THE MAESTRO ONLINE
Grade 4 Piano Exam
Play rock & pop songs on the piano the way that you want to.
Level 2 Certificate £57.00 GBP
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Grade 4 Popular Piano Songs
For this exam you need to play four pieces.
At this level, there’s a minimum of 1 verse, 1 chorus & a creative final section.
The creative final section might include melodic embellishments, licks or similar. There might be some harmonic development too if the candidate wishes.
- One Traditional Rock & Pop piece from the syllabus list,
- Two pieces from after 2000 from the syllabus list,
- One of your choice.
Songs can be transposed during the purchase process to utilise an appropriate key for this grade.
Traditional Rock & Pop
Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)
Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison)
Walking on Sunshine (Katrina & The Waves)
You Really Got Me (The Kinks)
Stand by Me (Ben E King)
YMCA (Village People)
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (Wham)
Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams)
Proud Mary (Credence Clearwater/Tina Turner)
Tutti Frutti (Little Richard)
You've Got a Friend (Carole King)
Axel F Crazy Frog (Beverly Hills Cop)
Mamma Mia (Abba)
Hey Big Spender (Shirley Bassey)
A Different Corner (George Michael)
House of the Rising Sun (Animals)
Another One Bites the Dust (Queen)
Time of My Life (Bill Medley - Dirty Dancing)
Michelle (Beatles)
I’m Still Standing - Grade 4 version (Elton John) in Sing and Rocket Man
Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler)
Simpsons (Danny Elfman)
I Can See Clearly Now (Jimmy Cliffe)
Don't Play that Song for Me (Aretha Franklin)
2000 Onwards
My Universe (Coldplay featuring BTS)
Here Comes the Hot Stepper (Ini Kamoze)
Rush E (Sheet Music Boss)
Perfect (Ed Sheeran)
A Little Bit of Love (Tom Grennan)
Bad Habits (Ed Sheeran)
Rasputin (Boney M)
Clocks (Coldplay)
Love me Like You Do (Ellie Goulding)
Stay with Me (Sam Smith)
Space Man (Sam Ryder)
All of Me (John Legend)
Rockaby Baby (Clean Bandit)
Here I Am - Singing my Way Home (Jennifer Hudson, RESPECT Movie)
Fallin' (Alicia Keys)
Little Voice (Sara Bereilles from the Apple TV Series)
Hey Laura (Gregory Porter)
Riptide (Vance Joy)
Lovely (Billy Eilish and Khalad)
Uptown Funk (Bruno Mars)
Shut up and Dance (Walk the Moon)
Dance the Night (Dua Lipa - Barbie Movie)
Come and Get Your Love (Redbone, Guardian of the Galaxies 1)
Hold My Hand (Lady Gaga, Top Gun Maverick)
Forget Me (Lewis Capaldi)
Die For You (The Weeknd)
Budapest (George Ezra)
You Are the Reason (Calum Scott and Leona Lewis)
Footloose (Footloose Movie Theme)
Before You Go (Lewis Capaldi)
Girls Like You (Snow Patrol)
Pencil full of Lead (Paolo Nutini)
Dandelions (Ruth B)
Undiscovered (James Morrison)
What Can I Say (Boz Scaggs)
Anywhere Away from Here (Rag'n Bone Man)
Own Choice
Own choice pieces should be of a similar level of difficult. The Grade Parameters can be found below. It's not expected that your piece will meet every aspect within the table, but it serves as a general guide as to the standard required.
Trad Rock & Pop Playlist
2000 Onwards Playlist
How to choose your Own Choice Piece
How Your Pieces are Marked
Learn piano, refine & shine
Excel with Our
Celebrity Grade 4
Piano Practice Toolkit
We want all pianists who love popular music to progress and achieve and be recognised by offering access to high quality and affordable music exams with international level supporting materials on our innovative online platform.
In order to really succeed in piano exams, we need to practice. Practising can seem boring, but NOT HERE! Here you will find a range of resources that will help you become the pop musician that you’ve always wanted to be.
Rhythm Backing Tracks
Support your fluency, improvise in time in 3/4 and 4/4 with tracks created by our Masterclass Tutors Marcus Brown (Madonna and more) and Nicky Brown (legendary producer & BBC).
Tracks:
- 4/4 Rock
- 3/4 Time
- 6/8 Time
- New York Loop
- Slow Funky Loop
- Slow Drive Loop
- Pop Loop
- Detroit Loop
- Ballad Loop
Scale & Key Fun
At Debut level C, F and G Majors were your priority. At Grade 1 level, D and Bb Majors are also a key focus. At Grade 2, A and Eb Majors are added, along with relative minor keys too.
At Grade 3 and Grade 4, E and Ab Majors are added, along with their relative minors.
These tracks have been created exclusively by Andrew Sparham, our Guitar Tutor.
Interactive step-by-step tracks in C, F, G, D, E, A, Bb, Eb, and Ab Majors helping you start with just one note per key, then 2 notes, “add it and nail it” without feeling overwhelmed.
Bonus Masterclass – Add it and Nail It method by Mick Donnelly (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Robbie Williams & more)
Multi-style backing tracks in C, F, G, D, A, E, Bb, Eb and Ab Majors (plus Mixolydian, and relative natural minors and harmonic minor in Am, Dm, Em, Bm, F#m, Gm, Cm, C#m and Fm) in different styles to support your concept of key and improvisation. There are also tracks with the bass removed so that you can develop your LH and RH separately:
- Pop (Pentatonic/Major)
- Soft Rock (Mixolydian)
- Reggae (harmonic minor)
- Funk (natural minor)
Song Style Backing Tracks
These are chord progression tracks inspired by songs from the Grade 4 syllabus to help develop your improvisation.
- YMCA
- Walking on Sunshine
- Summer of 69
- I Can See Clearly Now
- Love Me Like You Do
- Mamma Mia
- Bad Habits
Exclusive Pro Tips
EXCLUSIVE Improvisation lessons, tips, tracks, teaching techniques from World-Class Masterclass Tutors, including pianists who played on some of the original pop songs, interesting anecdotes, professional piano player insights, and session musician perspectives. For Grade 4 tracks by international level pianists include:
- Move to the Groove (Richard Michael BEM)
- 1 Note Improv
- 1 Chord Improv
- Establishing 4/4 time (Nicky Brown, Legendary Producer)
- Beats 1 & 3 (Nicky Brown)
- The 3 Note Groove (Richard Michael BEM)
- What Goes Up Must Go Down (Richard Michael BEM)
- Shift the Lick (Richard Michael BEM)
- Same Progression, Different Grooves (Nicky Brown)
- Rhythm as Your Hook (Nicky Brown)
- “House of the Rising Sun” LH arpeggio lesson
- “YMCA” pentatonic scale connections lesson
- “Pretty Woman” 7th chords demo
- “Stand by Me” Shift the Lick lesson
- “Stand by Me” The Maestro Online improv
- “Stand by Me” chord progression (Amelia Coburn)
- “Stand by Me” advanced improv (Bazil Meade MBE)
- “Don’t Play that Song for Me” (Bazil Meade MBE)
- “I Can See Clearly Now” ending demonstration (Bazil Meade MBE)
- “I Can See Clearly Now” complete (Bazil Meade MBE)
- “Clocks” exploration (Marcus Brown)
- Original Artist: 17 minute exclusive on “Undiscovered” (James Morrison) by Marcus Brown who created & played the original piano track for this song
Self-Study piano curriculum
Pop Piano Courses & Masterclasses
There’s a wide range of supporting resources on The Maestro Online platform to help you learn and polish your performances.
- The Maestro Online Curriculum Self-Study Courses enable you to play by ear, take you through all keys, use famous melodic snippets, teach you harmony and help you develop piano textures.
- Celebrity Self-Study Masterclasses enable you to truly polish your piano playing by learning with musicians who have performed and toured globally that you simply won’t find local to you.
wHAT TO eXPECT
Grade 4 Popular Piano Exam
There is no requirement to play from the notation, but links are provided as an indication of the level of difficulty required.
All Piano Students
At Grade 4, the textures required are more pianistic, such as more developed LH arpeggios, crotchet 3s against 2s, and LH syncopation developing. Players are encouraged to create their own introductions and endings as well as embellishing the piece in order to gain extra marks. Players are encouraged to play a final section in their own way if they feel comfortable doing so.
A full range of major, minor and pentatonic scales might influence melodic decorations as introducing licks will become more common, as well as a great variety in dynamics.
Chords with notes outside of the key will occur such as secondary dominants or chromatic chords.
The structure will be minimum of one verse, one chorus and a creative final section.
Piano Students who Read Notation
Scores will typically include up to four sharps or flats in the key signature. All note lengths are possible including triplets and duplets, with syncopation becoming more common.
Songs may be performed in any key and can be transposed during the purchase process to be appropriate for a learner at this grade.
Piano Students who Play by Ear
Ready to Shine?
Time to Take Your
Pop Piano Exam
Relax, breathe and let it all flow!
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