Moderate
A list
Dussek ~ Gavotte in F (A2). Coordinating right and left hands is always a challenge at the early grade level, especially where it involves different articulation between the hands, as it ideally does here.
Agnieszks Lasko ~ Tarantella (A3) Achieving the right kind of devilish mood requires a good tempo which, in this case, would be around 60 bpm. As with most music, the key to getting it to sound well phrased lies in thinking it through in longer lines, often in 4 bar phrases.
Anon ~ Corranto (A4) is a typical courant style dance from the Baroque with a part key, part modal feel. It should be played fairly quickly with a one-in-a-bar character. It has some extended scalic passages in the latter half.
What better way to introduce your pupils to playing with the right poise and elegance - the hallmark of Classical style playing - than to learn Haydn ~ Rondino (A7), a great arrangement of his cello concerto theme, arranged by Denes Agay? The score is awash with imitation between the parts which is so redolent of playing in a true chamber music style.
Kabalevsky ~ Galop/Hopping (A8) is a delightful musical gem, but also has plenty of opportunities to practise different kinds of articulation between the hands: right hand legato whilst the left hand plays staccato chords in the middle section, with right hand held notes at the same time as left hand slurred pairs in the outer sections. Achieving this level of detail will really bring the playing to life.
Chevalier de Saint-Georges ~ Rondo (A11) Already we can hear the importance of being able to distinguish dynamic levels between the hands. It is all too easy to play at the same level, whereas you can immediately hear how, in this brief extract from ABRSM's Grade 2 recording, the music suddenly gains a transparent and winning musical texture:
_____________________________
B list
Stephen Duro ~ Forget-me-not Waltz (B1) is a charming piece, so easy to sound featureless yet quite challenging to sound eloquent. The key to the latter is to learn how the rubato works and to hear just how much difference it makes when the 2nd and 3rd beat left hand repeated crotchet Gs are played very lightly (the 3rd beat being the quietest)
Einaudi ~ The Snow Prelude No. 3 (C6). Einaudi tends to get a bad press. This is not the place to court that opinion, but instead to suggest objective reasons for the choice and relevance of a specific syllabus piece for a particular pupil. Experience shows that teenage pupils are often enamoured of playing pieces such as this.
It is more like a set of variations, so why not challenge your pupil to memorise the chord sequence first? It's simple enough. Get your pupil to explore ways to create musical materials around that chord sequence ahead of learning the piece itself. It's a more interesting way of going about teaching the piece, and it encourages improvisation - something which may satisfy some pupils as much, if not more than, struggling through the notes of the score right from the outset.
_____________________________
Garścia ~ Brigands' Dance (C7) (duet) is a great piece to encourage lyrical playing through the strangely sounding chromaticism of the outer sections and a more rhythmic feel to the middle section.
Seiber ~ Tango II (C13) is easy enough in terms of the notes, although has its challenges, musically. Principally this is to achieve the kind of laid-back feel, so typical of the Habanera, at this grade level without it sounding as if you simply cannot play it in time. Such sophistication is not a requirement though may, nonetheless, be worth hearing in order to get the feel of the mood. Here's a lovely version of the famous Tango by Albeniz, which exudes that kind of musical feel:
Other content in “Grade 2”
-
Current: Moderate