All About ABRSM Grades & Support

[Dreamaurora]

Ribbon4:

Clair de lune is now part of ABRSM Grade 6's syllabus I'm playing it

that one is another Clair de lune by frank martin which sounds quite eery. The famous Clair de lune by Debussy has been set as grade 8 abrsm exam piece before and is currently in dipLCM syllabus.

[KKKS]

Dreamaurora:

markfch:

I see. Thanks for the info.


I actually mistakenly thought that since this song is so slow, a grade 4 or 5 will be able to play it well.

In fact, this is a common misperception. Slow pieces are often harder to play than fast pieces because they require a much finer technical control and listening skill on the player part.

If you like Clair de Lune, I can suggest a few more similar pieces:
- Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte
- Debussy's Arabesque No 1
- Debussy's Reverie
- Brahms' Intermezzo Op 118 No 2
- Schubert's Impromptu Op 90 No 3
- Liszt's Consolation No 3[/quote

Hi Dreamaurora, when can a student handle pieces like
- Mozart's Sonata K280
- Mozart's Sonata K283
- Chopin's Nocturne Op 9 No 2

[Dreamaurora]

KKKS:

Hi Dreamaurora, when can a student handle pieces like
- Mozart's Sonata K280
- Mozart's Sonata K283
- Chopin's Nocturne Op 9 No 2

Personally I will only assigned full Sonatas after a student completes his/her grade 8. But anyway, K280, K283, and K545 are commonly assigned as one of the first full Mozart sonata a student may attempt. Note that when we assess difficulty of sonatas we need to evaluate all the movements. The 3rd movement of K280 and the first movement of K283 are set as grade 7 ABRSM exam pieces before, but their entirety they should be attempted as a whole only when the student is at grade 8 level.

As for Op 9 No 2, I would say it is around the difficulty of the easier grade 8 pieces. There are some uncomfortable strecthes in this piece, so make sure can stretch 9th comfortably especially for the left hand. To play this at the required Andante speed is quite tricky and many students also play this way too slow.

[iRabbit]

DS has passed piano grade 1 in both theory and practical. I intend to let him take all [2-8] practical exams w/o skipping (just a preference). But for theory, tot perhaps he can skip some levels.


Is it common to skip theory levels? If so, what are the milestones that shouldn’t be skipped? Thanks.

[Dreamaurora]

FQW:

DS has passed piano grade 1 in both theory and practical. I intend to let him take all [2-8] practical exams w/o skipping (just a preference). But for theory, tot perhaps he can skip some levels.


Is it common to skip theory levels? If so, what are the milestones that shouldn't be skipped? Thanks.

For theory, it is quite common for students to take only grade 5 and 8. The syllabus is cummulative and thus some teachers including me prefer to teach everything one shot e.g. I prefer to teach how to write scales immediately up to 7 sharps and 7 flats from the very beginning.

[iRabbit]

Thanks for the info, Dreamaurora. You’re a great help here in the music thread.

[sleepy]

Dreamaurora:

For theory, it is quite common for students to take only grade 5 and 8. The syllabus is cummulative and thus some teachers including me prefer to teach everything one shot e.g. I prefer to teach how to write scales immediately up to 7 sharps and 7 flats from the very beginning.

How long does it take to prepare for grade 8 after passing grade 5?

5 months of weekly individual lesson possible? Is it a huge jump from grade 5 to 8?

[Dreamaurora]

sleepy:

Dreamaurora:

For theory, it is quite common for students to take only grade 5 and 8. The syllabus is cummulative and thus some teachers including me prefer to teach everything one shot e.g. I prefer to teach how to write scales immediately up to 7 sharps and 7 flats from the very beginning.

How long does it take to prepare for grade 8 after passing grade 5?

5 months of weekly individual lesson possible? Is it a huge jump from grade 5 to 8?

The general consensus is a minimum of one year of weekly lesson from passing of grade 5 before taking grade 8, provided the teacher knows what he/she is doing. The last time I prepared a student for grade 8 theory I think around one year + a few months.

For 5 months, I think it is possible. I've just entered one of my diploma students for grade 8 theory next march and we just started theory lesson last month (he had a grade 6 theory taken quite some time ago though), so more or less he will have 5 months of preparation. Progress seems to be ok, though I will only know whether this is truly feasible after the March exam next year. But do note that this student of mine is already a mature student and is a piano teacher himself, so with children will probably need more time.

IMO, the jump from grade 5 to grade 8 is not that big. If student have good foundations laid earlier in grade 5 i.e. knows how to write and memorise all scales, figure out intervals and transpose immediately, rearrange chords, can read all staffs comfortably, etc, grade 8 theory should be quite comfortable. If they are not comfortable with the grade 5 concepts and still have to count slowly to get the answers, then normally have to revise the grade 5 concepts until everything become instantenous before proceeding to grade 8.

[sleepy]

Dreamaurora:

The general consensus is a minimum of one year of weekly lesson from passing of grade 5 before taking grade 8, provided the teacher knows what he/she is doing. The last time I prepared a student for grade 8 theory I think around one year + a few months.

For 5 months, I think it is possible. I've just entered one of my diploma students for grade 8 theory next march and we just started theory lesson last month (he had a grade 6 theory taken quite some time ago though), so more or less he will have 5 months of preparation. Progress seems to be ok, though I will only know whether this is truly feasible after the March exam next year. But do note that this student of mine is already a mature student and is a piano teacher himself, so with children will probably need more time.

IMO, the jump from grade 5 to grade 8 is not that big. If student have good foundations laid earlier in grade 5 i.e. knows how to write and memorise all scales, figure out intervals and transpose immediately, rearrange chords, can read all staffs comfortably, etc, grade 8 theory should be quite comfortable. If they are not comfortable with the grade 5 concepts and still have to count slowly to get the answers, then normally have to revise the grade 5 concepts until everything become instantenous before proceeding to grade 8.

:thankyou:

How do you prep your student then? Still need to go through 6, 7, 8 theory books followed by past year papers? 5 months won't be able to cover so much material.

Or can jump right into grade 8 theory book and just attempt grade 8 past year papers?

[Dreamaurora]

sleepy:

Dreamaurora:

The general consensus is a minimum of one year of weekly lesson from passing of grade 5 before taking grade 8, provided the teacher knows what he/she is doing. The last time I prepared a student for grade 8 theory I think around one year + a few months.

For 5 months, I think it is possible. I've just entered one of my diploma students for grade 8 theory next march and we just started theory lesson last month (he had a grade 6 theory taken quite some time ago though), so more or less he will have 5 months of preparation. Progress seems to be ok, though I will only know whether this is truly feasible after the March exam next year. But do note that this student of mine is already a mature student and is a piano teacher himself, so with children will probably need more time.

IMO, the jump from grade 5 to grade 8 is not that big. If student have good foundations laid earlier in grade 5 i.e. knows how to write and memorise all scales, figure out intervals and transpose immediately, rearrange chords, can read all staffs comfortably, etc, grade 8 theory should be quite comfortable. If they are not comfortable with the grade 5 concepts and still have to count slowly to get the answers, then normally have to revise the grade 5 concepts until everything become instantenous before proceeding to grade 8.

:thankyou:

How do you prep your student then? Still need to go through 6, 7, 8 theory books followed by past year papers? 5 months won't be able to cover so much material.

Or can jump right into grade 8 theory book and just attempt grade 8 past year papers?

I spend 2 or 3 lessons going through the required harmony vocabulary first then after that I start going through the questions in grade 8 papers or you can use the official ABRSM Grade 8 Theory Workbook; it is up to the teacher's preference to go through the other grade workbooks though I persnoally I don't go through grade 6 and 7. I start from question 4 and 5 first as those 2 questions are easier to teach and reinforce most of the concepts there are already taught earlier in grade 5. Then after they are comfortable with them can go through other questions one by one.