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[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I83REb675dxM1K5m-qMJuQYjFyVAE6e4/view?usp=drivesdk[/img][img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GfkJMjpgBdQsEmalIp7o2i0SgZhsXG1W/view?usp=drivesdk[/img]

What grade level do you think this piece is? If you already know don’t post. I’m trying to see what an unbiased thought it. Thanks.

RCM or ABRSM?

I would say 4-5 RCM.

I’m horrible at this, but I’ll embarrass myself by playing: Grade 3-4

Neither

That's something I would have played when I was in grade 5 or 6 in elementary school. I don't know anything about these so called music grades however.

In that case, it has to be Grade 3.

LOL, my answer was "This isn't a graded piece."

Why is this relevant?
What difference does it make?

This looks like an arrangement of a pop song or video game music.

The arrangement doesn't look very inspiring. The left hand is pretty dull (like the Alfred book, but the single repeated notes are especially lame) but the right hand does need some skill.

It's beyond my current skills, but it does not look like a difficult piece and IMHO it is not a piece that "deserves" any kind of grade... it's like a lame arrangement of a pop piece.

What does it matter what grade level someone says it is?

If you want to play it, try it. If it's too difficult for you, you'll soon find out. If not, then play it.

Regards,

The complicated rhythm alone would make this grade 8 or 9. This particular arrangement is not very "pianistic," so the awkward sections would make it more like 9. Good luck trying to voice the melody.

I guess third grade.

RCM has a pop syllabus where those types of pieces are graded and you can substitute a pop selection for one study - don't know if that piece is on it though.

The piece is the theme to the James Bond movie 'Skyfall.' It was sung by Adele (she and a collaborator wrote the music and lyrics). The original piece would have been written to last several minutes and for an orchestra--as I recall from the movie, which, by the way, was great. The piece as cited in the OP would be an arrangement.

The OP gave two links to a page each. The first page looks fairly straightforward, with the most complicated aspect being some syncopation. The second page gets more complicated with, as AZN pointed out, a complex rhythm and additional voices. If a piece is "graded" according to its most difficult measures or phrases or section then, yeah, this piece (imo) would be up in the grade 8 or so level.

Thank you everyone for contributing your thoughts. The reason I am asking about this piece is that it seems much more difficult than I would have anticipated it to be. I am utilizing the rock school piano training which has a syllabus very similar to the other piano universities. The biggest difference is that they use more modern songs. I prefer that. When I started going through their syllabi, grade one was very basic and I got through it in a few weeks, grade 2 was still easy but a little challenging and it took about two months to go through, now I am on grade 3. Skyfall was my first choice of song to play. I am about 75% of the way through this song and it has taken a couple weeks. I have placed a lot of time and effort to try to master this song. I feel that there was a huge huge jump between the level to music and now the level III. From what it seems like that this piece is somewhat difficult when looking at it from somebody who just came from grade 2.Hearing that comforts me to some degree. I looked at this piece with a lot of discouragement thinking that maybe I rushed through grade one and two but it seems like this piece is challenging and I should not give up and go back but rather keep focusing on this work. Thanks again

Pilotryan, do you have any idea of how the Rock school grading system compares to the other, more traditional systems such as RCM, ABRSM, Trinity, etc.? How many grades does Rock school have?

I didn't respond to this thread but I actually googled if there was any grading for Skyfall so I saw this piece listed in the "Rockschool grade 3" book.

However, if you look on the youtube videos, they show a different (and simpler) arrangement than what is show in the OP.

This one for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N4ir69cEpk

Is there more to this than meets the ear? I had to stop listening after two minutes of the same repetitive chords going nowhere.

Regards,

Yes I have seen that as well. That is really the confusing part. The piece that was in the old soul of S of Skyfall was a nice gradual stuff up from grade 2 to grade 3 but the version of Skyfall in the new syllabus seems like a huge jump. I’m just trying to see if that thought is accurate or if it really is a grade 3 piece