my teacher to play pieces that she tested to get high marks with, I never played anything I wanted to play, if you could have a section called "student's choice" then it will help to balance out this issue as students don't learn the piano just to play what the teacher tells them to play, we should also play things that we learnt the piano for.
I am such a fan of your reviews. Can I request that you cover a course with a review? I would love it if you would please review The Keith Snell piano series. The program is published by Kjos.🙏 It is so thorough! The only thing I see wrong is that there are so many categories broken up into individual books FOR JUST ONE LEVEL OF TRAINING!!!! For instance you have a Fundamentals Theory book, a Baroque book, a Romantic 20th Century book, Scale Skills Technique book, and the list goes on. The student must complete ALL OF THESE BOOKS FOR JUST ONE LEVEL BEFORE ADVANCING TO THE NEXT LEVEL WHICH WILL TAKE FOREVER PLUS ETERNITY! However... the thoroughness! Thanks! Keep these great reviews coming.
Thank you very much that to me was very informative. My question is, how can one get this book for example if a person is living in Kenya. Price of each book. Thank you
There are 13 pieces for each list, so there are alternatives from the 9 pieces in the exam book. I think a choice of 39 pieces is plenty. I think the scale requirements have dumbed down a lot and the aural tests don't cover intervals so then sight singing is suddenly introduced in grade 4. Students really need to be engaged in some singing activities. The theory is also dumbed down and the pnline exams are awful to navigate,.lots of problems.
How long can it take to move between grades? My child is starting grade 1 at the age if 12. Some of his classmates are grade 5. He thinks he will never catch up (he is competitive)
I just done my grade 3 yesterday. The examiner made me so nervous tutted twice while I was playing and kept typing very loudly with threw me off. Me thinks of doing my level 4 at Trinity.
I have students who learn piano as a form of a hobby. Sure, the exam pieces are good for learning and all, but I wonder if taking the exams itself is actually necessary? How are you able to gauge if they're ready to advance without the need of an exam? I also wonder why my students love theory so much......I personally hated it. I took exams for grades 5 and 8 only and didn't really study much but still passed on the first try (did my homework though, practice makes perfect for the higher grades!)
If they don't do exams but still learn the exam material, then once they mastered it to around 80%, they can progress on. If they don't follow the exam system then it's hard to tell because many people learn pieces inconsistently. Eg. they learn a grade 1 study but at the same time they work on a Grade 6 piece too because they find it inspiring. most students don't like theory. I think the older you get the more you start liking it. Kids prefer to know things, adults want to understand things. So while a child would just rather memorise the chords, an adult wants to know why each chord has those specific notes.
you can jump to any grade, but being able to play one song from a grade doesn’t necessarily mean you are that grade and also being able to play it might not mean playing it well with good technique. it’s all very subjective. and remember sometimes you’ll find harder things in Grade 2 than in Grade 3 for example.
Do you have to have taken all the previous exams in order to take a specific exam? Like, if you've been playing for years on an instrument, can you go directly to taking a grade 3 or 5 or 8 exam if you've the skill level? It sounds like you can't do that past grade 5 because of the theory requirement. I'm wondering because it would be useful to be able to point to a successful exam at a higher level, but going right back to the beginning and through many exams in succession seems time-consuming and expensive.
You can take any ABRSM exam. You can go directly for Grade 8 if you want. There is no requirement to do easier grades first, the only requirement is the Grade 5 theory exam, which is an online test. If you do that, you can take any piano exam after.
When you get your exam book should the peaces be slightly harder than what you're doing in your method book or should you be able to play them peaces easily.
Good video. But why do RUclipsrs call musical pieces that are not songs 'songs'. A song has lyrics. Beethoven (mentioned in the video) didn't write any songs.
How disappointing that you think that the C category pieces are the more ‘interesting’ ones, because they are modern. Just because it’s a Disney piece, it doesn’t make it more interesting than a Mozart Sonatine. The whole point of the ABRSM is that all musical genres are equally interesting and important in the artistic development of all learners, children and adults. I’ve seen this misguided attitude before… let’s slog through the boring A and B category, so that we can get to the cool stuff in category C. Not incredibly good teaching.
That's not what I meant at all. I meant that the C list has the more unusual pieces. Interesting doesn't always mean better, it just means different, like atonal, jazz or modern. I teach classical piano and most of my students prefer classical pieces. ABRSM doesn't deal with pop as such, since pop music is not supposed to be played from sheet music strictly. If you look through my channel, all my tutorials are classical, Burgmuller, Mozart, Czerny, Bach, Kabalevsky and more. But just because my preference is classical, it doesn't mean that it's better than modern.
I started learning for grade 1 in 1970 - which came to a grinding halt with the three day week. Started again in the 1990s when my children started school - only for us to have to move abroad with my husbands work. Began again in 2019, aiming to take ABRSM grade 1. The first teacher treated me like a 5 year old, but found the second, who is my current teacher, and is awesome. Was all ready for the exam when Covid came along. Planned to roll things over to 2021 but then I was in a serious accident and lost the use of one arm, so no piano playing or course. It took a year to regain full movement. By then of course the syllabus had moved on, so had to start learning the new syllabus. Am finally ready for my exam which is booked for March. Not sure I’ll even be able to recognise a single note due to anxiety - but honestly, just to get there, after 53 years, will be a triumph!
PS - Update - got to the exam - absolutely terrified and made a couple of errors - but passed with a Distinction! Yay! Quite sure it was because of my awesome piano teacher who makes it all such fun.
well done!
Kudos to you for your efforts & for not giving up 👍
Congratulations! I hope you keep going after the buzz of achieving such a great result!
Goodness this sounds like me!
I learnt at 4…went from grade 1 to 6 and failed grade 6
Then again as a working adult….started from grade 1 and went to grade 6 only to fail again!
I just started last year (June 23) and started with grade 1 yet again and doing grade 4 now!
And yes I finally have a teacher who inspires!
As a child the ABRSM exam probably would have stressed me a lot but now as an adult it helps me a lot to be much more focused in my practising. I take it much more serious and now I make better progress. Unfortunately in my country isn't such a similar system, but now we can at least do the ABRSM exam online. One of the good things of ABRSM is, that this is also good for teachers to teach more concentrated. In my country the quality of teachers is quite different: If you are lucky, the teacher is very systematic and teaches aural, theory, sight reading and so on as well. But some teachers don't teach those things at all. There ist no quality control at all, it is a thing of luck, if you find a good teacher or not. ABRSM is not only a quality check for students, but also for teachers to teach more concentrated and systematic. I am very happy to do these ABRSM and I like the mixture of pieces. A lot of composers I've never heard of before, but I like them very much.
With child lessons, it also very much depends on the teacher. I started at 7 and never got stressed out. The exam itself was a bit, but that's simply because I was formerly playing for a stranger - I would get this at any age. Unless they're instructing, lessons should be informal and fun, so the teacher knows exactly what the player's level is because they play confidently in front of them.
Excellent review as all of yours are. I am a self teaching adult. I have worked my way through all nine pieces in the Grade 1 and I am now half way through grade 2. I am not sure if I will bother with the actual exams, but I am lucky because I am retired I can spend time working my way through tutor books (I find Pam Wedgwoods is the best) as well as a variety of other learning. The exam pieces are only a small part of my piano practice, but they are helpful for gauging what level I am. I am glad I don't have weekly lessons because they are the reason I gave up decades ago, but I like the idea of one lesson a month for feedback and tips. Also, it is very helpful that you can find all the ABRSM pieces played properly on RUclips as well as all the pieces in the method books such as Faber, Alfreds etc. I find that playing along with these gives me good feedback, if I can play along accurately then I know I have learnt that piece.
keep doing those great lessons, you are a wonderful teacher
Thank you! 😃
I'm from the Eastern Europe, and also find abrsm grades to be very helpful. I started playing the piano one and a half year ago and am currently thinking about achieving grade 5 and preparing for the exam :) hopefully it's available online
Thank you for the video and recommendations! ☺️
This video was so useful. I'm an adult beginner learner and thinking of ABRSM because I really feel like I need some more structure to my learning. Thanks :)
Hi there, and thanks for this video. Apologies for a mostly unrelated question, but if I were to do the Trinity piano course, would I also learn a decent amount of music theory. I really want to learn piano but my long-term interest is primarily in composing songs and pieces of music. Or should I do the Trinity music theory course instead. Or are we saying it is necessary to do both simultaneously but that of course might be a handful. The main reason I am asking this is because, as far as I know, in India, it is the Trinity course that is most common and available. Basically, most of the teachers teach Trinity. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks!
I agree with you that you need a teacher. As an adult learner who's almost 40 I was able to pass grade 1. Now I am preparing for the next exam which will be held next year.
Hi, what you said is so true, I have abrsm G2 theory which I self taught from the workbooks, & just done G3 Rockschool & got a merit. I have a teacher but it’s very expensive & all I have done is practice the material for the exam & feel there are so many gaps in my knowledge and playing abilities. I want to play modern/pop/dance music not classical which is why I chose Rockschool but there is no “teaching” materials..just what you need for the exam. Abrsm & Rockschool also align differently in term of what you need to know/perform. Although feels like going backwards I have just got the adult piano adventure books & going to work through these.
Yes, you can't learn piano from exam books. They are not method books, they are just a collection of pieces for exams. If you don't have a teacher, buy Alfred or Faber's Adult tutor books. Take it from book 1, even if it seems too easy, but you won't have gaps in your knowledge.
I’m an adult beginner and found this so helpful. Thanks
Hi, a very interesting subject. I am about to take Grade 3 Performance Exam with ABRSM and the choice of pieces, as well as the book, includes another 7 additional pieces for each category, hence a total of 21 additional pieces, so a total of 30 pieces! You can find the list for each grade on the ABRSM Piano Syllabus for each grade. Note, this is Performance Grade, I have no idea about the traditional grade choices.
I am adult learner, I start with flute at 17, self teaching no exam, and guitar at 20, after 10 years, I can play some sone I like, but I can’t just play any song I want just by reading the music, it have to be studied for a few weeks. I started piano at almost 30, and first self learning, until 1 year later by a chance I started violin, and I can’t self learning anymore this time, so I found a tutor and start to do Abrsm violin, the first year of system study changed me so much on the understanding of music, then I also started Abrsm piano, now after few years, I got piano grade 7 and violin 5, I can almost sight reading most songs easy and intermediate arrangement from movie, and pop, “not the classical”. My suggestions to adult learners , a system study is very helpful. A 5 years study of Abrsm violin now get me much better violin skills than nearly 20 years self learning of flute and guitar.
Thank you very much for this video. This is informative and love your advices as well.❤💙💚
I am an adult learner and have just done the grade 3 exam. My teacher had been trying to persuade me to do it, but I resisted. Initially I tried the grade 2 pieces, but could play them fairly easily so switched to grade 3. I had bit of a nightmare with one piece (The Entertainer), which I could play at home, but could never seem to play in the lesson, forcing a late switch to another piece. It is a lot of work and there is no time to do other pieces I want to do, but it does give some structure to the lessons and practice. My tecacher has advised having a break before trying the next one, so at least I can do some other pieces for fun.
As adult learner I toughed out the entertainer. Well worth it 😊
Very informative 👏 sir 🙏, Subscribed, I am from Guwahati, Assam, India 🇮🇳 . I am already completed Grade 5 with Distinction and preparing for next.....
Hi, I am also from Assam. I just started learning. For a beginner like me, can I directly jump to grade 2? Would like to connect with you on this.
Excellent points! Thank you for sharing your ideas.
Thanks for making this video, it really helpful and perhaps can you make another tutorial video on how to take the ABRSM exam (from submitting the application and the videos)? That’s would be very helpful for people like me who are very beginner to know and want to take the ABRSM exam.
Thank you for sharing your expert advices!
An interesting and pretty comprehensive review of the ABRSM piano exam system. The idea of a database of graded piano music is a great one. I am surprised no one has produced one, or perhaps they have and I just haven't come across it. For that to work, though, the ABRSM would have to make up their minds. A Telemann piece I played in my youth for Grade 4 recently (2023-2024) appeared in the Grade 7 book, which is quite a jump, and I believe there are other examples. Or maybe the exams are just getting easier to encourage more children to stay the course? I very much liked your suggestion for the exams to include technical pieces. Scales and arpeggios are after all not the only characteristic structures in piano music. When I was a young learner I think the Burgmüller studies helped my piano playing develop and I recall most of them as being quite fun to play, too.
Is Hanon enough instead of this special scales book? I would avoid buying books which I need for the exam only and then will be useless for me
Great vid.
I don't actually think the selection is that limited; yes the books have only three songs per selection, however the extended lists do have quite a lot more, and in particular the extended 'C' song lists are a lot better.
My question is: In general what grades do you recommend skipping?
For example quite a lot of people seem to skip Grade 7, and maybe even either Grade 3 or 4.
Is that common? What Grades do your students skip? ty
As with a lot of other arts, many people want to “play” piano, but not a lot of people want to “learn” piano. The RCM and ABRSM are generally for people who really want to learn not just piano but music.
This entire video talks about the traditional A.B.R.S.M. format, which is called the "Practical" exam -- which covers: Aural (Ear-Training) ; Sight-reading ; technique ; and repertoire.
However, in more recent years, ABRSM also offers an online "Performance" format. This new format only requires the student to learn and perform 4 pieces of repertoire and none of the other aspects of the traditional in-person exams. The first three pieces of repertoire must be chosen from the 'A', 'B', and 'C' lists/sets
but a fourth piece is an "own Choice" piece, which does not have to be from any ABRSM lists of pieces/repertoire ; This relates to what is said 15m03s ruclips.net/video/Wh1J4V4Yj7g/видео.html
In the U.S. of A. it is not possible (in late 2023, and still - Jan. 2024) to register for any in-person traditional "Practical" exams. Instead, online alternative formats such as the "Performance" exam are available. One of my students just recorded her 4 performance pieces ; I uploaded the video file to the ABRSM website, and we are waiting for the judges to evaluate and award the student a certificate.
Someone didn't watch the whole video before commenting. He talked about that.
Examinations are certainly useful on the whole since it's goal based and no time to take things easy.
The only drawback is you master 3 pieces and no real time to practice other music pieces and when you go on to the next grade you forget what you learnt in the previous grade.
Thanks for this video, very helpful. As a adult learner I had looked at the exam boards and decided against it simply because I don’t want to learn songs I have no interest in. I would like a grade but tbh, it’s only a small desire as opposed to playing the music I want. Thanks
Yes, for adults, I think grades are less important. Sometimes it's hard enough to even commit to regular practice besides work and family.
After going through the AMEB system in my childhood, getting LMus by age 15, I think the main thing it lacked was improvisation. They really should make you improvise each grade in all exam systems. Also playing your own pieces is important as I felt overly controlled by my teacher to play pieces that she tested to get high marks with, I never played anything I wanted to play, if you could have a section called "student's choice" then it will help to balance out this issue as students don't learn the piano just to play what the teacher tells them to play, we should also play things that we learnt the piano for.
they introduced student’s choice in ABRSM in 2020, it can be any piece but only for the performance exams
I am such a fan of your reviews. Can I request that you cover a course with a review? I would love it if you would please review The Keith Snell piano series. The program is published by Kjos.🙏 It is so thorough! The only thing I see wrong is that there are so many categories broken up into individual books FOR JUST ONE LEVEL OF TRAINING!!!! For instance you have a Fundamentals Theory book, a Baroque book, a Romantic 20th Century book, Scale Skills Technique book, and the list goes on. The student must complete ALL OF THESE BOOKS FOR JUST ONE LEVEL BEFORE ADVANCING TO THE NEXT LEVEL WHICH WILL TAKE FOREVER PLUS ETERNITY! However... the thoroughness! Thanks! Keep these great reviews coming.
Hi, I've never heard of it but will have a look.
Thank you very much that to me was very informative. My question is, how can one get this book for example if a person is living in Kenya. Price of each book. Thank you
There are 13 pieces for each list, so there are alternatives from the 9 pieces in the exam book. I think a choice of 39 pieces is plenty.
I think the scale requirements have dumbed down a lot and the aural tests don't cover intervals so then sight singing is suddenly introduced in grade 4.
Students really need to be engaged in some singing activities.
The theory is also dumbed down and the pnline exams are awful to navigate,.lots of problems.
How long can it take to move between grades? My child is starting grade 1 at the age if 12. Some of his classmates are grade 5. He thinks he will never catch up (he is competitive)
I just done my grade 3 yesterday. The examiner made me so nervous tutted twice while I was playing and kept typing very loudly with threw me off. Me thinks of doing my level 4 at Trinity.
Can we have all 4 pieces be from the book rather than choosing your own piece ?
Do you have to go grade by grade till grade 5 ? Or some one could give grade 1 and then give grade 5 ?
Great review
How can I get the syllabus for performance diploma.?please
It's on the ABRSM website
I have students who learn piano as a form of a hobby. Sure, the exam pieces are good for learning and all, but I wonder if taking the exams itself is actually necessary? How are you able to gauge if they're ready to advance without the need of an exam?
I also wonder why my students love theory so much......I personally hated it. I took exams for grades 5 and 8 only and didn't really study much but still passed on the first try (did my homework though, practice makes perfect for the higher grades!)
If they don't do exams but still learn the exam material, then once they mastered it to around 80%, they can progress on. If they don't follow the exam system then it's hard to tell because many people learn pieces inconsistently. Eg. they learn a grade 1 study but at the same time they work on a Grade 6 piece too because they find it inspiring. most students don't like theory. I think the older you get the more you start liking it. Kids prefer to know things, adults want to understand things. So while a child would just rather memorise the chords, an adult wants to know why each chord has those specific notes.
If i can read and play a song from a certain grade (not sightreading, though), why shouldn't i jump to that grade?
you can jump to any grade, but being able to play one song from a grade doesn’t necessarily mean you are that grade and also being able to play it might not mean playing it well with good technique. it’s all very subjective. and remember sometimes you’ll find harder things in Grade 2 than in Grade 3 for example.
Do you have to have taken all the previous exams in order to take a specific exam? Like, if you've been playing for years on an instrument, can you go directly to taking a grade 3 or 5 or 8 exam if you've the skill level? It sounds like you can't do that past grade 5 because of the theory requirement. I'm wondering because it would be useful to be able to point to a successful exam at a higher level, but going right back to the beginning and through many exams in succession seems time-consuming and expensive.
You can take any ABRSM exam. You can go directly for Grade 8 if you want. There is no requirement to do easier grades first, the only requirement is the Grade 5 theory exam, which is an online test. If you do that, you can take any piano exam after.
@@pianotips2623 That is really good to know. Thank you. Do you happen to know if it is true for other instruments like flute or recorder?
@@lizziesmusicmaking Yes, it applies to all the instruments.
Is there a difference between Abrsm and London college of music?
Two different exam systems but very similar in difficulty and metrics
When you get your exam book should the peaces be slightly harder than what you're doing in your method book or should you be able to play them peaces easily.
I would say harder. We usually practice exam pieces for much longer than method book pieces.
@@pianotips2623 thank you
If you can play all the pieces in the book are you ready for the next level or do you need to supplement before moving on?
Good video. But why do RUclipsrs call musical pieces that are not songs 'songs'. A song has lyrics. Beethoven (mentioned in the video) didn't write any songs.
It's just to avoid saying 'pieces' 100 times. By the way, Beethoven did write quite a few songs. I sang a few of them at university :)
Mendelssohn wrote a piece called 'A Song Without Words'.
Does anyone know if you can take grade 8 directly?
You can but you need to pass Grade 5 theory or musicianship first. You don't need other piano grades through
Excellent information. Thanks! Sub and bell. See you soon!
Ok I agree about the limited choice, but no piano lesson should be less than an hour, ever.
haha, tell that to a 6 year old who has the attention span of a fruit fly :D
@@pianotips2623 Then don't teach 6 year olds
How disappointing that you think that the C category pieces are the more ‘interesting’ ones, because they are modern. Just because it’s a Disney piece, it doesn’t make it more interesting than a Mozart Sonatine. The whole point of the ABRSM is that all musical genres are equally interesting and important in the artistic development of all learners, children and adults. I’ve seen this misguided attitude before… let’s slog through the boring A and B category, so that we can get to the cool stuff in category C. Not incredibly good teaching.
That's not what I meant at all. I meant that the C list has the more unusual pieces. Interesting doesn't always mean better, it just means different, like atonal, jazz or modern. I teach classical piano and most of my students prefer classical pieces. ABRSM doesn't deal with pop as such, since pop music is not supposed to be played from sheet music strictly. If you look through my channel, all my tutorials are classical, Burgmuller, Mozart, Czerny, Bach, Kabalevsky and more. But just because my preference is classical, it doesn't mean that it's better than modern.
Thank you very much for this overview. This was very helpful!
Do you have to go grade by grade till grade 5 ? Or some one could give grade 1 and then give grade 5 ?