Working through the ABRSM piano grades

[Rosie C]

36 minutes ago, knirirr said:

Do you mind if I ask what you didn't like about it?
As it happens I did a grade exam around the same time, also with a merit, and didn't much fancy another one. There was no time to warm up and at one point I was surprised by a request to sing from dots, which is never going to happen. 

 

It was very impersonal. It was a couple of years past the height of covid, but the examiner was sat behind the sort of translucent plastic curtain you see in supermarket butcher's counters. She wasn't at all friendly and didn't give the slightest bit of body language. 

 

In comparison the three (?) Rock School examiners I've had were all friendly and chatty - talking before the exam about things beyond the range of exam - do I play in a band? How long have I been playing the instrument? etc. and a warmer, friendlier dialogue during the exam, smiling occasionally, just little things that put you at your ease. The very first Rock School exam I did was "Grade 1 Acoustic Guitar" and I turned up with a guitar-bodied mandocello and the examiner was really interested in it as she played guitar, and when it got to the chords part of the exam we talked about voicings and how I couldn't really play an E minor, I could only play an Em/G. Anyone who likes to talk chord voicings gets a 👍 from me.

[bass_dinger]

1 hour ago, Rosie C said:

The very first Rock School exam I did was "Grade 1 Acoustic Guitar" and I turned up with a guitar-bodied mandocello and the examiner was really interested in it

 

That shows the difference between ABRSM and Rock School exams.

 

You are doing acoustic guitar grade 1, but  turned up with a different instrument, and had a nice chat about that choice. 

 

ABRSM? You can't even choose which note to play. Play it, as written - note, value, dynamics. 

With regards to the instrument, ABRSM make no allowances for the fact that the student may have learned on a keyboard with no dynamics, but when they are doing the exam on a piano they are expected to play the written dynamics. 

 

 

[Rosie C]

5 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

 

That shows the difference between ABRSM and Rock School exams.

 

You are doing acoustic guitar grade 1, but  turned up with a different instrument, and had a nice chat about that choice.

 

 

I did check beforehand and they said it was fine but if the instrument wasn't capable of doing something the examiner could make no allowances. Which was fair. 
 

[SumOne]

I think the Japanese concept of 'Kodawari: The relentless pursuit of a perfectng a craft' right down to very small details, kind of fits doing piano grades...or certainly more so than my somewhat punk attitude to playing Bass!

 

My lessons mostly consist of the teacher telling me to slow down, focus on one small section, perfect the details, repeat, and repeat again!

 

He has suggested I could possibly pass Grade 3 in June, or at a bit less of a rush to do it in November, so that keeps me on track of my longish term aim is to pass grade 5 before I turn 50 in summer 2029. So I'd better embrace the process for a lot of hours yet and get all 'Kodawari' on it! 

 

 

Edited February 6 by SumOne

[bass_dinger]

I had my lesson today.

 

I seem to have developed a negative mindset, that tells me that I cannot play the piano.  Certainly, I have given up on the three pieces that I initially selected - they are now frustrating me.  My feeling is that, if I can't play them after a month of trying, then I am better off moving on to another piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LawrenceH]

8 minutes ago, bass_dinger said:

My feeling is that, if I can't play them after a month of trying, then I am better off moving on to another piece.

IMO there's good mileage in playing through a lot of pieces in the early stages and moving on quite quickly. My daughter's sax teacher has been doing this with her, and she has been progressing quickly and, importantly, maintained motivation.

 

If you go back to those pieces in a month after working on something else you might find them a lot easier and fresher.

[Hellzero]

If you are frustrated by the pieces, then move on.

 

And as @LawrenceH said, come back after a while and you'll be amazed how "easy" they were, simply because you've learnt something more difficult.

 

It's indeed all in the mindset.

 

That said, piano is not an easy instrument at all, but you can play it.

[Burns-bass]

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

If you are frustrated by the pieces, then move on.

 

And as @LawrenceH said, come back after a while and you'll be amazed how "easy" they were, simply because you've learnt something more difficult.

 

It's indeed all in the mindset.

 

That said, piano is not an easy instrument at all, but you can play it.

 

I am finding this with classical double bass. So much of it seems impenetrable and near impossible, but a few months later, I can breeze through it and (even better) introduce some personality into the playing.

[bass_dinger]

On 06/02/2026 at 12:22, LawrenceH said:

IMO there's good mileage in playing through a lot of pieces in the early stages and moving on quite quickly. My daughter's sax teacher has been doing this with her, and she has been progressing quickly and, importantly, maintained motivation.

 

If you go back to those pieces in a month after working on something else you might find them a lot easier and fresher.

 

Tell me more, please.  Is this a known technique, an established way of learning? 

 

I saw a short and tantalising video clip, which hinted that failure is a part of learning, and that it is acceptable (good, even), to fail while learning.

 

Is that a thing, or am I justifying my incompetence?

 

In other news, I am enjoying working though new pieces at home, and refining it in the lesson.  What I don't enjoy is learning the pieces in the lesson - "B♭ C#, G ... no no no ...". 

 

I am also struggling with the requirement to get each piece exactly as written. I am not good at dynamics, and I find it difficult to get them exactly as my teacher wants them. 

 

It seems to me that my teacher and I want different things from the lessons.

 

Using a footballing analogy, he wants the perfect free kick, a well-performed box-to-box run, a display of dribbling around the cones.

 

And I want time on the pitch, getting used to the ball, and controlling my nascent technique through trial and error (my errors are a trial, for him...), and the occasional lucky shot of a piece well played. 

 

When I play a piece, and reach a level of competence, even without completing it, that is a success for me. Moving on to another piece is another opportunity to learn. 

 

However, my teacher sees it as giving up.

 

I think that I need to tell him what I want - to play with the piano and explore what I can do, rather than to play three pieces perfectly. In summary, I don't think that ABRSM grades are what I need to teach me the piano  - they simply measure my skill level.

 

@SumOne,  how are your lessons going? 

 

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by bass_dinger

[RhythmJunky]

8 minutes ago, bass_dinger said:

 

I think that I need to tell him what I want - to play with the piano and explore what I can do, rather than to play three pieces perfectly. In summary, I don't think that ABRSM grades are what I need to teach me the piano  - they simply measure my skill level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agreed.

 

I think you need to make it clear what you want. Your teacher just seems to want to push you through the grades, which isn't what you want. If you can't come to agreement then it's time to find another teacher.

 

I went through a few teachers until I settled on my current one. None were really interested in what I wanted. I think I shared a story earlier in this thread where I was looking to pick a new piece and my teacher's suggestion was 'Puppet on a String' and similar  Lol.

 

TBH I don't care if I never learn how to play any Phil Coulter song. I cannot imagine a scenario where I'd ever play one. 

 

As an adult, learning needs to be focused around what you want not what they want to teach you. 

 

I've been with my current teacher about 5 years and am very happy. It's 100% done via Zoom which I think is a benefit (no driving to lessons, finding and paying for parking, waiting outside etc) and more importantly it's based entirely around what I want. He does do Grades if people want them, but has said a few times that they're not the best way to learn. 

[LawrenceH]

1 hour ago, bass_dinger said:

 

Tell me more, please.  Is this a known technique, an established way of learning?

I'm not a pro-level musician/teacher so take what I say with a pinch of salt, but yes - I think only a minority of early-stage learners will play a piece 'perfectly' no matter how much they drill it. It's just not an efficient way to build up skill, you need a variety of exercises and challenges that involve as much of the brain as possible so one circuit isn't carrying the whole load.

 

My own experience regardless of instrument is that improvement comes from moving on and learning coordination/phrasing/dynamics more holistically over many pieces. Sticking with your footballing analogy, it'd be a weird method to just drill one skill session after session. Pace of learning just won't increase beyond a certain point so you may as well move on to something else.

 

Benefits of playing many pieces, all inter-related of course:

1. Rapid improvement per piece, keeps you motivated.

2. Builds versatility by practicing essentially similar skills but each in a unique context.

3. Improves sight-reading. This is huge, not just for the skill itself but what it means. You are decoding and finding the musical message in real-time, not just the black squiggles themselves but including the sense in the phrases, which means your ear is being tested in numerous ways.

4. Pattern-spotting between multiple musical pieces in succession, helps with reading, harmonic/scalar/rhythmic theory, general ear training, dexterity.

5. Going back to a piece after a break doing others gives you a fresh look with new musical perspectives and a chance to avoid baking in bad habits/mistakes that then take ages to undo.

6. Versatility gained here helps playing with others, and will translate e.g. from piano to bass!

Edit: 7. Forgot this one, but avoids fatigue! As alluded to above, practicing one thing again and again is more fatiguing, relates to efficiency/rate of improvement. That bit of the brain is knackered now and won't get any better for a bit, move on to something else. Learning a new piece you're not just focused on coordinating fingers, but also all the sight-reading stuff (theory, reading, musicality etc). You're spreading the cognitive load!

Edited 3 hours ago by LawrenceH

[LawrenceH]

I'd also add, that if you do want to focus on things like dynamics or smooth legato playing or whatever, it's probably better to spend a short time per session drilling exercises like scales/arpeggios where you focus just on that skill in a simplified context. That might appear to contradict what I said above but I think the short time is key. Do it only until you feel concentration waning or you've plateaued for the day.

 

Try playing a C major scale up and down at p, then f, then after a while introduce mp, then mf. Do it legato, and do it staccato. Try doing it up and down one octave with a steady crescendo. Then up and down with steady diminuendo. Think about how your fingers are contacting the keys before and after the notes are played. Get your wrist angle right. I guarantee that kind of focus will help you when you go back to playing actual pieces where you're having to think about more aspects at once.

[Hellzero]

Robert, it all depends on what you're after and this is something that must be discussed with your teacher.

 

If he doesn't agree with your point of view about music and piano playing, as long as it's not based on idleness only, find another teacher/tutor.

 

Grades are there to assess the level of playing what is written, exactly the way it is written, not a way to assess your ability to interpret a piece with emotion.

 

A very good example is the piece I'm learning right now (still Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence by Ryūichi Sakamoto), which has been performed by the composer himself who wrote the final score himself, before dying.

 

And this is a great opportunity, because, very often, you play pieces from dead people who never recorded them themselves.

 

So if you listen to the different versions he played himself, you'll notice that his last interpretation was fully loaded with emotion, not always sticking to the written score when it comes to timing, but linked to his feelings, making it beautiful and human, with mistakes.

 

Listen to Lang Lang version and you'll hear a typical classical version strictly sticking to the score, and ending up in a boring version, lacking the Japanese ethnical music heritage mixed with the Debussy homage and, something that classical player can hardly do, a swing feeling.

 

So decide wether you want some diplomas on your wall or being able to read and play a score your way with the most important parts in music: interpretation linked to emotion.

 

That said, hélas, technique is the only way to reach that goal.

 

Mixed feelings, I know.

[RhythmJunky]

I was just thinking (dangerous unknown territory). If you want to try the teacher I use I'll send you on his details. I have no connections other than as a student. 

 

He's from the UK but is based in Northern Italy hence everything is done online, so as long as you're okay with that it might work out.

 

His primary interest is jazz, and has a degree in it,  but he can play anything, generally the first time he hears it 😲.