What after piano grade 1

[dancingbyriver]

I've been teaching DS (6) to play the piano. He's just past grade 1. I have a degree in music (piano) but never taught anyone properly other than DS. We used method books (piano adventure and piano time) and some grade 1 pieces to get though the exam.

We now want to just learn without the pressure of exams for at least a year or two then start a lesson with a teacher when I go back to work full time.

How should we move forward to structure the learning well to cover necessary techniques and the wide variety of repertoire, so that the future teacher don't see big gaps in his piano skills?

What do other piano teachers normally do post grade 1, to work up to grade 2 or 3 level? Do they work though a book or pick and choose different pieces online?

Thank you in advance for your insight!

We didn't really carry on with specific tutor books beyond g1. I'd pick a book or two of repertoire. If you're not sure of the standard, the grade 1&2 syllabuses use a variety of other books that will have repertoire of the right sort of difficulty. The UpGrade books are quite popular and my kids did a lot from those, but I'd try to pick a couple of different books to have a mix of styles.

I'd also keep going with learning scales from the next grade and sight reading of some kind so those aspects of development keep moving.

You could do scale of the key of the piece he's playing as a warm up for example. Or when we're not doing exams teachers have just picked a key at time so they carry on learning the patterns.

Paul Harris sight reading books are good for bridging levels and also saving actual exam board ones for if he wants to prep for an exam later. But any easy music is good sight reading practice.

My teacher got the Piano Time 2 book and Discovering Music Theory book. And we worked on selected pieces which practised the skills she wanted me to learn.

Perhaps look at the early ABRSM jazz grades or the Rock school syllabus. These are actually quite challenging ( I think harder than traditional ABRSM in some ways) and provide a different repertoire whilst encouraging additional skills such as improvisation and jazz scales.

There's normally books for in-between grades

We chose some music DD was interested in to learn - for her that was songs from Matilda. They were above Grade 2 standard but gave her something she was happy to focus on.

You can buy books and sheet music suitable for whatever grade you like - go to a good music shop and ask. They are often categorised by grade anyway.

Very well done to your son. That's a fantastic achievement.

At that stage my pupils usually choose from a selection of pieces I've chosen for them.
And continue with scales and chords.

Also Junior Hanon.

And improvising.

Thank you so much!! So many wonderful advice.. :)