ABRSM piano sight-reading
Grade 4 sight-reading: 6/8 arrives, no new keys
About eight bars, hands together, in the Grade 3 keys (nothing new, still up to three sharps or three flats), in 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 3/8 or, new here, 6/8. Anacrusis, chromatic notes, pause signs and tenuto arrive. Half a minute to look, then play.
Checked against the ABRSM 2025-26 syllabus · last reviewed 3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Grade 4 sight-reading parameters
Checked by us against the 2025-26 syllabus
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What changed
Since Grade 3
Grade 4 is the rhythm grade. The row on page 16 has a blank keys cell and a blank hand-position cell. Nothing new about sharps and flats; everything new is about time, and about notes outside the key.
6/8 is the headline. It is the first compound time signature in the table, and the first that is not felt the way it is written. Six quavers, two beats, each beat a dotted crotchet. A candidate who counts it in six plays something stiff and slow that the examiner recognises immediately. A candidate who feels it in two plays a jig. Same notes.
The anacrusis is new: the test may start on an upbeat, with a short first bar, and the missing beats come back in the last bar. Candidates who start on "one" when the first bar is a "four-and" spend the rest of the test half a beat out. The half minute now has a job at both ends of the page.
"Chromatic notes" widens the accidental rule. Up to Grade 3, accidentals were "within minor keys only", which in practice means the raised seventh and sometimes the raised sixth. From Grade 4 a sharp, flat or natural can appear in any key, as a passing note or colour. The reading rule that matters: an accidental lasts until the end of the bar, and the barline cancels it.
Pause signs: hold the note, then keep going in tempo. Tenuto: the small line over a note that means lean on it and give it its full length. Both are "musical detail" in the Distinction band on page 60, and both are cheap to observe if you saw them coming.
Length is "c. 8" bars. The marking criteria beside the assessment objective step up to "moderately complex musical notation" at Grades 4 and 5 (page 55).
Why it is hard: the difficulty has moved from the hand to the ear. A Grade 4 candidate can play every note and still sound wrong, because the 6/8 was in six, the upbeat was on the beat and the pause was ignored. None of that is a wrong note. All of it is on the mark sheet.
Everything from Grade 3 still applies. New at Grade 4:
- Length
- up to 8nowc. 8
- Time signatures
- new: 6 / 8
- Keys
- no change12 carried over
- Hands
- unchanged
- Other features
- new: an upbeat (anacrusis) start
- new: chromatic notes outside the key
- new: pauses (fermatas)
- new: tenuto marks
The drill plan
A week that fits a life
Grade 4 is the only grade where the key drill can coast. Spend the time you save on rhythm, and on reading the ends of the page.
The half minute, Grade 4 version. Time signature first, before the key: if it is 6/8, say "in two" and tap it. Then the first bar: is it full? If not, count how many beats it has and where the beat falls. Then the key. Then scan for accidentals that are not the leading note; touch each one and say what it changes and where the barline is. Then find the pause and the tenuto marks. Then hands on the first notes.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 6/8 on the lid, then reading. Two minutes tapping 6/8 with the left hand on the two big beats and the right hand on all six quavers. Then swap. Then a rhythm line in 6/8 with a dotted crotchet, three quavers, and a crotchet-quaver pair. Then eight minutes of hands-together reading on Grade 2 material, two grades below, once through, no stopping. When the reading material is in 6/8, better.
Tuesday, Thursday: upbeats and accidentals. Take any short piece and cover the first bar. Count in, start on the upbeat. Then the accidental rule: write a bar with a sharp on beat one and the same note on beat three, and a natural in the next bar. Play it. That is the whole rule. Then deal yourself a few notes below; the dealer's range is a little wider at this grade and it deals scale notes with the key signature shown, so when an accidental appears in a minor key, say which note it raises.
Weekend: the ends of the page. One eight-bar unseen line, hands together, ideally with an anacrusis and a pause. Before you play, count the first and last bars. Play it once. Hold the pause, then restart in tempo. Stop.
What to ignore. New keys: there are none. Four-part chords and syncopation (Grade 5). Triplets, odd time and pedal (Grade 6). If you have been doing scale geography for the Grade 3 keys, keep the weekly scale run; it is the only key work this grade needs. Do not practise "playing faster"; the table prints no tempo marks, and "adequate tempo, usually steady pulse" is what Merit asks for.
Deal me a note
What a Grade 4 test can ask of your eyes
The staff below deals notes inside this grade's keys, key signature shown. Press the letter, or click it.
This checks the letter. MidiSlayer checks the note you actually played, in time.
Traps
Where Grade 4 candidates lose marks
- 6/8 in six. Six quaver beats sounds laboured. Two dotted-crotchet beats sounds like music. Say "in two" in the half minute.
- Starting the anacrusis on beat one. A short first bar means an upbeat. Count the beats in that bar before you play, and expect the last bar to be short by the same amount.
- Forgetting that the barline cancels. A sharp on beat one is still a sharp on beat three of the same bar. In the next bar it is gone. Chromatic notes are new at this grade and most errors are this rule, not the note.
- Losing the pulse after the pause. Hold it, breathe, and come back in at the same speed. A pause is a fermata, not permission to change tempo.
- Ignoring tenuto. The little line means give the note its full weight. It is cheap detail and it is on the mark sheet as "musical detail realised".
The honest bit
What MidiSlayer does for Grade 4, and what it does not
At Grade 4, MidiSlayer's Graded Reading deals single notes across the Grade 3 keys, with the range widened a little further, key signature on the staff, and a note you miss coming back more often within a session. Since Grade 4 adds no keys, the mode's job here is to keep the geography fresh while your practice goes on rhythm. It is not an exam simulator; it deals notes, not 6/8 bars with upbeats and pauses. That reading lives in Practice with real pieces. Graded Reading is part of the full app, one payment, yours to keep. The free version includes Note Flashcards, the Learn course and the daily game. Download it free.
Free to start. One payment for everything, yours to keep.
Questions
Asked about Grade 4
Grade 4 (page 16). It is the first compound time signature in the table. 9/8 follows at Grade 6 and 12/8 at Grade 8.
No. The keys cell for Grade 4 is blank, so the Grade 3 set applies: up to three sharps or three flats. The next new keys are E and A♭ majors and F♯ and C minors at Grade 5.
"c. 8" (page 16), circa eight bars.
Accidentals beyond the minor-key raised seventh: a sharp, flat or natural in any key, as a passing or colour note. The rule to drill is that an accidental lasts to the end of the bar.
An upbeat: the test starts with a short bar and the beats it lacks turn up in the final bar. Count the first bar before you play, or you will be half a beat out for eight bars.
Ten minutes, most days, with two of them on the lid tapping 6/8 and upbeats. Read hands together at Grade 2 level daily and at Grade 4 level once a week.
The table introduces "use of right pedal" at Grade 6, so Grade 4 tests are written without it. Nothing in the specification forbids touching it; nothing rewards it either. Leave it alone and read.
MidiSlayer is independent of ABRSM and not endorsed by it. ABRSM is a trade mark of The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, used here to identify the exams these pages describe. Exam facts are taken from the ABRSM Piano Syllabus 2025 & 2026 (© ABRSM), quoted briefly with acknowledgement and otherwise stated in our own words.