It's a time of transition in my career and I've been so inundated with work I chose to take a week off from my piano. Even though I've resumed I can't practice every day and won't be able to for at least another month. This video has made me see further and beyond my present situation. [When pausing the video to write this post Allysia's eyes were half-closed - I had a chuckle :-) ]
Hello, how are you? How many songs should I learn to advance to the next grid? I know it's not like that, but I wanted to have a base. Maybe I get this answer in some of your videos, but I live in Brazil and my English is horrible (yes, I'm using google translator to write this message, so i'm sorry for any mistake), and I end up having to use youtube subtitles, and they are extremely unpleasant to the eyes, my eyes are hurting a lot right now, lol. Obs: I played for 3 months and I learned these songs: Little book of anna magdalena bach BWV 113 BWV 114 BWV 115 BWV 126 Other Tetris Theme Queen - Bohemian Rapsody And, ah, congratulations for what you are doing, it helps a lot to those who are not in a position to have a teacher!
I wonder what you think about James Bastien's Step by Step series. How does the level of his books correspond to the RCM/ABRSM levels? Love your channel!
Sorry, I'm not personally familiar with step-by-step, though I've used Bastien method books over the years. If we were talking Bastien Piano Basics, I would probably consider Prep, Lv. 1 and Lv. 2 all to correspond with RCM prep, and then grade 1 after that.
Sandra Lima Hey there! Here's what I did: I picked up the required RCM repertoire, technical requirements and sight reading books from a local music store (I live in Canada). There's an ear training portion which is part of the sight reading book. The ear training is done online and in order to do that you need to create an online account with Royal Conservatory of Music. That's it!
Hi, I have played piano for many years but never taken actual lessons. I feel I'm pretty good but there's definitely gaps in my skills. I recently started buying the RCM books and have worked up to level three fairly easily but the main thing I'm trying to improve is my sight reading. I spend too much time looking at the music, down at my hands, back to the find my place in the music, etc. I somehow decided that a real pianist just looks at the music and not their hands and thus far I haven't improved very much in that respect. Sorry for the long digression, so my main question is do I keep at it and will get there or am iI wrong in assuming a true pianist doesn't have to look at their hands while sightreading? Thanks.
From my limited knowledge, most high level pianists have a good idea where their hands are, so are able to only look at the piece of music, not the piano, this speeds the whole process up because, as you said, they don’t have to look up and down constantly. One way you could achieve this is to cover your hands and play a piece you already know, or try and sight read something easy, while only looking at the music. The key is having a good ability to read the music, and know where your hands are at the same time. As with anything, practice will help no end, so just keep doing it, and good luck. :)
You might want to check out the materials on the RCM website - I know they've recently added ear training exercises. Otherwise they're basically impossible to do alone (if you want to be corrected, that is).
Thanks. I find they are getting harder and harder in the exams and I'm basically getting a zero on it now. I feel like telling the examiner "let's just not bother with this."
I would Google "ABRSM Poland" and/or "RCM Poland" to see what your options are, and if there are any local institutions that do exams! I'm not very familiar with European exam schools unfortunately. Good luck!
The whole reason I've not gone through RCM or a grade system like this is because of sight reading. I don't get when improvised sight reading will ever come in handy for someone who learns music over the course of multiple hours anyways.
I find sight reading skills really pay off when you get to the higher levels. Once you start learning really challenging music, it's much, much easier to make sense of sheet music than it is to figure it out by ear.
