AMEB Piano - Anyone selling AMEB books / can give advice for piano newb?

[kiki.]

Hi guys,
I've finally decided to take up piano again after graduating from high school. I'm wondering if anyone has any old series 15/16/17 books they are selling? I'm at preliminary level...heh. 

Also, how does one progress in AMEB levels? I'm not taking exams but following the syllabus. I'm currently using Alfred's all in one but seeing AMEB...there's no exercise books? Do you just play songs and scales in order to develop your technical skill? What other books did you use? All I know is the AMEB sheet music books and the master your music theory book.

Thanks!

[owidjaja]

Hi guys,
I've finally decided to take up piano again after graduating from high school. I'm wondering if anyone has any old series 15/16/17 books they are selling? I'm at preliminary level...heh. 

Also, how does one progress in AMEB levels? I'm not taking exams but following the syllabus. I'm currently using Alfred's all in one but seeing AMEB...there's no exercise books? Do you just play songs and scales in order to develop your technical skill? What other books did you use? All I know is the AMEB sheet music books and the master your music theory book.

Thanks!

Hey there,
The way AMEB works is that you are tested on your technical abilities (scales), performance (pieces), general knowledge and aural test. However, it depends on what syllabus you're following: are you going for classical or piano for leisure? Classical is a lot more intense in the sense that you're examined on more scales- you have you standard major/minor (including harmonic and melodic) scales and then you need to play those scales crescendo/diminuendo and staccato. On top of that, you have to prepare five pieces- you have three main pieces (you have to choose from List A, List B and List C) and the other two are your 'secondary' pieces- generally, these are preludes or are quite short. Pretty sure you have to do something else for your aural test but I don't remember it off the top of my head.

Piano for leisure, on the other hand, is less intense because it's 'for leisure'- you don't need to play extra scales and you only play three pieces. The pieces or more pop than classical, which makes them easy to learn. However, 'pop' in AMEB definitions includes a few movie soundtracks from Pink Panther, Titanic and Mission Impossible- no anime openings here lol. Also, the exams for piano for leisure is shorter than those who follow a classical syllabus. Your standard exam duration is approximately 30 minutes but the higher you go, it reaches up to 45 minutes. Classical route can go for an hour, I'm pretty sure.

As for theory, you learn using the theory workbook- you'll notice them straight away because the covers are really bright. Grade 1, I'm pretty sure, is the yellow book. Generally, you complete your theory workbook along with your prac lessons. For those who want to get a diploma, your theory level needs to be at minimum Grade 5. However, for those who play piano for fun, you're generally a few grades behind- for example, if you're up to Grade 6 in AMEB piano, your theory level is generally Grade 3. On top of that, whenever you finish a theory workbook, there's an exam you need to do- they used to do it in a hall but they've moved to online.

So yeah, depending on what syllabus you follow, there's generally a different purpose for each syllabus. Generally, those who invest a lot of time playing the piano or want to go professional follow the Classical syllabus. And by professional, I mean completing a Certificate of Performance and taking a degree in music. However, piano for leisure is more for those who don't have that much time to invest in practising- that doesn't mean playing the piano is easy! You start heading into eight-page pieces when you reach Grade 7 and 8- sonatas are the worst (heard fugues are also a nightmare). The highest grade in AMEB is Grade 8 but if you want to go further, you have a Certificate of Performance.

Hope this helps!

[kauac]

Hi guys,
I've finally decided to take up piano again after graduating from high school. I'm wondering if anyone has any old series 15/16/17 books they are selling? I'm at preliminary level...heh. 

Also, how does one progress in AMEB levels? I'm not taking exams but following the syllabus. I'm currently using Alfred's all in one but seeing AMEB...there's no exercise books? Do you just play songs and scales in order to develop your technical skill? What other books did you use? All I know is the AMEB sheet music books and the master your music theory book.

Thanks!

Hi...
I did the AMEB Piano for Leisure syllabus all the way through... Started off with the exams, but then mainly just worked through the pieces and other sections in the books (the exams became a big stressor for me and I found them a bit pointless since it was just a hobby).

So if you aren't doing the AMEB exams, the theory booklets aren't as crucial. I found that between working through sight reading (didn't really do many aural tests), scales, arpeggios as well as learning the new symbols that are introduced into the pieces, I grasped a great understanding of the theory side of things...

As for the types of pieces, there was pretty much a bit of everything... from classical to jazz and pops... Deciding which syllabus/books to use really depends on your interests, and how you want to approach it. Of course, since there are no exams, you could decide to use a mixture songs from different books/courses (I really enjoyed writing my own scores for my favourite music by listening to it  ) Then you can progress whenever you feel that you are confident and proficient at the level.   

[kiki.]

Thank you so much owidjaja and kauac! I've got a better idea of how to progress now.

[Caitlynk_22]

Thank you so much owidjaja and kauac! I've got a better idea of how to progress now.

Hia! Sorry a bit late, I have done piano for almost ten years now and up to Grade 5 AMEB Piano for Leisure. My mum forced me to do exams but let me not do them this year 'cause of the HSC but anyway. I enjoyed it except for the exams part!

If you have a teacher or someone who knows how to play piano (Or just youtube) you could get them to play the pieces through to see what you like. That's what my piano teacher does. It's all about the sound of the piece for me not the difficulty. I always enjoyed playing the pieces but hated the scales and theory + aural with a passion. Now, I only do the piano pieces and when I get it right it is in an amazing feeling! Just keep practising and you should get better. I believe in you!

[hums_student]

Hi guys,
I've finally decided to take up piano again after graduating from high school. I'm wondering if anyone has any old series 15/16/17 books they are selling? I'm at preliminary level...heh. 

Also, how does one progress in AMEB levels? I'm not taking exams but following the syllabus. I'm currently using Alfred's all in one but seeing AMEB...there's no exercise books? Do you just play songs and scales in order to develop your technical skill? What other books did you use? All I know is the AMEB sheet music books and the master your music theory book.

Hey there Just adding my 2 cents, if you're not taking exams then it's not necessary to follow exactly as the syllabus tells you to, just work on technical skills like scales (and maybe some Hanon?) as well as sight reading and aural, that way when you're learning to play a piece it becomes much easier. Also, this completely goes against what people learn in classical music, but I've always used guitar chords as a sight reading exercise. For non-classical musicians guitar chords come easily but for me it's an absolute nightmare. It really trains sight reading and also general music theory.

As for pieces, try all kinds of genres. Contemporary pop songs and some classical classical songs are generally a good place to start since they're (usually) just melodies built on repeating chords. Of course, choose whatever that interests you. Romantic / impressionist songs sound nice too.

On another note, you don't have to follow the AMEB levels and do them all in order one by one. When I did AMEB I just did the Grade 5 and Grade 8 exams (cos the exams are REALLY expensive). You can also skip Certificate of Performance and go straight onto AMusA if you want (and save on the ridiculous examination fees  )

Have fun! 

[RuiAce]

You can also skip Certificate of Performance and go straight onto AMusA if you want (and save on the ridiculous examination fees  )

I'm afraid I'm not too sure how I feel about this one :/

The exam fees are one thing, but the jump from 8th grade to the intensity that is the AMus is another. Back when I was doing 7th and in my early days of 8th grade I had thought about this as well, but it later hit me just how picky they're gonna be with that diploma (and consequently the dreaded 30% pass rate). Both 8th grade and CMus are inherently designed to ensure that pretty much anyone who tries will pass, yet AMus is examined in a way that's far more like CMus instead of the last grade.

At 8th grade, you're still doing the boring bundle of scales and (at least one of) sightreading+aural skills. But pieces wise? You're really just playing 4 and that's it. You're not pressured by time, and there's opportunity for your pieces to be short (most pieces that are not in list B can be played within 2.5-4 mins). On the other hand, if your repertoire for CMus/AMus is not within 25-35/30-40 min respectively you're penalised really severely, which is very bad for AMus. And you have to time your breaks appropriately as well.

That, and you have to adjust to just constantly playing. It's a different environment to what's set out in the grades. The amount of practice you really should be doing between the CMus and AMus level is already far enough, let alone 8th grade where you only had to juggle four pieces, none of which are full on sonatas.

Of course, the gamble is there and it's definitely known to pay off. But tbh, the only time this should be 'recommended' is really if someone's devotion/talent/willingness-to-practice/... far surpasses a usual student and they may as well have started on minimum 5th grade difficulty.

[hums_student]

The exam fees are one thing, but the jump from 8th grade to the intensity that is the AMus is another. Back when I was doing 7th and in my early days of 8th grade I had thought about this as well, but it later hit me just how picky they're gonna be with that diploma (and consequently the dreaded 30% pass rate). Both 8th grade and CMus are inherently designed to ensure that pretty much anyone who tries will pass, yet AMus is examined in a way that's far more like CMus instead of the last grade.

True true, the jump from grade 8 to AMus isn't usually recommended. When I did it I still technically did the CMus pieces and made sure I had them down and was confident with them before moving onto AMus. I didn't mean just skip the CMus syllabus completely and move on to AMus, it's just that the exam isn't 100% necessary.

On the other hand, if you're not as confident, then it's much better to just do CMus first rather than doing AMus multiple times. A guy at my school had to do AMus 3 times before he passed.