Grade 2 is the level where sight reading becomes properly two-handed. Up to and including Grade 1 the test asks each hand to play separately, one at a time. From Grade 2, the hands play together. That is the headline change, and it changes almost everything about how a candidate prepares. Reading two staves was already the challenge at Initial; reading two staves while playing both of them at once is a different skill, and it is the one that breaks Grade 1 candidates who move up too quickly.
The good news is that nothing else changes drastically. The keys are the ones you have already met, plus three more. The rhythms are slightly richer, with the addition of dotted patterns and ties. The dynamic range widens by one notch, with pp arriving at Grade 2. None of these alone would be a meaningful step up. Together with hands-together playing, they form the syllabus that most graded-piano students learn to read inside.
This guide covers what the main examination boards expect at Grade 2, how to prepare for the test, and which pieces in Sight Reader sit at the right level for practice.
What examiners expect at Grade 2
The piano grade boards used around the world agree on more than they disagree at this level. Whichever board you are sitting under, the Grade 2 sight-reading test is short, restricted to a small set of keys with at most one or two sharps or flats, played with both hands together, and preceded by a brief preparation window in which you can study the music silently or try parts of it on the keyboard. The rhythmic vocabulary now includes dotted patterns and tied notes; the dynamic range covers pp, p, mp, mf and f, with cresc. and dim. hairpins. Where the boards differ is mainly in length, key coverage, preparation time, and whether the test is compulsory.
| Board | Length | Keys (cumulative) | Hand position | Prep | Compulsory at Grade 2? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABRSM (UK) | 4 bars in 3/4 or 4/4; 6 bars in 2/4 | C, G, F, D major; A, D, E, G minor | Any 5-finger, hands together | 30 seconds | Yes |
| Trinity (UK) | ~4–6 bars | C, G, F, D major; A minor (mostly) | 5-finger, hands together | 30 seconds | No, one of four chosen supporting tests |
| LCM (UK) | Short | C, G, F, D major; A, E minor | 5-finger | 60 seconds | Yes |
| RCM (Canada & USA) | Short | C, G, F, D major; A, D minor | 5-finger | Brief look | Optional at Levels 1–5 (one of four chosen supporting tests); required at 6+ |
| MTAC Certificate of Merit (USA) | Short | C, G, F major; A minor | 5-finger | Brief look | Yes |
| AMEB (Australia) | Short | C, G, F, D major; A, D minor | 5-finger | Brief look | Yes in Comprehensive; choose with aural in Piano for Leisure |
A few differences are worth knowing. Trinity, RCM and AMEB’s Piano for Leisure stream all let you avoid sight reading at Grade 2 by choosing a different supporting test, so a candidate who has not yet grown comfortable with hands-together reading can route around the test entirely. LCM gives a full minute of preparation rather than thirty seconds, which rewards an active preparation pass over a quick visual scan. ABRSM publishes the most explicit Grade 2 specifications, and the data in the ABRSM row above is drawn directly from the published syllabus.
The shape of the test has been stable for decades, but the exact bar lengths and rhythmic vocabularies are revised from syllabus cycle to syllabus cycle inside small bounds. Check the current syllabus from your board before you sit the exam.
How to practise sight reading at Grade 2
Most of the Grade 1 advice still applies. Count out loud, scan the piece before you play, keep moving when you stumble. The Grade 2 additions are below.
Read both hands as a single vertical stack. At Grade 1 you could get away with reading the right hand and following the left along underneath. At Grade 2, with the hands playing together, that approach falls apart. Train yourself to see each bar as a column. Identify the harmonic interval between the hands at the start of each beat, and let your hands feel the shape together.
Drill the new dotted rhythm separately from the music. The dotted-crotchet-and-quaver pattern q. e is the most common rhythmic source of error at Grade 2. Most candidates know it intellectually but have not internalised the feel. Practise tapping the rhythm against a steady pulse, hands separately on a table, before you read any piece that uses it.
Hold tied notes for their full value. Tied notes are new at Grade 2 and they catch candidates who count by beats rather than by sustain. If you see a crotchet tied to a minim, the sound lasts three beats and you only play once. Practise saying “play and hold and hold” rather than “one two three”.
Do not drop the left-hand dynamics. Examiners listen for dynamic balance between the hands. The common Grade 2 mistake is to play the right hand at the marked dynamic and the left hand at a flat mp regardless. The fix is to mark the LH dynamic in your scan and check the LH volume at the first chord.
Stay inside the 5-finger position. Grade 2 keeps the hands in five-finger positions, even though they now play together. Place both hands carefully before you start. If your thumb is on the wrong note, everything that follows will be wrong.
Prepare for the exam by playing the Grade 2 levels in Sight Reader
Sight Reader’s Grade 2 is a path built around the same constraints the examiners use, with the headline new feature of hands-together reading introduced level by level. The pieces move through the new keys (D major, E minor, G minor) and add the new rhythmic and dynamic vocabulary in small, deliberate steps.
The most concrete exam-preparation milestone we can recommend is this: play every Grade 2 level at 90% accuracy or higher before you sit the exam. That is the standard a Grade 2 examiner would call confident. ABRSM keys are cumulative, so once you have made the Grade 2 levels reliable, run back through the Initial and Grade 1 levels in C major, D minor and the Grade 1 keys to keep them current. They are still in the Grade 2 examiner’s notebook.
A second milestone, for candidates aiming for distinction: finish at least one full pass through the levels without dropping below 75% on any of them. This filters out the “good days only” pattern that catches candidates whose practice is uneven across keys.
Pieces from the Sight Reader library to read at this level
The Sight Reader library holds thousands of real pieces by real composers, tagged by difficulty. The pieces marked at difficulty 2 sit at the Grade 2 sight-reading level.
Christian Schäfer’s Sight Reading Book 1 continues into difficulty 2 with exercises that introduce the new Grade 2 vocabulary: paired-hand playing in valse time, quavers in both hands, and short melodies in G and A. A few good starting points:
- Exercise 18 is part-playing in 3/4 (“valse time”). Your first hands-together waltz in the book.
- Exercise 20 introduces quavers in both hands. Use it to drill the new rhythmic density at slow tempo.
- Exercise 28 is in G major and uses the same hands-together quaver writing. Good for keeping the new key in your eye.
- Exercise 31 is a short melody in A. A useful reminder that A minor and A major key signatures are different, even when the notes look similar.
- Exercise 32 is full part-playing for both hands at Grade 2 difficulty. Save it for the end of a session as a self-test.
If a Pro membership is in play, the difficulty 2 catalogue also opens up to short pieces by Mozart, Hook, Türk, Reinagle, Beyer and others. Use the library’s difficulty filter to find them, treat each one as a single sight-read, and move on.
Common pitfalls at Grade 2
Three mistakes account for most of the lost marks at this level.
The first is missing the LH rhythm because the eye is glued to the RH. Hands-together reading is new, and the natural fallback is to read the right hand carefully and let the left hand find its own way. It will not. The fix is to scan the LH rhythm separately during the preparation window, before you read the piece as a whole.
The second is releasing tied notes early. Tied notes look like two notes and sound like one long one. Candidates who count beats rather than sustained sound tend to play the second note. Examiners hear the unwanted attack immediately.
The third is playing pp as p. The pp dynamic is new at Grade 2 and it is genuinely quieter than p, not just slightly. Candidates who treat it as “a bit quieter than usual” lose marks. The fix is to play pp at the edge of your control, soft enough that the piano almost does not speak.
Before this, and up next
- Before this: How to practise piano sight reading at Grade 1.
- Up next: How to practise piano sight reading at Grade 3.
FAQ
How long should I practise sight reading at Grade 2?
Five to ten minutes a day, every day. Hands-together reading is fatiguing for the eye and the brain at this level, so longer sessions stop being productive after fifteen minutes or so.
What is the equivalent of Grade 2 in other exam boards?
Grade 2 maps closely to Trinity Grade 2, LCM Grade 2, AMEB Grade 2 and RCM Level 2. MTAC Certificate of Merit Level 2 is at a comparable difficulty, with the caveat that MTAC’s ladder is slightly longer than ABRSM’s.
What is new at Grade 2 compared to Grade 1?
The headline change is hands-together playing. The supporting changes are three new keys (D major, E minor, G minor), the addition of dotted rhythms and tied notes, and the introduction of pp to the dynamic range.
Are the Grade 1 keys still in the Grade 2 exam?
Yes. ABRSM Grade 2 is cumulative: the test can use any of the Initial, Grade 1 or Grade 2 keys. The same is true for the time signatures and the rhythmic vocabulary.
How long before I am ready for Grade 3?
Play through all of the Grade 2 levels in Sight Reader. If you can complete each level at 90% accuracy or higher with no stops, and you can do the same on the Grade 1 and Initial levels too, you are at the level where Grade 3 material starts to be useful. Grade 3 moves your hands out of the 5-finger position and adds 2-note chords, neither of which makes sense until hands-together reading is reliable.
Sources
- ABRSM Piano Practical Grades Syllabus, sight-reading specifications. https://www.abrsm.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/piano-2023-2024-practical-grades-syllabus-may-2022.pdf
- Trinity College London, Grade 2 supporting tests guidance. https://www.trinitycollege.com/qualifications/music/grade-exams/piano/piano-grade-2
- LCM Examinations, Music Grades Specification. https://lcme.uwl.ac.uk/media/jeelt5f4/music-grades-specification.pdf
