RIAM Grade 8 Piano Pieces

Psychedelik

Greetings all,
Anyone doing RIAM Grade 8 for Piano have any opinions on the pieces they chose? I mean the 2003 onwards syllabus.

Any very nice/easy/difficult pieces to be found in it?

Thanks.

Robbiethe3rd

I'm going to be moeing onto Grade 8 soon when I finish some other stuff.

I know some of the pieces in the book but don't have any particular views. It of course depends on your preferences of composers.

My only warning would be that Chopin nocturne. It is REALLY overplayed because it was in that stupid pianist film!!! My personnal view is that you should try another piece from that list just to be different unless of course you really want to do it.

I'll come back to you when I start working on it properly.:cool:

The Mad Hatter

How about 'pieces you like'?

Listen to all of them, then choose the ones you like the sound of best.

NeoSlicerZ

The ones you like best may not be the ones you can play best....

funky penguin

How will you know unless you try them first?

In my experience, the more I like a piece, the more I want to learn it.

The more I want to learn it, the more care I give to the learning process.

But maybe its just me.

I'm only finishing up grade four, but if I was doing Grade 8, I'd definately go for the nocturne, simply because its gorgeous and I'd love to be able to play it.

The Mad Hatter

NeoSlicerZ wrote:

The ones you like best may not be the ones you can play best....

The ones you like best will always be the ones you can play best.

NeoSlicerZ

The Mad Hatter wrote:

The ones you like best will always be the ones you can play best.

Nope, not in my experience anyway, currently doing a violin diploma and there are some pieces I don't really like playing yet I play them as well as the ones I prefer playing.

The Mad Hatter

NeoSlicerZ wrote:

Nope, not in my experience anyway, currently doing a violin diploma and there are some pieces I don't really like playing yet I play them as well as the ones I prefer playing.

I disagree for two reasons: firstly, people are more inclined to put a greater effort into playing pieces they enjoy, so the workload is considerably lightened, and secondly, it is much easier to create an emotional response to a piece that you like - while you may be on top of the technique, you can't force the feeling.

JackKelly

It's a fairly crappy selection IMO. I'm doing it this year and i'm basically just chugging through it. Have no interest at all in any of the pieces exept the nocture which is ridiculously overplayed. This results in me never practicing them. You should be allowed bring your own pieces to it tbh. I can't stand Bach or Scarlatti and would much rather play somethig i'm interested in.

shoegirl

Psychedelik wrote:

Greetings all,
Anyone doing RIAM Grade 8 for Piano have any opinions on the pieces they chose? I mean the 2003 onwards syllabus.

Any very nice/easy/difficult pieces to be found in it?

Thanks.

John O Connor used to run seminars for piano teachers up and down the country. Basically this is pounced on by 3rd rate "Minnie in her parlour" style-teachers who go on to copycat everything O Connor says. If you can find out what pieces O Connor recommends, AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE as half of the country will be playing them and aside from boring examiners to tears you'll be competiting with many performances.

Here's my suggestions:
List A:
Bach Prelude in D major: no 5 from Das wohltemperierte Klavier, book
1(Associated Board)

Avoid Handel and Scarlatti - harder to pull off on a piano (I played the harpsichord for a couple of years and there is no comparison). Bach is usually a bit of a challenge but can be well played on a piano, also pleasure to play.

List B:

STAY away from BEETHOVEN!!

My choice would be either of the following:
Haydn First movement from Sonata in C minor Hob XVI/20 (Peters)
Clementi First movement from Sonata in B flat major op 47 no 2 (Peters)

Clementi is fun to play, I think I remember that being on before many years ago. Also half the country won't be killing it!

List c:

Bartók First movement from Sonatina (RIAM Piano Album VIII)
or
Philip Martin Dance from Suite for Siobhán (CMC)

Have to say I'm a bit of a Bartok freak, Philip Martin's work is also pretty good (unless O Connor recommends it of course)

I might add that I'm a bit rusty, as its nearly 5 years since I taught piano. I taught for about 11 years, have a degree in Music and 3 teaching diplomas, LTCL on piano and ARIAM and LRIAM organ. I would suggest one piece of advice would be to really work on stuff like scales as its very easy to not bother and go down on them. If I remember rightly I came out of grade 7 with a distinction but then didn't bother much on scales for grade 8 and came out with eighty something when I could easily have made the distinction. Try to use real world music for sight reading rather than those exercise books as they'll stretch you more.

funky penguin

Ooooo, Bartók is on the list?

I went to see Francis Frederick Guy play in the NCH a week or so ago, and he ploughed through Bartóks sonata for piano like the proverbial hot knife through a spreadable dairy substance. Brilliant pianist.

liddi

I did my grade 8 a few years ago and still love playing the chopin nocturne..I think it's an amazing piece so i enjoyed learning it. Also for list A i think did the scarlatti but have know idea what i did in list B i've completley forgotten!

funky penguin

Wow! Blast from the past!

I remember being grade 4 ....sniff sniff. :pac:

I don't play any of my grade eight pieces anymore....its been nearly 2 years now. I do still play the Rachmaninoff I learned along side them though!