What is the graded system for? Is it similar to anything else you get graded on (martial arts)..acting as a gauge of the level you are at?

How many grades are there? How long does it "usually" take to progress through them?

I am asking because I take lessons but just for fun, I was thinking, if there was any beneficial reason at my stage in life (college student) I would run through and be graded (or however it works). Thanks for any info!

If you are only interested in learning to play pieces that you like, I would not bother with grades.

It all depends on what you ultimate "piano" goal is. There will be a lot of junk that you will be required to learn for grades. It's good junk, but not all needed, if you are only trying to please yourself.

Decide where your piano future is going.

I'm also a Uni student taking piano lessons for fun, but my teacher advised me to take the grade exams.
It's supposed to help me assess my progress...besides, I want to be able to say "I'm a grade 8 pianist"

If I may piggyback on the original question, is there a Piano Grades 101 or wiki that discusses what exactly this is all about? I've seen it mentioned here or there, but I don't even know enough about it to ask an intelligent question.

im doing my grade 6 exam after 1 year of piano.

my teacher say, the first 7 is easy. The hard stuff comes at 8 and after.

I'd be happy to see what's going on with grades too We (I suppose?) don't have them in Europe. What I'm most curious about is what pieces are assigned to what level, to look where I am currently


M.

Pretty good discussion here posted a few months ago.

Didn't see the answer to the question in that discussion, Mark.

Let's make it easier. Fill in the blanks.

The purpose of the grading system is ________.
The benefits of the grading system is _________.

When people say, I'm a grade __, I haven't a clue what that means or why they said it.

I also am often confused about what people really mean when they say they play at a particular grade level.

I recently purchased a set of music books called “Progressive Repertoire”, published by Carl Fischer. Each of the six volumes is identified by a level number. Each volume comes with a CD, so you can listen to the pieces being properly played. I purchased them from Amazon.com. According to the publisher, this set of books is based on publications of the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB). So I assume that the level numbers on each volume correspond to some official grading system in Australia. Although I don’t live in Australia, this set of books satisfied my curiosity about exactly what kind of pieces are representative of various level or grade numbers.

Here in USA, I often see grade numbers marked on method books, usually on the ones that are designed for children. At one time I thought that it was equivalent to the elementary school grading system. So, a child in third grade elementary school who was in their official piano class should be studying from a Grade 3 book. Then I met an elementary school teacher, who also taught piano, who said there was simply no correlation between piano book grade levels and elementary school grades. According to her few elementary school systems in the USA even have an official piano curriculum, never mind a grading system. Also, she claimed that the grade numbers in books from one particular publisher were not equivalent in actual playing level to the same grade numbers from another publisher. According to her, each publisher makes up their own grade level system. So in effect, when someone says that they have a playing ability of Grade 3 (for example), it doesn’t really mean anything absolute, although I am still impressed because it probably means that they play better than me.

I’m not particularly hung up on this question, but I must admit I am curious if there is an official grading system here in USA?