Pedagogy Ponderings: Question of the Week: As I am making schedules and selecting music for my students, I have come to a realization that I am “cheating” my students out of a vast amount of repertoire. I have always selected repertoire that meets the needs of the “the festival, the adjudication, or the recital.” It seems as though these are all “standards.” I would really like to broaden their base and include all sorts of composers, but the lack of time seems to prohibit. I also find that I am not as familiar with contemporary composers (not those that we all use) and cannot make an educated decision when selecting. Do you have suggestions on how to expand the repertoire base for my students, while still staying on track for all our events? Dr. E. L. Lancaster-Vice President and Keyboard Editor-in-Chief, Alfred Music Publishing Choosing a varied curriculum is a challenge for any teacher. There is only a certain amount of material that can be covered with a student in a given amount of time. When I first began teaching, I only taught thirty-minute lessons. I always wanted more time for each student. I changed my policy to only forty-five minute lessons. I still wanted more time. More advanced students had hour lessons. And, again, I wanted more time. Planning a curriculum is much more that choosing repertoire. One must consider the overall musical development of the student – not just over a one-year period, but over a period of several years. Obviously, teachers want to introduced students to music from all style periods and include repertoire that represents a variety of styles. When choosing repertoire for students, look at what they have studied during the past few years and work to achieve a balance over a longer period of time than just what they will study during the one-year time period. Understanding style starts with the teacher duets in the first method book. The duet accompaniments in most methods include a variety of styles. After I play a duet accompaniment with a student I always make a comment about the accompaniment that will teach the student something about style. For example, if an accompaniment contains an Alberti bass, I might say, “Did you hear the pattern in the accompaniment (demonstrate the pattern)? This is a pattern that Mozart sometimes used in his music.” Or, if the accompaniment is a jazz style piece with eighth notes that use swing rhythm, I would say, “Did you hear how some of the notes were played unevenly? These uneven notes are often used in jazz.” These short comments form a foundation of music understanding that then transfers to the music the students are performing. In my teaching, I found that my teaching strategies changed over the year. The first few months in the fall were usually devoted to concept development with the focus being on the method books for the younger students with less time spent on performance repertoire. As the holidays approached, I added holiday music. Immediately, after the holidays I spent about a month focusing on ensemble music for a February performance class. Following that, the focus of the lessons then really became music for auditions, contests, and recitals. As much as possible, I continued the conceptual development from the method books, but that usually took a “back seat” later in the year. I relied upon group lessons to focus on theory and musical style. So, how can one really broaden the base of the repertoire that students study? Expose the students to a variety of musical styles. This can be done through a systematic study of music history with musical examples (especially in group lessons) and hearing other students perform the music they are studying. Intelligent discussions of these performances should follow. Recordings in a variety of styles are easily accessible through the internet so our job is a little easier now that it was several years ago. In terms of contemporary composers, remember that the beginning of the twentieth century saw many changes in music. Prior to that time, serious music was the music of all of society. In the early part of the twentieth century, three things happened. First, jazz and popular music began to separate itself from serious music. Serious contemporary music has more and more become an academic pursuit. Secondly, more and more composers began to write music only for students (educational composers). Often this music was in styles from the past (as opposed to contemporary trends in serious music). Very few academic composers now write music for children. Most composers of teaching music are piano teachers. Throughout history, teachers always wrote music for their students, but this trend really grew in the twentieth century. Finally, serious music moved in a lot of directions – expressionism, neoclassicism, primitivism, aleatoric, minimalism, and electronic. Many of these styles are not idiomatic for the keyboard and there is a minimum of teaching music in many of these styles. Consequently, choosing contemporary music for students is much harder than choosing music from other style periods. And, my comments from above don’t even take into account rock, rap, pop, jazz, Broadway, film, and world music. In conclusion, my best advice is to choose varied styles for student study within a given year and vary those styles from year-to-year. At the same time, incorporate the study of other styles into the curriculum in a systematic way. By following this approach, students will be prepared to become music majors or they will be prepared to become consumers of music if they pursue academic pursuits and vocations.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 16:04:56 +0000
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