At higher grades you must be able to discuss with the examiner musical features such as texture, form, style, and period of a piece of music. My own web pages to help with these parts of the test at Grade 5+ and at GCSE are available here!
Beyond the exam pieces
I recently attended a master class with a well-known concert pianist, for young students of all grades. With only a couple of exceptions, every single student played a piece from the exam books. They were all competent performances, generally having been prepared for about three months, but none of these young people had their exam actually scheduled. So by the time their exam comes around, they will all have been playing these pieces for about a year. This set me thinking: surely there is more to music-making than this?
The exam pieces are carefully selected to challenge technique and to give experience of playing pieces from the broad sweep of musical history. But most students will enjoy exploring pieces off this well-beaten track. [For more on the pros and cons of the exam track, click here.]
Here are some suggestions for musical, challenging and imaginative repertoire through the grades.
Preparatory, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced repertoire
Many of these books can be purchased direct or ordered from your local music shop.
Joan Last
Her early tutor books are ideal - not swarming with cartoon bugs, just full of very good tips on technique and practice. And they move you on at a good rate too. Gentle, melodic introductions to musical notation and piano technique.
Walter Carroll
- Scenes at a Farm
- The Countryside
These are published by Forsyths. Order from your local music shop, or directly from the publisher.
Yvonne Adair
- The Golden Isle
Walter Carroll
- Forest Fantasies
- River and Rainbow
- Sea Idylls
Stephen Heller
- Preludes pour Mlle Lili (Opus 119)
- Nuites Blanches (Opus 82)
Cyril Dalmaine
- Queen's Highway
Leslie Fly
- The Golden Hind
Eric Thiman
- Water Pieces
Adair, Carroll, Dalmaine and Fly are all published by Forsyths. Order from your local music shop, or directly from the publisher.
Denes Agay
- The Joy of 33 Recital pieces
Including a delightful set of variations for piano duet on Shortenin' Bread, and Happy Birthday in the style of the great composers!
Burgmuller
- some of the Opus 100 Etudes such as the Arabesque
Burgmuller
- Opus 100 Etudes including the delightful Angelic Harmonies, or La Candeur
Stephen Heller
- Album for the Young (Opus 83)
- Songs without words (Opus 138):
No 1 Dedication
No 2 Gentle Reproach
No 3 evening Twilight
No 4 Young Huntsman
No 5 Gondola Song
Walter Carroll
- In Southern Seas
Leslie Fly
- King Arthur's Knights
Carroll and Fly are all published by Forsyths. Order from your local music shop, or directly from the publisher.
Shostakovich
- Dances of the Dolls
The Romantic Sketchbook series Books IV and V from the Associated Board have good repertoire at these grades. They also may inspire you to explore other works by featured composers:
- Burgmuller's Opus 125 Etudes
- Heller's Etudes particularly Opus 45, 46 and 125, with his Art of Phrasing being excellent preparation for the Chopin Etudes.
- Moszkowski's Pensée Fugitive in Romantic Sketchbook Vol. V might spark an interest in his Virtuosity Studies or Spanish Dances. His Thirteen Romantic Pieces from ABRSM publishing are wonderful too.
- Glière's Esquisse Romantic Sketchbook Vol. V or the lovely Prelude in Vol. IV could lead on to his Sketches published by the Associated Board
- Ravel's Menuet sur le nom de Haydn in Lionel Salter's More Romantic Pieces Bk. V could lead onto his Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, the A la manière de Borodine or Menuet Antique
- Scriabin's Study in Romantic Sketchbook Vol. IV could lead you to his Opus 2 No 1 Study
- More Classics to Moderns, Vol. VI, has a posthumous Chopin Nocturne in C# minor that is not in all Nocturne collections
This is also the time to be exploring Mendelssohn (especially the Songs without Words), Grieg (Lyric pieces and Poetic Tone Pictures), Schumann (Albumleaves perhaps, or the Romanze in F# minor), Rachmaninov, Albeniz and Granados, Debussy and Ibert.
From earlier eras the following are particularly pianistic pieces:
- JS Bach's C# minor Prelude and Fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier (Book 2, No 3), transcendentally beautiful
- Haydn's Sonata No 33, with lots of drama and innovative harmonies
- Clementi's Sonata in F# minor from the Sonata Book 1, particularly the Mendelssohn sound-alike Lento e patetico
