Elementary

Sarah Watts - Scary Stuff (from Razzamajazz Repertoire Piano)

ABRSM Grade 3 – C3

This excellent character piece calls for an active imagination as you tell a spooky story in sound. Have this story in mind as you play, savouring the tremolo at the end of the B section (a musical scream). Resources & links Piano Exam Pieces 2021 & 2021, Grade 3 is available from the ABRSM online shop here. The syllabus upon which these Practising the Piano Online Academy materials are based is © by The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and is reproduced... Read >>

Trad. Swedish (arr. Bullard) - Björnen sover

ABRSM Initial Grade – A3

Resources & links This piece is available for individual purchase as a digital download here or in print as part of the Piano Exam Pieces 2025 & 2026 Initial Grade publication here. You can listen to a recording of this piece and others from this grade on Spotify using this link. ... Read >>

Caroline Tyler - Little Whale Explores the Calm Sea

ABRSM Grade 1 – C3

In this piece, we find an instruction at the start of the piece to hold the pedal down all the way to bar 21, with just a brief moment of clarity before we use the pedal again for the ending. The idea is to create the necessary echoing, underwater effect of the title. Plenty of imagination is called for and the player might come up with a storyline that describes what is happening in each new phrase, or perhaps series of images that captures the changing scenes. Preview (please log-in or subscribe... Read >>

Bartók - Dialogue (from First Term at the Piano)

ABRSM Initial Grade – B3

The great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was an important educator, writing piano music for all levels, including the very early stages. Dialogue comes from a set of elementary pieces entitled First Term at the Piano. It features the two hands in conversation with each other, the right hand leading and the left hand imitating a bar later. Each hand stays in its own hand position throughout; the player’s task is to manage the five-finger positions with flexibility of phrasing and hand movements, avoiding locking the wrist by adjusting it laterally in order to align the arm behind the finger that... Read >>

Sarah Watts - The Wibbly Waltz

ABRSM Initial Grade – C3

Resources & links This piece is available for individual purchase as a digital download here or in print as part of the Piano Exam Pieces 2025 & 2026 Initial Grade publication here. You can listen to a recording of this piece and others from this grade on Spotify using this link. ... Read >>

Burgmüller - 7. Le Courant Limpide (The Clear Little Stream) in G Major (from 25 Easy and Progressive Etudes, Op. 100)

Le Courant Limpide (The Clear Little Stream) is a charming study in tonal control, evenness of touch, and using the imagination to create a vivid soundscape. The study features virtually continuous triplet motion in the right hand, the left hand crotchets providing a simple drone in the A section, and a counterpoint to the right hand’s hidden melody in the B section. The melodic element in the first eight bars is in the right thumb (you will notice these melody notes have their own crotchet stems), so for this reason it is good practice to play the thumb line minus... Read >>

Burgmüller - 13. Consolation in C Major (from 25 Easy and Progressive Etudes, Op. 100)

The thirteenth étude, Consolation (Comfort), returns to the familiar key of C major. Marked dolce lusingando (sweetly and caressingly), it calls for careful control of tone as we balance melody and accompaniment not only between the two hands, but also within each hand. There are many beautiful, expressive moments in this etude that we need to enjoy and savour as we play them. The harmonic progression in bars 5 and 6 that enhances chord ii in what would otherwise be a standard sequence of chords is one example, the modulation to E minor (bars 14-15) another. The semibreves in the... Read >>

Praetorious - Old German Dance

In the C major five-finger position in both hands throughout, this Renaissance dance offers scope for variety of touches between the hands, as well as some dynamic contrasts. Once learned and memorised, it would make an excellent exercise in transposition (from memory) for a more advanced player keen to develop this skill. Resources & links Click here to purchase sheet music form the Trinity College online store (external link). Click here to view open domain editions for these works... Read >>

Trad. Irish (arr. Blackwell) - Down by the salley gardens

ABRSM Grade 1 – B3

In the opening of this imaginative arrangement of the traditional Irish tune the left hand holds down three notes silently, allowing sympathetic resonance from the undamped strings. Attention to expressive detail is called for in this piece, which offers the opportunity to cultivate a vocal style of phrasing and shaping in a melodic line. ... Read >>