How can I find which pieces are round about Grade 5/6 for piano?

[whingeyarse]

I've not played for about 20 years and I thought I'd treat myself to some new music and see what I can do.

I used to play at Grade 8/A Level music so I'm thinking maybe starting at G5 or 6 might be realistic. Apart from buying exam books (which I have), how can I find pieces at the right level for me?

I would pop along to a local music shop if you have one. We have one locally which we use a lot as my DD is in grade 7 piano but enjoys playing other things so we have picked up David Bowie, Adele etc. They can guide you on the best place to start. Also you can get alternative exam pieces which I quite like and are not in ‘exam’ books. My other half started playing again after 20yrs also and started playing some David Bowie.... enjoy playing again. I do love the piano

You can get collections of graded music. For example: www.musicroom.com/product-detail/product58634/variant58634/a-keyboard-anthology-second-series-book-iii-grade-5/

I used to play at Grade 8 level too (about a million years ago). When I started again I started with things I left off all those years ago.

One of the books I bought was www.musicroom.com/product-detail/product72264/variant72264/dmitri-kabalevsky-30-childrens-pieces-op-27/

Most of them were easy to play, but also very satisfying. I played them in between beating myself up with Beethoven sonatas...

I'll pop in to the music shop next time I'm in town (which won't be for a while), but in the meantime, thank you for the suggestions!

I'm going to order a couple of anthologies.

I'm also in the mood for something with really rich, warm (Romantic/Contemporary?) chords. Can anyone recommend anything like this at my level?

www.musicroom.com/product-detail/product1125171/variant1125171/more-grade-5-piano-solos/

Apologies for the long link. This is a lovely book. The Einaudi arrangement is really nice, along with the theme from Schindlers list, theres a Philip Glass that's quite easy but really nice and some classical pieces too.

whingey Lots of pieces are actually available on IMSLP since they are out of copyright.

Check out charity shops for old collections of exam pieces. Excellent for sight reading practice for all ages, too, very reasonably priced, donation to charity and recycling. Brilliant!

Brilliant, thanks guys! I've ordered a couple of those anthologies and now I realise I need to do some scales and stuff as well - my fingers just don't work like they used to

I wonder if they ever will if I don't have time for long daily practice like I used to.

I think about doing scales all the time but actually never do them. Just play the pieces slowly and it will come back to you.

When I started playing again after more than 20 years my teacher told me I had no strength in my wrists or fingers so more difficult pieces were physically beyond me.

Scales definitely helped as I got back into playing and once I'd got back up to G7 standard my teacher made me do Hanon exercises too (which I hated - in fact it was them that put me off trying for G8!).

For a bit of variety I did subscribe to The Pianist magazine for a year though and that had a selection of pieces at different levels in each issue.

I've lost my mojo again now, have stopped lessons and playing altogether again

No! Come join us on the chat thread and play again!

I second getting The Pianist magazine!