Practice ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces in the flowkey App
We've partnered with the UK's leading piano exam board. Explore 21 exam-ready arrangements and start practicing today.Matthew UnicombIf you're working towards an ABRSM piano exam, you've probably spent hours squinting at sheet music, trying to figure out if you're actually playing a passage correctly. Starting September 14, that gets easier: flowkey and ABRSM have teamed up to bring official ABRSM exam pieces into the flowkey app, where modern learning tools listen to you play and show you exactly where to improve.Here's what our new collaboration means, why ABRSM is one of the most respected organizations in music education, and which pieces you can start practicing right away.
What is ABRSM?
ABRSM stands for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. It's the organization behind the piano exams that most people in the UK (and countless pianists worldwide) grow up taking, from Grade 1 all the way to Grade 8 and beyond.ABRSM isn't a school itself. It's an exam board and a registered charity. It writes the syllabuses, sets the pieces, sends examiners to assess students, and publishes the sheet music and books that teachers use every day. Any surplus money it makes goes back into music education projects.Today, ABRSM runs exams in more than 90 countries, with over 600,000 people taking an exam each year. That makes it one of the most widely recognized music qualifications in the world.
ABRSM: Structured piano learning
For a lot of pianists, ABRSM grades are the backbone of learning the instrument. A few reasons why:- A clear sense of progress. Instead of vaguely feeling like you're "getting better," you have a grade, a syllabus, and a pass mark to aim for.
- Structured, well-chosen repertoire. Each grade's syllabus is split into three lists — A, B, and C — covering different styles and eras. Candidates pick one piece from each list, so by the time you've done a few grades, you've been introduced to a genuinely broad range of music, not just the songs you already liked.
- Recognition that travels. An ABRSM grade means roughly the same thing whether you took the exam in London, Singapore, or Berlin. That's useful if you ever want proof of your level for a school application, a teaching job, or just your own record.
- A bridge between lessons and exams. Most learners have a piano teacher guiding them week to week, but the hours in between lessons — where you're actually meant to practice — are where a lot of exam prep falls apart. That's where flowkey's collaboration with ABRSM is aimed.
The flowkey x ABRSM collaboration: What's new?
For the first time ever, flowkey and ABRSM have taken official exam pieces from the ABRSM Piano Syllabus and built them into flowkey's practice tools. So instead of just reading the notation and hoping for the best, you can now practice your actual exam pieces with:- Real-time feedback: flowkey listens while you play and follows along with the score, so you can see immediately if you've hit a wrong note.
- Slow Mode: Drop the tempo down while you're learning a tricky passage, then build back up to full speed.
- Looping: Repeat any section over and over until it actually feels natural, instead of restarting the whole piece each time.
- Hand separation: Practice your left and right hand parts on their own before putting them together.
Which ABRSM pieces are available in flowkey?
From a traditional Namibian folk song and a Haydn symphony movement to contemporary pieces by composers like Nahre Sol and Gwilym Simcock, so there's something for whichever grade you're working towards.Here's a look at the exam pieces launching in flowkey, grouped by grade:Initial Grade- Trad. Namibian – Halima pakasholo
- Ailie Robertson – Busy, Buzzy Bumblebee
- Louise Drewett – The Manta Ray
- Dani Howard – Why Me?
- Queen Lili'uokalani – Aloha 'oe
- Joseph Haydn – Andante (2nd movement from Symphony No. 94 in G, "The Surprise")
- George Dyson – Lullaby (No. 6 from 12 Easy Pieces in Various Styles)
- Trad. Scottish – My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
- Santosh Baynes – The Voyager
- Tamara Niekludow – Monkey Mischief
- Trad. Japanese – Takeda Lullaby
- Sebastian Ooi Wei Chern – Sneaky Surprise
- Nikki Yeoh – Park Daze
- Zoe Dixon – Song Without Words
- Nahre Sol – Optimistic Waltz
- Alexandra Skevington – Bluesy Boogie Woogie
- Francis Faux – The Lonesome Trail
- Alonso Malik Pirio – Last Dark Before Dawn
- Camille Saint-Saëns – Fossiles (from Le carnaval des animaux)
- Maria Thompson Corley – Spring Sunshine
- Gwilym Simcock – Winterley
How do I start practicing ABRSM pieces?
- Open (or download) the flowkey app
- Go to Songs and select the ABRSM category.
- Find your grade and pick the piece you're practicing.
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