TSR Piano Society

Wow, sounds tough! Is it any different from a normal DipAbrsm in performance?
Either way, best of luck!


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As far as I'm aware, all junior conservatoire and college departments take place over the weekend, usually on a saturday. The time tables will vary, as usually the head/director organises your time table, so it can fit in with your normal education


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Haha well you'll be interested to see how accompanists cope and deal with last-minute assignments ;D
Don't worry! All you need is the chords and a basic outline of the structure


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I can sight read grade 7 pieces but my aural is only grade 4/5 standard! It's really dragging me down because I'm doing my grade 8 and want to go for distinction but my teacher says it'll be at least a couple of years before I can get my aural good enough. So frustrating


jojotheflower, meow, over and out

Nah, that's rubbish. Can I suggest taking singing lessons with a focus on aural as they really help!

Would love to! But Can barely afford piano lessons though


jojotheflower, meow, over and out

I can sight read grade 7 pieces but my aural is only grade 4/5 standard! It's really dragging me down because I'm doing my grade 8 and want to go for distinction but my teacher says it'll be at least a couple of years before I can get my aural good enough. So frustrating


jojotheflower, meow, over and out

That's great! Thanks! I'm looking at a few right now and they look great but they're all a reasonable distance away from where I live


jojotheflower, meow, over and out

Currently doing capriccio by Bach, finding the giant steps really hard, curse my small hands! Loving the melody though


jojotheflower, meow, over and out

The main difference is price-ATCL exam costs £210, DipABRSM costs £500, that's why I'm doing ATCL. ATCL doesn't have viva voce or the quick study(not that I'd care if I did have to do that-I've built up my musical knowledge loads by now, read books and listened to radio three and a few days ago I listened to the entire recordings of Schubert's ninth symphony and Rachmaninov's 1st symphony ) but you put together the same length programme, and I'd rather have written my programme notes in 1100 words as in the DipABRSM than in 700 words as I was forced to cut down my word count from over 900 to 700 which I finally managed two days ago!

As for difficulty well I'm never going to accept that it's easier! For my programme I'm playing Bach's Italian Concerto(all movements), Schubert's impromptu op.142 no.4 in F minor, Chopin's Etudes op.25 no's 1/2, Mendelssohn song without words op.67 no.2, Prokofiev's Young Juliet from his 10 pieces for piano from romeo and Juliet and Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux op.16 no.4. Although the Mendelssohn was on a previous grade 8 list(which I didn't know) it's only 4 pages long and fills time more than anything. And the programme was approved because the Chopin Etudes and the Prokofiev were all on the LTCL diploma syllabus, and I'm certain the Rachmaninov is above LTCL standard! It's crazily fast and took me two years to learn(admittedly most of that time it was a sort of side project for me, as I was also taking grade 8 and learning the Bach and other pieces at the time). Here's a link for Lugansky's version of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhLDse5R8dQ

One final thing: this is to the people who were discussing learning Chopin's Etude op.25 no.1. Although a lot of people learn to play that piece, to play it properly you need very good movement in your wrists to allow you to play the middle voices REALLY softly-think p for most of the piece, pp and getting quieter at points like the bottom of the second page. If you want to work on your wrist movement, then learn this piece. But despite the number of people who learn it it's very difficult to make this piece sound as it should.

Thanks Boggieeiggob! It's taken me a long time to build up my repertoire for this, but then I only agreed to do a diploma less than a year ago, the pieces I learnt were suggested to me on piano courses most of the time, although the Rachmaninov was completely my own choice-I mean my programme might be a bit random towards the end, but when I finish with the Rachmaninov NO ONE's going to deny that it makes a good end to my repertoire!

Just a quick question, which sorts of pieces do you lot feel more comfortable with playing? In my mind there are two main types, the sort which you can present as a really big piece which you can really get stuck into and perform as a large chunk of a concert, or the type which is like an encore or showstopper of some sort? I find it more satisfying playing larger works!

Wow, one year?! My friend spent 2 years alone just learning and refining his DipABRSM pieces <_>' but then again, I plan to do my DipABRSM in Easter >_>'
Haha of course, most (if, weirdly, not all) rachmaninoff music is a great show stopper! ^^
That is HARD! I have uh, no idea >_>' not to be boring or whatever, but Pathetique sonata by Beethoven's a good show stopper. I think obviously concertos are greats how stoppers and openers as well as grand symphonies but that's vividly impractical >_<'


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Well good luck for your DipABRSM then! As for showstoppers, well I think I have a different meaning in mind. There are some pieces which have all the glamour but not the originality. When I said showstoppers, I suppose what I meant was the music created and performed for commercial reasons-for example, my Rachmaninov piece was written together with the rest in the set in October 1896, after Rachmaninov was robbed on a train and at the time urgently needed money. On the other hand, there are some pieces which redefined music of the time, brought something new to the table. One piece which I'm perfecting is Beethoven's sonata no.28, the first of his late period sonatas. This is really interesting, because it brings together many unusual things about Beethoven sonatas:the 3rd movement isn't actually a movement, it's described as a slow intermezzi which precedes the return to material from the 1st movement, and this is followed by the start of the 4th movement. Also, the last 6 pages are fugal, in Beethoven's unique style of contrapuntal music.

The piece was really difficult for me to get through, especially the fugal part, but something like that is so satisfying to learn, I'd learn it any day over say a Liszt etude, and playing his Hammerklavier sonata would be ten times better!

You may have noticed I LOVE Beethoven. It's a fairly newfound thing, this, but one of my spur-of-the-moment music buys 4ist years ago was the music to Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies 6-9 not that it'll be played any time soon!

Ooooooooohhhh, I was just thinking anything grand and moving >_>' well my repertoire ain't great ;A; so I don't know really ><' I forgot what it's called but there's a piece JS Bach wrote for I think the Austrian Emperor once and there was a bit that Bach talked about and it went something like "you might notice that there is a constant rising sequence that ascends constantly like your greatness" or something. That might be good.
LOL, I'll be lucky to have even learnt my full programme by this coming Easter let alone refine it and make programme notes but thank you anyway


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I've now taken my diploma about half of my pieces went exactly as planned no misfires and I played my interpretation as well as I could have. Unfortunately my Prokofiev piece became very messy at one point, and I smudged the octaves in the Rachmaninov at the end but everything was musically correct and interesting, so I'm hoping I'll only lose a few marks off of Techniques, which is only 30% of what you're marked on anyway . My advice to you is to perform your whole repertoire in concert beforehand which I didn't manage to do-had A levels and a Beethoven sonata to work on. As well as this, I think the piece which you mentioned is more likely to be Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata, as Bach lived his life in Germany and I found no reference to pieces dedicated to Austrian Emperors. Beethoven however wrote his Hammerklavier sonata so that the words "Vivat, Vivat Rodolphus" could be chanted along with the first chords, the Archduke Rudolf being the last member of the family of Austro-Hungarian emperors who then died of syphilis. Rudolf was a patron of Beethoven's and helped him in many ways, and Beethoven would probably have said something of his greatness after he composed the Hammerklavier. Well if you meant a different piece, please tell me, but I'm certain you won't find a major work by JS Bach dedicated to the Austrian Emperor, definitely not with any conversations between Bach and the emperor as Bach lived his life as director of the Collegium Musicum, when he composed many of his works, and in Weimar or earlier, as a relatively local composer, even when he did travel he spent almost his entire life in Germany, and although his works certainly came to the attention of the Austrians, I don't think he received any offers of patronage or similar opportunities which would have caused him to meet the Austrian royals.

I'm not a snob I just love both these composers and had a lot to say! But please tell when you find the piece you meant.

Hello I am going to UK to study next year, may I join the society? By the way, LTCL.... Long away from me, I have only completed Grade 8 and playing some Diploma-level pieces currently

Hi guys! I would love to join, I've done my grade eight I honestly can't limit my favourites down to three pieces because there are so many, but my three favourite piano composers atm would probably be Beethoven, Ravel and either Chopin or Rachmaninov...


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