question about lesson pieces

[maestoso]

just wanted to know if when you are assigned a piece from your instructor should you have it ready completely by the next session. I have been assigned fur elise and raindrop prelude. i have them over 50% complete hopefully i can get them done. do you think if  i don't finish them it will disappoint my instructor? not that it will make me cry and i will run away from home!lol i just was wondering if he meant to complete them.

[ilikepie]

Some instructors require you to learn all the notes for the next lesson(if it's hands separate or hands together is up to them). Then again, some require you to play hands together at the correct tempo until a certain page or something; if he is a new teacher, then you should just take precautions and learn all the notes first, not directly complete and up to speed.
I personally, would like to "master(tempo and accuracy up to workable standards)" a certain area, rather than "completing" a piece miserablyl

[kempff1234]

It is better to play 10 notes but play them 100% perfectly than play 10 pages but no perfection.

Just practice a chunk of music and get it down, so next lesson you can play note perfect at a reasonable tempo. Then you can start working on different aspects of that chunk while learning a new chunk. But in the end, it's a matter of personal preference.

I studied Schumann Symphonic etudes with two different teachers. The first one wanted me to have one variation ready every week (note perfect with good accuracy at the right tempo). The second one, just wanted me to work on different chunks. Finally, I gave them both up.

[phdezra]

Ready completely by the next lesson?

This is based on my experience with my teacher in New York. Imagine you are assigned a piece and know it perfectly by the next lesson. Great. You're a whiz at this. (It may also mean the piece should not have been assigned to you in the first place if it was so easy.)

However, we all know it doesn't work that way.  Instead, I believe the expectation is that you work on the piece, in bite size chunks over the time in between lessons, and come prepared to the next lessons to show what you know, what you learned, what questions you now have. Lessons are invaluable, but a lot of the learning takes place during the 6 or 13 days in between lessons.

For instance, my teacher assigned me 1) Prelude I from WTC (Bach) and 2) Arabesque (Burgmuller). They are pretty easy pieces (grade 1 or 2 I think--does anyone know for sure?).  After two weeks, I came back with what I was able to accomplish (about 50% of Prelude I). I can get through half of Prelude before things fall apart, and Arabesque...well... I'm not quite playing at Allegro Scherzando as Burgmuller intended.    So my teacher gave me some pointers and now I'm back at it.

Also, I believe a teacher should assign pieces that take a little effort and work to learn, and cannot be easily mastered in 2 weeks. Imagine you are assigned Old MacDonald. I bet you can learn it in 2 weeks (if not 2 minutes), but not challenging at all. Instead, something that will push you and help you break through to the next level, even if that means grade from grade 1.0 to 1.1 (so to speak).

That said, it is expected I "read through" the music assigned to me and understand what is going on, even if I cannot play perfectly with HT.

Just my $0.02.

[asyncopated]

I think it really depends on the type of student you are.

If you are a 7 year old kid, your teacher may expect you to turn in some work everyweek.  Kids tend to have less decipline.

For adult students (like myself), teachers tend to be more tolerent.  They know that you have other commitments, and that if you learning the piano because you are interested in it, and not forced into it.  Having said that, even so, having a certain expectations is good.

I never feel like i complete any work -- i consider the work complete only if I perform it infront of a crowd.  This requires a lot of psycological preperation... etc.  but I do try and get each work as closed to performance standard, as is possible for my level. 

This takes a lot of time.   I spend between 1 month and 5 months (3 pages) on a piece with my teacher.   5 months may be excessive, but you really hammer out all the details.  And also, it's not just learning the notes/movement and getting the correct sound, its also learning the other subtleties like how to concentrate in a performance, how to tame different pianos to get the sound you want all the time, how to weave a story with the music consistently, how to manage the piece psycologically. etc.  At the moment, I find these aspects especially difficult.

Back to your question.  My advice is that learn the notes as fast as possible, with good movement/basics.  After that the fun starts.  You can start working on details of expression and sound.


 

[loops]

My teacher "assigns" something (actually, we agree to something, but he leads
in the suggestion department) and then
I go away and aim to get some kind of fluency with it,  more than a slow
walk through. When I play it for him, he checks for accuracy, ease of fingering,
and "interest" ie is it interesting or flat. When it gets to a certain level of fluency,
interest, and my playing confidence, he doesn't hear it in lessons any more...
because it has to mature on its own and can take ages, and depends if I
really like it to maintain it. So, 2 lessons ago I played him something I first
learned with him. And he said. OK, that tells me where you're playing is,
now we will learn this!

Although we work on several pieces, it is not usual for me to say at the start
of the lesson, "I spent the weekend obsessing over piece X" so I then play X,
.....and then we do something really different to X ...