UPDATE: Please visit this post for the latest 2022 RCM Piano Syllabus version.
I recently finished creating a new set of technique charts for the RCM’s new 2015 Piano Syllabus.
Here is the backstory.
Over the past few years, I have entered a handful of piano students to take assessments through the Royal Conservatory of Music, an excellent program originating in Canada and becoming more popular in the United States. I appreciate the thoroughness of the assessments, which require students to perform a set of pieces ranging in musical styles and to demonstrate musicianship skills (sight-reading, ear training, rhythm exercises, etc.). The levels outlined in the syllabus (find the free PDF here) are soundly structured and have been refined over time by dedicated pedagogues in our field. RCM is also known for the quality and consistency of the adjudicating across the continent. RCM is not a competition; it is a standard that allows students and parents to better understand and track progress during music study.
Every seven years, the RCM piano syllabus is revised to incorporate new repertoire, eliminate repertoire that is no longer readily available, and refine the musicianship and technical requirements. 2015 marks a revision year, which means RCM teachers are seeking to learn about the updates and changes compared to the previous 2008 syllabus.
RCM’s non-profit publishing company, Frederick Harris, publishes a variety of wonderful books to aid students in preparing for assessments (most notably, the piano literature books known as the Celebration Series).
Books are also available containing the notated technical requirements for each level; however, I personally prefer to teach scales/arpeggios/chords by rote rather than through having students read the notation. But it can be cumbersome to write out the RCM technical requirements on students’ assignment sheets each week–especially if you expect students to review all previous material.
So, a few years ago I released a free printable containing charts of the technical requirements for each level according to the 2008 piano syllabus. These charts have proved to be incredibly helpful to ensure that my students are learning and reviewing all of the required technical work. I’m happy to announce today that new charts are available below for the new 2015 piano syllabus. Even if you have no intention of sending students to RCM assessments, you might find these charts useful.
I keep this PDF uploaded on my iPad (use iBooks, GoodNotes, or any similar app of your choice) so I can print the appropriate charts wirelessly during lessons. Students take their chart to and from their lessons. As each item is mastered, we fill in each box with a checkmark or a sticker. The chart makes it easy to visually track progress.
Special thanks goes to fellow piano teachers Donna Gross Javel and Nancy DeHaven Hall for helping to proofread the charts against the 2015 syllabus.
Download:
2015 RCM Technical Requirements Charts for Piano (557.9 KiB, 29,427 hits)
Enjoy!
What a great idea! I might do the same for violin, if that’s ok. Thanks for posting 🙂
Of course, go ahead! 🙂
Wow! Joy, have done a lot of work to make these charts! Thank you for sharing with us. They will be very helpful to my piano students and myself!
Allen Long
You’re welcome! I’m glad you can use the charts.
Thank you for sharing your work! I teach in Germany but still this is very useful.
Holger Dix
Thank you so much for doing this again! I used the ones you made for the 2008 requirements and they were very helpful. Very much appreciated.
Joy – thank you so much for this! What a great help for all of us 🙂
Glad you can use the charts, Sheila!
Thank you so much.
Thank you SO much! I wasn’t sure if you would be updating your old ones to the new syllabus so I have been struggling through to try to create my own. Let me just say, your work is SO SO SO appreciated! You never know how difficult something is until you try to do it yourself — and end up doing it very badly! LOL
Your charts have been invaluable to me! Thank you so much for all the time and effort you’ve put in. And thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome, Tracey! 🙂
Thanks Joy. I always do these myself …. It’s nice to see them already done here! I usually end up doing several variations of each year, for as the students progress through their learning.
Thank you again for sharing.
You’re welcome, Colleen!
Thank you for these! Very helpful.
Thank you so much for your work on this! I passed this along to a friend/colleague, and she was VERY relieved that someone had done this already. 🙂
You just saved me SO MUCH WORK!!! I can’t thank you enough!
THANKS SO MUCH!! One question ~ how do I upload this to iBook?
Thank you so much for sharing your resources! How awesome! Any chance you are willing to share level 7?
All the levels are present in the free PDF download, Lauren!
Hi Joy,
These are very useful! Thank you for updating. I was wondering if you have made anything similar for the Ear Tests and Sight Reading portion of the exam? If not, perhaps this is a venture that I will take on and share with you over the next few months. Let me know!
Nefeli
Lazy bones question: What do you use to remember the fingering for the arpeggios (tonic 4-note, as well as dominant 7ths) in each hand. I have used mostly Pace pedagogy in my teaching, so our arpeggios often used finger 3 instead of 4. I do not own the level 7 Celebration technique book to reference the required fingering and I’m getting ready to FaceTime a student while I’m gone for 6 weeks. I can head over to the music store to look it up, too! LOL
Sorry, Dena — I don’t have those books on hand right now either!
Thanks, as always, for the wealth of teaching materials!
Does anyone know if there is a new 2015 teacher guide available?
Thanks! >^..^<
Kitty, do you mean a 2015 teacher guide for the Celebration Series? I don’t think there is one — at least, currently.
They are no longer publishing this resource. Instead you can sign up to be a certified teacher with the Royal Conservatory. Then you have access to a number of online resources have information equivalent to the Teacher Guides. (Or so we were told at the Workshop for the new series, I haven’t tried it.)
Thanks Joy. This is a very very useful pdf for my preparation for level 10. May I ask a stupid question about RCM technical requirements books? I can’t find such a book for level 10. And I do have some technical issues about how to accomplish some of them. Is there a book I can read about them? just like the one I used for my previous level tests, 6 and 8..?
Thank-you so much for this! I have been searching for a way of keeping my non-exam students up to their level in tech requirements and here it is! You rock!
Joy, wish I had Googled this first. I went to the trouble of making charts for all students at the assessment last year.
Also… didn’t realize that you did RCM. Maybe I just forgot!
I’m late finding it but what a God-send. I have been making these charts for years and know how time consuming it is. Thank you, thank you!!
You’re welcome, Pat!
Wonderful! Thank you for your hard work on this. I’m planning on recording some technical requirement videos for my studio’s YouTube channel. I will share when I have completed it.
Yes, please do, Rhona-Mae!
super helpful. thanks for sharing this with the rest of us!
This is awesome! Thank-you so much!
You’re welcome, Melissa!
OMGosh! Thank you so much for this! As a visual person, I really want a one-page spread showing everything for levels prep thru 10. But, in trying to create my own, I’ve found it quite unreadable and unwieldly. I may try again with even more simplifications, but your awesome spreads are good enough for now! So much appreciation coming your way!
You’re welcome, Kristen! If you ever manage to create a one-page spread, please let me know!! 😉
Hi Joy! Just discovered this chart! Will you be making a 2022 version?
Yes! It’s underway! 🙂
Update: The new 2022 charts can be found here: https://colorinmypiano.com/2022/07/19/freebie-technical-requirements-charts-for-rcms-2022-piano-syllabus/!