Celebration Series - RCM

[sleepingcats]

Does anyone have any experience with the Royal Conservatory of Music's "Celebration Series"? I purchased their Piano Repertoire Book 3, and it seems fine, but wanted to find out other's opinions/experiences.

Two of the pieces in that book are ones I've learned already (Clementi Sonatina No. 1 and Beethoven Sonatine in G Major), but there's a variety of shorter pieces that I've been looking for that won't take 3+ months to learn. I already have 3 long pieces I'm working on, so I've been searching for some easier, 1-2 pages pieces to give me a sense of satisfaction when completed "sooner" since the longer ones will take me awhile.

My search before posting this came up with just 2 mentions of the series, but no in-depth information.

Thanks for your help!

[Vivers]

In Canada, nearly everyone who takes piano lessons uses that series. I think they're onto their 2nd 'Celebration Series.' Honestly, I really don't know what they're celebrating... and all of this 'the Piano Odyssey' thing... I don't know what's up with that. It makes me think of the Homer epic and sailing across the piano or something. All of the books from the RCM are nearly the same, perhaps a piece or two is different. (The Piano Odyssey books are the newest of the 'Celebration Series'' but when I was starting... about 10 years ago, they were just using the plain 'Celebration Series' which does not have strange art on the cover. Look on the inside cover to find descriptions of the art... some descriptions are quite entertaining. On the grade 10 study book, there is a painting with three horizontal stripes. Inside, it says that people have been brought to tears by this piece of art.) I'm getting off topic.

It's good that they've compiled music and put it all in books labelled by grade level so that people know kinda how they're progressing, but by no means limit yourself to the kind of stuff they have in there. Since it is Canadian, it has a bit of stuff by Boris Berlin, whose pieces were mainly composed for the purpose of providing beginners and intermediate players with a greater variety of Canadian music. I really like how the RCM books make a point of always including modern music. You'll notice that they've separated the pieces into 'lists' according to time period. It's quite a shame that lesser known modern music is often ignored.

If you're looking for extra information about the pieces in the book, you can buy their student guides, which will give you information about the composer, the 'story' behind the piece, etc. I've never bought one, and I've only met one person who owned one. You can also buy CDs with the pieces so you can listen to them and hear what the piece sounds like when all the right notes are played and all of the page's markings are followed to the letter. It's nothing spectacular or inspiring.

If you're looking for pieces of an approximate difficulty level, there is much more variety included in the 'Syllabus,' which you can buy separately. My teacher just has the syllabus and chooses pieces out of it because in Canada, the pieces in the books are always overplayed. The syllabus just lists a bunch of pieces that can be played for a certain grade level's exam, and a lot of the pieces are not included in the RCM repertoire books. It also includes stuff for ear tests, sight reading, and other guidelines that really wouldn't concern anyone who isn't doing their RCM exams. If you're happy with the kind of stuff in the repertoire and want to find more pieces of that approximate level, I would pick up the syllabus. But if you're not doing exams, I'm not sure how willing you'd be to pay $20 for a list of pieces.

There are also other books that Frederick Harris publishes at the advice of RCM. There are the study books, which offer additional pieces. These are almost always shorter, and while it's called a study book, most of the pieces in it aren't studies, but just shorter pieces perhaps with a concentration on some aspect of technique or expression. There is also the 'Harris Piano Classics' series, which are graded in the same way that the RCM ones are.

[sleepingcats]

Thank you so much for your reply - it has really helped!

I'll take a look at the Syllabus next time before I try to purchase any others. I'm not planning to take any RCM exams or anything, just trying to find sources for good music and a graded level. Music that has variety and has composers that are not as common.

Thanks!