Grading Pop Pieces

[ryno200sx]

How do you grade a piece of "popular" music? By popular I mean modern, non-classical pieces from artists like Alicia Keys, John Legend, Stevie Wonder or even Vince Guararldi (Peanuts).

Is there a website or resource for grading these pieces or do you have to analyze it on a piece by piece basis?

Thanks,
Ryan

[rebel1ns]

grade? i know the piano beat on john legend's "ordinary people" can easily be played..and some alicia keys stuff as well

[ryno200sx]

When I say "grade" I mean the system by which the difficulty level of a piece is assessed. I believe there are a couple of organizations that do this, but my understanding is that it is only for classical pieces. I'm not sure if they do "pop" music (I hate the expression "pop" music )
Anyway, thanks for the reply-hopefully someone will shed some light on this for us.

Thanks,
Ryan

[thierry13]

Well nobody loose time to put grade on "pop" pieces, but they would be all around grade 4 maximum lol. ( sure, there are exception).

[abell88]

The RCM (Royal Conservatory of Music, in Canada) allows students in certain grades to substitute pop pieces for one of their studies in their exams. If you go to rcmexaminations.org and look around, you will find the Popular Selections list.

Note that RCM grades do not correlate with ABRSM grades; we have more grades (in Canada). Examples of a few well known pieces and their RCM grade levels: Bach (actually Petzold (sp?)) Minuet in G Grade 3; Fur Elise (complete) Grade 7; Mozart Sonta Facile Grade 8, most Chopin Etudes Grade 10 or ARCT (depending).

Hope this helps!

[thierry13]

  The RCM system suck! What are they thinking für elise grade 7, and bach's menuet grade 3  Some chopin etudes grade 10 or ARCT OK, but not all!  They are overraking pieces too much. I understand now how a friend of mine did is ARCT at 12 years old 

[abell88]

Thank you for your considered comments, thierry. I did not have a syllabus in front of me, so I just gave some examples off the top of my head. I do not know that all Chopin etudes are Grade 10 or ARCT. I was merely attempting to offer some help.

[mglab]

The grading systems do not "suck" as they were never meant to go into advanced pieces. They're supposed to guide beginners to late intermediate/early advanced.

[thierry13]

Thank you for your considered comments, thierry. I did not have a syllabus in front of me, so I just gave some examples off the top of my head. I do not know that all Chopin etudes are Grade 10 or ARCT. I was merely attempting to offer some help.

I were not reconsidering or attacking you, just the sytem itself. Don't feel attacked, i wasn't comenting what you said directly.

[abell88]

Okay, no problem...