For the past eighteen months I’ve been working with the music examination board RSL Awards. RSL are renowned for their rock and pop exams known as Rockschool. This arm of their work is popular the world over but probably less known is their classical exam syllabus. They published the classical piano exam syllabus in 2020 and it’s going from strength to strength, becoming increasingly sought-after at various music schools especially in the Far East.

I’ve collaborated with RSL on various presentations where I work in Asia, and teachers have responded well to this new and varied syllabus, and I’m looking forward to future collaborations further afield. For those seeking a syllabus with plenty of ‘own-choice’ options alongside carefully constructed technical tests including a wider selection than those offered by other examination boards, then RSL certainly delivers on all fronts.

RSL Awards have chosen to implement my two most popular series as part of their classical piano syllabus: the three-book Play it again: PIANO and three-book Women Composers – A Graded Anthology For Piano (both published by Schott). Every piece within each book has been graded appropriately and teachers can select any piece as an ‘own-choice’ option for students, from the Debut grade right through to diploma level. You can find out more about these new options by clicking here, and download the PDF file with all the grading information here:

RSL Classical Piano Syllabus Graded Repertoire

It’s an exciting development and proves the increasing popularity of my books. I also notice this during my tours, where teachers are now consistently using Play it again: PIANO with their younger students as part of their studio curriculum, as opposed to only using it with adult returners, which was the original target audience. Stay tuned for a new book in this series to be published early next year.

Find out more by clicking on the links below:

Play it again: PIANO

Women Composers – A Graded Anthology For Piano

www.rslawards.com