is there a typical amount of songs to learn per grade?

[coffee_guy]

How many songs does one typically learn per grade before moving on to the next grade. Or is this a completely arbitrary number that depends on the teacher and/or student? I figured I'd want to learn at least 5 various pieces at each grade that have their own unique qualities, before moving on.

Any thoughts?

[pianoplayjl]

For grade one you would learn 3-4 pieces, for G2-4 it is best to learn 5-6 pieces and grades 5-8 you should learn 6-8 pieces if you cover 1 grade a year. It depends on a student on how fast they learn and master the pieces. One might already have a piece hands together in 2 weeks and learn a new song. For me, once I was learning a new song every week for 4 weeks and that was a record for me. You would usually want to cover all four periods of music after grade 4 and include one study. 

JL

[flyinfingers]

I am very confused by all of this rhetoric about how many pieces to learn.  I really don't understand how one can learn to play more than a few pieces at a time.  Doesn't this just muddy the waters?  Maybe because I'm oldER and more mature I won't learn as quickly, but I still don't see how you can focus on so many pieces.  My teacher when I was a kid never gave me more than two, I believe.  
I spent almost two hours alone today on one page of music (HS mostly and a little of HT) and reviewing the previous three pages and I just can't imagine doing it for 15 minutes and moving on to another piece!  Then, you also have the memorization of these pieces.  I really don't think I'd be interested in learning a lot of pieces at once.  I would rather perfect the few that I have and move on.  This seems like overload, in my opinon, but I'm no expert and I would certainly balk at my teacher pushing this many pieces.  There are only so many minutes in an hour lesson (on my dime) and I don't see how this is productive from any standpoint.

PianoPlayer, how many pages are these pieces?  Sure, it's a different story if they're one page, but who does that?

[pianoplayjl]

You don't learn all the pieces at once. You spread them out throughout the year. Once you get a piece hands together and you are very confident with HT, you start a new one. Or perhaps instead of a whole piece, maybe half. Sometimes you might have to master the expression before learning new ones. You don't practice all the pieces in 1 day with the exception that you practice 3-4 hours. You divide them into 2 days, alternating. Sometimes you have to push yourself to make a bit of progress when it gets hard. For example when the teacher tells you to practice the first half of the peice for HW, you do the whole thing. Unconventional but works for me.

PianoPlayer, how many pages are these pieces?  Sure, it's a different story if they're one page, but who does that?

I don't care about the length of the piece. You are not going to master the piece regardless of length if you play it through. Rather divide the piece by drawing up practice spots. Practice on the practice spots and repeat. At the end of each lesson play the whole piece 3 times without any mistakes. Every lesson you have to set a goal and try to accomplish it.

JL

[flyinfingers]

Okay.  Phew!  That makes a lot more sense.  I was beginning to think I was not the norm.  But there is no norm when you're starting back up at my age.  I don't mean to sound so much oldeER (can't stand writing or saying that word) so I can only back that up with my athletic skills.  WANNA RACE?

[pianoplayjl]

You are the norm. I take ages to just get a piece HT and even longer to fully master it (expression and no wrong notes). Sometimes there are months where I feel I make no progress. Age shall not weary piano playing as long as a person stays enthusiastic ( I most likely am wrong) and practices hard. As a person progresses up the grade system it is best to work on less pieces because the pieces get really epic in nature and 1 piece may comprise of several movements or mini pieces e.g. prelude and fugue, sonata. Preferably 4.

On another note...I lsometimes like to think my self as a morbidly obese chair potato teenager. No thanks.

JL

[amelialw]

heh...here in singapore for those doing the graded exams 3 pieces per grade is the norm+ a few other little pieces, pop pieces sometimes LOL at least that's the way it used to be for me years ago. My canada teacher was so horrified when i told her that.

  She believes that there must be a balance between technique and pieces. Playing composers like Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin etc. is a must to her... She has never yet told me how many pieces a student must learn per grade but usually its double the number from what I've seen