I’m sharing my second recording of a ABRMS grade 1 piece 😱 titled Sneaky Business by Martha Mier. My tutor gave me this as my second piece to learn. This is from Jazz, Rags & Blues, Book 1 and is part of the ABRSM 2023 & 2024 Piano Grade 1 syllabus.
Again it’s by no means a polished performance but happy with the progress and will continue to work on it but also move on to other piece.
The Journey
The piece introduced me to a couple of new concepts:
- Staccato. From what I understand, it’s a way of playing notes detached. Staccato notes are represented with a dot under them. It’s sounds easy but I struggled to get the timing right and making it sound like it’s supposed to. I’m definately missing out on some of the dynamics in this performance.
- Crescendo. When the dynamic/volume of the piece increases (from bar 25)
Challenges
The main challenges I encountered were:
- Still my limited ability to read music
- Implementing the dynamics effectively
- Coordinating hands together, especially holding notes in the right hand and playing random Staccatos, and in both hands and different places in the piece.
- Slightly quicker tempo than the previous Allegretto in C peice
Reflection
Very different piece with new concepts and a slightly more fun peice to play. I still have work to do on certain sections, but as with the previous piece, I’m happy enough with my progress to move on to other pieces while continuing to refine this.
For those interested in learning this piece, you can find the sheet music on MuseScore.
What’s Next?
I’m moving on to another piece from the ABRSM Grade 1 syllabus titled Fresh Air from Andrew Eales. I will continue to keep coming back to Sneaky Business to make the overall performance more polished.