I’m sharing my first recording of a ABRMS grade 1 piece 😱 titled Allegretto in C by Anton Diabelli. My tutor gave me this as my first piece. This is “No. 3 from Die ersten 12 Lectionen, Op. 125” and is part of the ABRSM 2023 & 2024 Piano Grade 1 syllabus. I’m not sure if it’s in this years 2025 syllabus?

It’s by no means a polished performance but I felt it’s good enough to move on to other pieces now. I’ve probably spent about 10 hours on this piece and played 100+ times.

The Journey

What makes this piece challenging yet rewarding is that it was the first piece I had learnt entirely from sheet music. Before starting my piano lessons with Roger, I had never read sheet music!

The piece introduced me to several new concepts:

  • Reading sheet music for the first time
  • Alberti bass pattern in the left hand (still working on this)
  • Coordinating hands together with different patterns
  • Understanding and implementing dynamics (still working on this)

Challenges

The main challenges I encountered were:

  • Reading it!
  • The Alberti bass pattern (Bars 17-21)
  • Implementing the dynamics effectively
  • Coordinating hands together, especially with the different patterns

Reflection

Looking back, this was an excellent piece to start with. While I still have work to do on certain sections, particularly the Alberti bass sections and dynamics, I’m happy enough with my progress to move on to other pieces while continuing to refine this one.

For those interested in learning this piece, you can find the sheet music on MuseScore.

Note: If you spotted the repeat markers and wondered why I didn’t play them, it’s because for the ABRSM Grade 1, you’re not expected to play them. However, during practice I did play them occasionally to get used to the idea.

What’s Next?

I’m moving on to another piece from the ABRSM Grade 1 syllabus titled Sneaky Business from Jazz, Rags & Blues, Book 1 by Martha Mier.

I will continue to keep coming back to Allegretto in C, particularly to focus on:

  • Smoothing out the Alberti bass sections
  • Adding more dynamic contrast
  • Making the overall performance more polished
That's a wrap. Spotted something incorrect? Let me know! You can comment below, create an issue on the GitHub repository or best of all, make a pull request.