“I have a very difficult time leveling my students. It seems as if different publishing companies have different ideas of where elementary, intermediate and advanced fall. Could you give me some guidance? I would like to know what repertoire would classify a student as entering Early Advanced? Would this also be the point when the student would be able have a high school piano diploma and be ready for college auditions?” A.J. Collins-Thompson, NCTM-2012 Texas Music Teachers Association, Pre-College Teaching Achievement Award, 2012 Musical Bridges Around the World, Lifetime Achievement Award in Music Education, Advanced Piano Instructor, Musical Arts Centers of San Antonio, Inc. This is such a great question! I am not going to pretend that I know any more than the rest of you regarding assigning repertoire to students or that my opinion on repertoire levels should be treated as fact. I agree that the lines are blurry. As teachers we also know that every student is different. What may be a technical challenge for one may not be an issue for another. Similarly, some students are naturally expressive. They create beautiful long lines and not know how they do it. We know our students as individuals along with their own strengths and weaknesses and (hopefully) choose repertoire to highlight or develop both. Rather than turning this into a discussion about what it means for the repertoire to be early advanced, perhaps we should be looking at what it means for the pianist to become advanced. Music is a language and therefore to be fluent in it means understanding grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary etc. The more independent a student is with their language and the more they develop the ability to learn on their own, the more advanced they are. We should in a sense be trying to teach ourselves out of a job. Rather than looking at the lesson with the idea of teaching pieces, we should be teaching with the idea of how to learn. Consider this, if a student can recite a complex speech in another language, but has no idea of its meaning, would we consider that student fluent? Of course not. Similarly, if a student is taught a Liszt Etude through rote and repetition, I would not consider that pianist advanced even though the “repertoire” is. This is not to suggest that we should not give pieces that challenge and stretch our students, but I would always prioritize a smaller piece played well, with a full understanding on behalf of the student, over a harder piece that the student cannot truly grasp. It is not the repertoire that makes a student advanced, it is their level of understanding that makes them advanced. This level of detail to all parts of music needs to start early. Even basic listening and practice techniques can start at the beginning level. If you wait until advanced repertoire to start discussing these details, it is too late. So what does it mean to be “fluent” in music? From a theory standpoint I would assume they could “translate” most time and key signatures, symbols, terms, rhythms, note reading and basic analysis. From a technique standpoint it means that they are able to play all scales and arpeggios, not just the ones that are in their current pieces. I might also like them to understand the difference in style between a Bach Gigue and a Chopin Waltz for example. Most importantly, I would like them to be able to take the music apart and break it down to simple ideas and even practice techniques. I would be ecstatic if one of my early advanced students sat down to learn Mozart’s Sonata in C Major K.545 and at least some of this is what went through their head: “I am in the key of C. This means that C is tonic and the other strong note is the dominant note G. The alberti bass pattern in the LH is just broken chords. I should block them to hear the harmonic progression and figure out the fingering. Since I am in the Classical time period, I need to be careful about using pedal. Although I start with a half note, quarters and eighths, my smallest subdivision overall is a 16th note so I should feel that subdivision at the beginning. I have more harmony notes in my LH than melody notes in my RH. This means I should ghost my LH and listen to the full value of the RH long note. I see a trill sign. That means I need to use the note above the main note. There are scales in my RH that are an octave on the outside. Let me try standard scale fingering first. Scales always have a sense of direction. Are they leading to the top or bottom note? The LH has rests. Which RH note does it correspond to when my LH lets go? The scales in m.5-7 make a sequence. I need to treat each one with a little different dynamic. When I block the arpeggios in m.18 I can find common tones between the chords. I should also practice in rhythms to keep them even. I have double notes in m.28. I need to voice the top one by rotating into it.” And so on. Notice that the focus is on scenarios where there is the same set of circumstances leading to the same action. Or from the student’s perspective “If this happens, then I practice or learn it this way” because that is what I have learned to be efficient. Creating consistency in the thought patterns means it is easier for the student to draw those connections on their own later. If a student is just taught how to play one piece through rote and repetition, there is not the same sense of understanding the piece’s elements in a more universal set of circumstances. As my students get more advanced, I try to make them more independent. I prefer spending time in the lesson working on specific technique issues or musical interpretation ideas rather than helping them learn the piece. I will sometimes give them a smaller piece to figure out on their own just to see how much they have absorbed when it come to “translating” this language. This is especially helpful for students who are going into a piano program in college. I don’t know any college professor who has the time to help students with the learning process. While there are different levels of study in college (Teaching certification, BA in Music, BM in Performance), a student’s preparation beyond what is stated above should reflect whatever area interests them. Besides technique, anyone wanting to do accompanying should spend much time working on their sight reading and score reading. Students who want to go into teaching should look for opportunities to discover what kinds of students they want to work with and what setting before college. Even those who want to go into solo performing should learn how to make themselves more marketable by doing chamber music and becoming familiar with standard repertoire. Their skills and practice techniques will go with them. Those of us who are parents know the struggle between wanting our kids to stay little and giving them the tools to be independent as they get older. I would say the same is true for your developing pianists. The longer they work with you, the less they should need you for the basics. Go ahead, teach yourself out of a job! However, if you really want to know some of my favorite early advanced pieces, here’s a list: Bach: Preludes, Sinfonias (although some people prefer the Little Preludes and Fugues), and the dances Scarlatti: Various Sonatas (just check for things like Presto tempo, large chords, jumps and hand crossings which can make the pieces more difficult) Haydn: Most early sonatas fall into the late intermediate to early advanced category, look for the Minuet and Trio movements Mozart: K.545 Sonata in C, K.283 Sonata in G, K.547 Sonata in F, K. 309 Sonata in C, K.282 Sonata in E flat, the Viennese Sonatinas are also nice Beethoven: Bagatelles, the smaller variation sets, Op. 49 both 1 and 2 Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words (check for 8ves and large chords depending on hand size) Brahms: Simplified Waltzes and some Intermezzos Chopin: Waltzes (check final tempo and hand size, some also have long trills), Posthumous Nocturnes, some Mazurkas (although these can be musically difficult) Grieg: Lyric Pieces Schumann: Kinderscenen Schubert: Dances, Moment Musicals Debussy: Children’s Corner Bartok: Later books from Mikrocosmos, folk dances Kabalevsky: Preludes
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 13:45:08 +0000
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