ABRSM conference

I attended this conference in Birmingham on 11 September. The sessions on the new piano syllabus were fascinating and gave us all a chance to listen to and learn more about the pieces set for the various grades. It was great to find out about the alternative pieces set as so often you don't get round to finding out, and yet some of the very best pieces for 2011-2013 can be found here. I shall definitely be teaching some of them! I also attended sessions on teaching sight-reading and aural and was delighted to discover that my ideas and techniques are exactly what the examiners at ABRSM recommend- using the music itself as a learning tool and not just attaching onto the end of lessons a quick bit of aural etc. I had a chance to rummage through some of the ABRSM music and purchased the new aural books that look much more exciting and interesting than some of the older ones. Plus I purchased some music set for some of the grade exams so that I'll have "alternative options" music to hand to play to students when we're deciding which pieces to learn. I'll definitely want to attend again.