compulsory or recommended for ABRMS exams? Resuming playing the piano, I came across ABRSM examinations. I read the syllabus and I bought some selected piano pieces with CDs and I found both syllabus and publications remarkable as compared to Italian conservatory programmes. But there are issues I do not understand.
1) How come studies such as by Czerny, Duvernoy etc. are not mentioned in the ABRSM syllabus? Are they not tested at the exams? And yet I saw two series of graded pianoforte studies among ABRSM’s publications. I bought grade 1 to 5 of the first series and I found out that my level is around grade 4 or 5. Are a certain amount of studies or certain authors compulsory or is it up to the teacher to choose some of studies, if any?
2) Apart from scales and arpeggios no technical exercises like Hanon’s are recommended. Are scales and arpeggios seen as sufficient for technical development? In the meantime I discovered Burnam’s A Dozen a Day: could these exercises be an alternative to Hanon’s or to the studies or to both?
3) ABRSM’s syllabus contains 8 grades; but I read in yahoo about the existence of grades 9 and 10. What does this mean?
I am a middle-aged Italian amateur with no ambitions who would like to take the English syllabus as a guideline and I would be very thankful for your reply and for every detail concerning the British way of teaching.
1) How come studies such as by Czerny, Duvernoy etc. are not mentioned in the ABRSM syllabus? Are they not tested at the exams? And yet I saw two series of graded pianoforte studies among ABRSM’s publications. I bought grade 1 to 5 of the first series and I found out that my level is around grade 4 or 5. Are a certain amount of studies or certain authors compulsory or is it up to the teacher to choose some of studies, if any?
2) Apart from scales and arpeggios no technical exercises like Hanon’s are recommended. Are scales and arpeggios seen as sufficient for technical development? In the meantime I discovered Burnam’s A Dozen a Day: could these exercises be an alternative to Hanon’s or to the studies or to both?
3) ABRSM’s syllabus contains 8 grades; but I read in yahoo about the existence of grades 9 and 10. What does this mean?
I am a middle-aged Italian amateur with no ambitions who would like to take the English syllabus as a guideline and I would be very thankful for your reply and for every detail concerning the British way of teaching.