A Guide to the Trinity College Piano Syllabus (2018 - 2020)


Crosland - The Clown and the Ballerina

Trinity College - Grade 3

Ben Crosland’s The Clown and the Ballerina features two characters in dialogue – an elegant, graceful ballerina and a clumsy, gawky clown. It’s a new take on the Beauty and the Beast story. Unusually for pieces of this level, the piece uses a wide range of the keyboard, thus opening up new sounds for the elementary player. It also contains a few technical challenges that I demonstrate in this video; I look at the drop-roll movement, control of the LH accompaniment through a flexible wrist, and how to use propulsion to create accent and to increase mobility across the keyboard.

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Resources & links

  • Piano Exam Pieces & Exercises 2018–2020 - Grade 3 is available from Trinity's online shop here.

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