For most people the easiest way to describe what level they’re at is to refer to what grade they’ve passed. But often having passed a certain grade doesn’t necessarily tell you everything about what piano skill they have.

Some may have intermediate playing skill cultivated through exploring music that they enjoy (often not classical music, in my piano studio!), hence reading skill may need a little catching up to do. Hence, in taking a music exam, they may go for a lower grade to be able to prepare everything properly. But this will help them progress further and acquire extra skills that weren’t focused before.

So, in my teaching I tend not to use grade levels to define playing skill levels that my students are at. Having said that, those who haven’t done the music exam before often ask me what grade they are at because they’re surrounded by friends who have done the grade.

To be able to give them some reference, I put together a table to describe their playing skill levels in relation to grade levels.

Early elementary Beginner
Elementary Late beginner
Late elementary Grade 1
Early intermediate Grade 2
Intermediate Grade 3-4
Late intermediate Grade 5-6
Early advanced Grade 7-8
Advanced Diploma onwards

There’re various skills coming together to be able to play music:

  • Listening skill
  • Technical skill
  • Playing (musically) skill
  • Reading skill (if your practice requires it)

Depending on each individual’s ability, how they progress is all different but the order of learning how to play music should be a natural one just like how you learned to speak your own language to communicate with people; attentive listening to the sound around you and learn to play tunes by ear/rote, followed by reading to gain further knowledge, internalising the music you play with attentive listening and analysing for better understanding and communicating, followed by writing to tell stories.

In my view, the most important skill in music learning is to cultivate the sensitive ear to listen for the details to be expressed in your playing; be it, a steady pulse, dynamic shaping, phrasing, balance between the hands (for pianists), etc. At appropriate point, reading and also technical study should be introduced. I normally introduce finger exercises as soon as learners can play a couple of tunes with ease. I’ve put together some finger exercises I give to my students before introducing Hanon exercises, which are, to my surprise, quite popular amongst all age groups. You can read more about above mentioned finger exercises here.

Technical development plays a great part in progressing as musicians to be able to reflect what they wish to express in their musical performances. Maintaining the balance between technical development and musical development isn’t always an easy one. But with a focused mind and paying attention to the details, you can achieve quite a bit!

Happy playing!