Skills needed for Grade 1
"Most children are simply not ready to ‘take Grade 1’ within one to two years of learning the piano, at least not if you want them to keep learning in the long-term. Rush them through without the necessary understanding and you will find that quite soon they will feel defeated by the whole process and will be asking when they can ‘give up because it is boring’." The Curious Piano Teachers
It's amazing how much a student needs to know and be able to do at Piano Grade 1 level. I also believe that Piano Grade 1 is not equal in difficulty to other Grade 1 instrument exams. Piano is a lot more involved and complicated probably due to the double stave to read (one set of notes to read for the left hand and a different set for the right hand - all at the same time). In addition a student needs to co-ordinate the two hands and there are possible pedal markings (foot work!) and expression marks which need to be controlled by how hard a finger is depressed or for how long.
I am very happy to support my students in their desire to take exams but all involved need to understand what is required:
I am mainly talking about ABRSM exams here but the information essentials apply to Trinity and MTB boards as well. Specifically the skills are:
Competent playing & understanding of:
- Co-ordination: 2 hands playing together simultaneously using rhythms as detailed below.
- Intervals: blocked and separate intervals: 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths 6ths, 7ths, triad chords,
- C, G, F major and A, D minor keys shown in the playing of scales, arpeggios, sight-reading and pieces
- Four aural questions in response to excerpts played by the examiner involving:
- repeating back rhythms and melodies
- finding the pulse identifying time signatures in 2 or 3 time
- identifying where a change of pitch occurs
- answering questions about 2 features of a piece of music
- simple and compound time signatures: 2/2, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8
- Rhythms: crotchet, quavers, dotted crotchets, minims, semi-breves, grace notes, swing, ties
- Expression: simple dynamics including crescendo and diminuendo, tempo changes, phrasing
- Articulation: legato, non-legato, staccato, accents, slurs
- Pedal: infrequent but sometimes there and with possible discretion
and with all exam grades the most important thing for examiners is the "performance"!
Was the character of the music portrayed, was the expression utilised, did the player connect with the audience?
More details can be found on Exam board websites: ABRSM, Trinity Guidhall, MTB.
To cover these areas successfully it's going to take time. Past teachers have sometimes taught the syllabus through rote or by ear to try and speed the process up but this short cut will unravel and be very unhelpful when wanting to learn other pieces or trying to do higher grades.
Students should expect to take a minimum of three years to be ready to learn exam material and progression will depend on effective home practice and motivated desire in combination with a brain that can see patterns and one that has a good working memory.
NB: A student wishing to take exams successfully needs to have a good quality instrument at home. The majority of public exams take place on an acoustic piano or high quality digital instrument with touch sensitivity, graded piano action and pedals. A student needs a real piano at home or equivalent so that they can develop the hand muscles and finger touch required to create a beautiful performance.