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Topic: What songs to teach beginners?  (Read 3001 times)

Offline Jamagoine

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What songs to teach beginners?
on: March 15, 2004, 09:41:25 PM
Hello everybody,

I'm an unexperienced piano teacher, I've always taught musical theory and traditional repertoire, but now I have some students who want to learn classical music to play, but I don't have a wide list of these songs among my repertoire, so I would like to know if anybody on the forum can help me to pick some classical tunes to teach to beginners.

I can play songs like For Elise by Beethoven, The Entertainer by Joplin, Minuet in G by Bach, Turkish March by Mozart, but I not sure if they are appropriated for beginners.

I'll appreciate any help form you guys.

Offline bernhard

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #1 on: March 15, 2004, 11:23:18 PM
Quote
Hello everybody,

I'm an unexperienced piano teacher, I've always taught musical theory and traditional repertoire, but now I have some students who want to learn classical music to play, but I don't have a wide list of these songs among my repertoire, so I would like to know if anybody on the forum can help me to pick some classical tunes to teach to beginners.

I can play songs like For Elise by Beethoven, The Entertainer by Joplin, Minuet in G by Bach, Turkish March by Mozart, but I not sure if they are appropriated for beginners.

I'll appreciate any help form you guys.


I guess if Ed was still around he would have had a heart attack! ;)

Anyway, if you are looking for beginner's pieces, have a look at this thread:

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=teac;action=display;num=1075165020

(There are others).

Good luck,
Bernhard.
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. (Hunter Thompson)

minsmusic

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #2 on: March 16, 2004, 03:25:49 AM
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I guess if Ed was still around



Yeah ... where is Ed?  I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think I miss his comments  :o

Offline pianoannie

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #3 on: March 16, 2004, 06:03:03 PM
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I can play songs like For Elise by Beethoven, The Entertainer by Joplin, Minuet in G by Bach, Turkish March by Mozart, but I not sure if they are appropriated for beginners.

I'll appreciate any help form you guys.


Jama, it would seem pretty clear that the pieces you listed are not appropriate for "beginners."  Maybe you didn't mean absolute "beginner students," but rather students who have been playing a while, but are ready to begin studying classical?  Either way, these are not intro pieces (although the Bach Minuet in G is fairly easy).
Anyway, jama, you're here and you're asking questions and trying to learn more, so that's a good thing.  But it sounds like you have a LOT of work and preparation to do before you try to teach classical music to your students.  You must be willing to invest a lot of time and money if you expect people to pay you to teach them.
Just because a person can read English doesn't mean they are qualified to teach advanced English Literature.  And a person who can play a few classical pieces is not automatically qualified to teach classical piano.
OK, that's the harsh part--I'm not trying to be unkind, not at all.  Now I want to give you a lot of suggestions to help you learn more about classical music.

1. First, you need to study with a classically trained teacher.  I have taught piano many years, but I still study with an advanced teacher myself.  I consider it essential.

2. Invest in lots of classical CD's and piano books, so you can hear various professional pianists' interpretations of many classical pieces.  Alfred publishes some excellent collections of great teaching pieces, that have corresponding CDs.  I highly recommend Masterpieces with Flair, Recital Winners, Recital Gems, Applause, Encore, Essential Keyboard Repertoire.  These all of have 2 or more levels per title--I have them all and love them.  Find a place that gives you a teacher's discount and order as many as you can. (Burt and Co Music online gives, I think, a 20% discount).

3. Also invest in some good study books, ie the Celebration Series, which has not only the Repertoire books, but also excellent workbooks.  If you have never had in-depth study of classical music, these workbooks will give you a good idea of *what* you should be teaching students to look for, ie motive/sequence, sonata form, cadences, skeletal melody, harmony structure, using articulation/dynamics/etc to convey the intended mood, and so much more.  I have the entire set (there are 10 levels), which also includes CDs and etude books at each level, and with the (I think) 40% discount that Frederick Harris music gives teachers, it was under $300.  Yes, that's a lot of money, but what you will learn from it will be the equivalent of a couple of college level music appreciation/theory classes.

4) Invest in some good textbooks and videos that will help you learn more about the various time periods of music, various composers, characteristics of the various time periods, etc.  You need to know how ornamentation, articulation, etc varied from Baroque to Classical, for example; when is it appropriate to add pedal; how should dynamic contrasts be used in the different styles; what are the most effective techniques to play counterpoint compared to romantic; etc etc etc. There is a lot to learn! I don't have a lot of books to specifically recommend (maybe others will jump in here), other than: Intermediate Piano Repertoire: A Guide For Teaching (Frederick Harris Music); Ornamentation: A Question & Answer Manual (Alfred); video series by Alfred entitled Performance Practices (available for Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionist, and Contemporary).

5.  My favorite *beginning* classical collection for teaching is the Developing Artist Piano Literature series by FJH.  The prep level is suitable for students who have studied perhaps 1 to 1 1/2 years. (I think FJH claims it correlates with their 2B book, but I use it much sooner than that).  Music Tree also has some great Piano Literature books of original form, early level pieces.  First Bach Album is of course great for students.

Jama, I know that everything I have suggested costs $$, but I am assuming you didn't study music in college.  A college music degree can easily cost $100,000 or more, so if you invest $1000 or so to build up a good collection of books and CDs, that really is a small investment.  Of course it would be tax-deductible (if you're in usa, don't know about elsewhere).

Keep asking questions, keep trying to learn.  I hope this has been helpful.

Offline rachlisztchopin

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #4 on: March 17, 2004, 07:30:02 AM
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songs


i think im having a heart attack in place for Ed...you teach your piano students to sing?!?!?  :o :o :o

Offline pianoannie

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #5 on: March 18, 2004, 02:44:42 PM
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i think im having a heart attack in place for Ed...you teach your piano students to sing?!?!?  :o :o :o


Now now now....let's be a bit more welcoming to this new member.  Jama....in case you didn't figure it out, you have committed a serious faux pas in describing piano pieces as (gasp) "songs."
Some here get pretty touchy about semantics.  I'm not one of them though (YES YES YES...I KNOW the difference....I just care more about a person's meaning instead of the precise word....like the "insult" comments over on the other thread).
Jama, please feel free to keep posting here and asking questions.
(now let's all make like Mister Rogers and sing the "I Want to Be Your Friend" song.  Or piece.)  ;D

Offline rachlisztchopin

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #6 on: March 19, 2004, 03:45:33 AM
lol sorry i couldnt resist saying that....well yes u are very welcome here Jamagoine....sorry for my little comment, ignore it, im just a little 15 year old teenage boy

u should try some chopin preludes (the easier ones...not the insanely ridiculously hard ones) and mazurkas, Burgmuller's pieces are really fun to play for beginners...im definitely no beginner but i still have fun playing burgmuller...uhh im not an expert on easy repertoire but hmmm...i dont know what else

Offline glamfolk

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #7 on: March 20, 2004, 08:22:49 PM
Don't let the semantics freaks get to you.  I agree that the Chopin preludes and mazurkas (as well as the nocturnes) are nice for moderately advanced players.  The music theory aspects of them are pretty easy (Chopin invented jazz, after all), and you can use that as a nice foundation to move into pianistic techniques.  I've found the Beethoven bagatelles and landler,  and Mozart sonatas and sonatinas quite useful, as well, as the chord changes are quite visible and easy to grasp for beginner-intermediate students.  

I appreciate when my students know how to sing, also.  It's much easier to hear (and then play) melodic intervals if you can sing them, I find.  Music is a language (like English or Spanish or Deutsch) that, whether sung or played, is a bit easier when you know how to use it somewhat before learning to read.  When I was 15, I didn't like to sing because it made me feel self-conscious.  Now I don't care in the least, and I wish I'd started  singing much earlier. ;)

Welcome!

Offline rachlisztchopin

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #8 on: March 22, 2004, 05:12:05 AM
Chopin invented Jazz ?!  :o Whaaaaaat? How? Please tell me im curious because i dont care for jazz at all but Chopin is my favorite composer

Offline glamfolk

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #9 on: March 22, 2004, 05:17:20 PM
I knew that might get some response.  Elsewhere on the forum recently someone mentioned the bass-chord pattern in several of Chopin's pieces, most notably in the nocturne op9#2 (it's also found in many other nocturnes, as well as in the waltzes and mazurkas, a motif certainly certainly not invented by Chopin, but common since time unknown in many folk styles).  Anyway, it was mentioned that this pattern was used quite a bit, then, by Joplin.  Add a little swing to Joplin's syncopation, and you're dangerously close to early stride jazz.

Op. 9#2 is interesting in that it's opening chord sequence--I-V7b9-I--is one of the first most jazz pianists learn.  

Also, the voicings of those chords are important.  the 10th chord in the root-chord sequence was used directly by Joplin, and then by the stride pianists of the 20's and 30's, then by every improv new-age pianist of the 80's and 90's.  

A nice pedigree, and I'm sure anyone can come up with different lines including Liszt, Brahms, and Rachmaninov, as well, right on up until Kenny G ruined it for everybody.  

Did Chopin invent jazz?  Probably not, but it's an interesting study, and any time you can list Kenny G in a list with Rachmaninov, you chould always do it.  If I could only find a way to get Rammstein in there.....

Offline Legato

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #10 on: April 23, 2004, 07:57:26 AM
I really enjoyed the challenge of working through the 2nd volume of Schirmer's Bartok for children.  It's full of nearly 100 pieces, each based on a Hungarian folk song, me think anyway.

I think it is good for learning about musicality too; Bartok was very particular (snobbish maybe?) about his notation.  There is much a beginner student can learn from in this book.

Rob

Offline ayahav

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Re: What songs to teach beginners?
Reply #11 on: April 24, 2004, 12:11:34 PM
I started learning with the Thompson's series, and I followed it up to the end of volume four, occasionally learning some other little things on the side. Then my mum got me this book called "42 Classics" or something like that (published by Alfred), which has 42 simplifications of classical works in rising degrees of difficulty. Then I used to rummage around in my mum's old music, and whenever I found something I really like I showed it to my teacher.
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