While the Australian Music Examinations Board  (AMEB) releases music books for each grade level whenever they update their exam syllabuses, there is a wealth of other great pieces listed permanently in the syllabus under the “Manual List”.
Remember that the exam books for each grade only feature around three pieces for each list, with the manual list containing scores of other great options. While it’s easy to get into the habit of just buying the current exam book for a student, exploring the manual list can be a really rewarding experience.
Which pieces are the best?
Sure, you’ll need to set aside some time to find out what’s available, but this is all great professional development. Teaching new music will keep you and your students more inspired and motivated than just doing the same thing year after year.
There are, of course, two problems with using pieces from the Manual List:
Knowing which pieces are the best to use
Knowing which books to find the pieces in
For parents, the second problem is often the most relevant: they want to buy as few books as possible and get the most mileage out of them! It’s great therefore knowing which books have pieces that span a number of grades so students can use them in future years. Similarly, you want books that include more than one piece so parents get ‘bang for their buck’.
What are the best books for manual list pieces?
While I’ve previously given my own suggestions about the best manual list suggestions in my posts Best of the AMEB Manual List – Level 1 and Best of the AMEB Manual List Level 2, (see comments for other readers’ suggestions), I’ve got a link to another great resource for Australian teachers using the AMEB exam system.
A couple of issues back, The Piano Teacher Magazine, produced by Hal Leonard Australia, featured a double-page spread of books which feature works from the “Manual List” of AMEB exams. Each title shows which grades of manual list pieces are found inside. Many have multiple grades spanning a wide range of exams.
This is a great resource for teachers looking for the most cost-effective way to start using non-list pieces.Â
What are your favourite pieces from the AMEB manual list? Here are a few of mine:
Grade 2: Bartok – Gypsy Dance – LIST C (this is my all-time Grade 2 favourite. Boys love it)
Gade 4: Heller – the etudes are great and the B Minor No 11 is only 1 page! – LIST A
Grade 4: Shostakovich – Clockwork Doll – excellent as program music, fun for kids – LIST C
Grade 6: Norton – Preludes II and V – LIST D
Grade 7 – Beethoven – C Minor Sonata 3rd mvt – LIST B
Get Unlimited Piano Sheet Music Copies with Studio Licences
by Tim Topham
Studio Licensing: legal music copying I’ve written before about my frustration with the restrictive and outdated copyright laws generally favoured by the big music publishers (see Finally! Digital piano sheet music copyright is starting to make sense), so I was excited to read my friend and colleague, Australian teacher, presenter and composer Daniel McFarlane of ... Get Unlimited Piano Sheet Music Copies with Studio Licences
CPTP167: 100% summer retention with Music Alive and Clinton Pratt
by Tim Topham
Have you ever wanted to do something a bit different for one of your recitals? What if you could also increase summer retention rates while you’re at it? That’s exactly what Clinton Pratt has done with his Music Alive concerts. Clinton holds these unique visual media concerts at the end of every summer and students ... CPTP167: 100% summer retention with Music Alive and Clinton Pratt
Preparing for Piano General Knowledge: Questions parents can ask their children.
by Tim Topham
Students need all the help they can get! Parents are probably one of the best resources for assisting students to prepare for the general knowledge section of their practical examinations. This section of the exam, also called “Musical Knowledge” (Trinity) or Viva Voce for some exam boards, is an important component of the practical examination, ... Preparing for Piano General Knowledge: Questions parents can ask their children.
How to Teach a Pop Song with No Music [Repertoire Rap #3]
by Tim Topham
Connect on Facebook Share Powered by the Simple Social Press Hi again, everyone. It’s Tim Topham here with another Facebook live repertoire rap. These are my overviews of some of the stuff that I’m doing with my students in regard to music that they want to learn and some of the best books that are ... How to Teach a Pop Song with No Music [Repertoire Rap #3]
Best Student Duets with Just 5-fingers from Diabelli
by Tim Topham
If you haven’t yet introduced the duets of Anton Diabelli to your teaching studio, you are missing out on some of the best student duets for beginner and intermediate students. In fact, as long as students can read a 5-finger position in C Major, they can at least play the first couple of these pieces. ... Best Student Duets with Just 5-fingers from Diabelli
Tim Topham is the founder and director of TopMusic. Tim hosts the popular Integrated Music Teaching Podcast, blogs regularly at topmusic.co and speaks at local and international conferences on topics such as integrated teaching, creativity, business, marketing and entrepreneurship. Tim has been featured in American Music Teacher, The Piano Teacher Magazine, California Music Teacher and EPTA Piano Professional. Tim holds an MBA in Educational Leadership, BMus, DipEd and AMusA.
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service. You can change your settings from the cookie declaration page.
Functional cookies
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Share