New Adult Student - Repertoire Exposure/Choice

[ajspiano]

Hi all,

I suspect that most teachers have at least once experienced a new student arriving and not really being able to articulate what it is exactly that they want to get out of piano lessons. You can ask them what they want to learn and the most they have is a vague sense of "I just want to be able to play" - from there we have to go digging trying to find what motivates them musically.

I think that done in person (especially with adults or just older beginners - whom this post mostly applies to) it also kind of flies over their head a little. They need some time to listen and digest some different kinds of music and decide what they prefer.

At the moment I'm re-working on my "student pack" - which is basically a chunk of info they get at the commencement of lessons which includes various policies and some basics about practice and why daily practice is important etc. etc.

I want to include something that will help expose a new student to a decent range of music (and different composers) with a little bit of reading (composer/piece history) to go with it to help make in more engaging...  this will help me identify what they will be motivated to work on and so in turn know what music to initially present and also help them/me start to explore and plan repertoire for right now, and repertoire for into the future.

..............

So..  I want to have a period split CD, and accompanying write up that has..

Baroque
3-5 composers, 1-2 works each.

Classical
3-5 composers, 1-2 works each.

Romantic
3-5 composers, 1-2 works each.

Modern (this can include contemporary pop artists, as well as modern compositions specifically for the piano, and jazz/blues etc.)
5-6 composers, 1-2 works each.

.........

ALL works need to be relatively short, preferably public domain (obviously this won't be possible for all of them) and easily accessible so far as technical challenges because for this to be relevant the student needs to be able to begin working on at least some of this more or less immediately, or be able to work on something that will be readily identifiable as leading towards something on the CD.. 

I already have a fair idea of how to fill many spots on the list, but am interested to see what anyone else thinks.

Any thoughts on accompanying writing are most welcome. My point is that I don't want the student to take it home and put it on but not really listen (just have it in the background) - I want the writing part to point out something so that there is interest in genuinely stopping to listen to the music.

[j_menz]

Baroque
______________________________________________

Bach, JS - Goldberg Aria
         - One movement from one of the Suites?

Scarlatti, D - Sonata (or 2) of choice

Handel, GF - Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
      - Ombra ma fu

Pachelbel, J - Canon in D

Couperin, F - one or two of the early Ordres

Classical
________________________________________________

Bach, CPE - 2 Sonata movements?

Haydn, J - An early sonata?

Mozart, WA - Twinkle Twinkle/Turkish Rondo

Clementi, M - one of the Sonatinas?

Beethoven, L - Fur Elise/Rule Brittania Variations

Romantic
________________________________________________

Schubert, F - Moment Musicaux No 1
       - Impromptu No 3 from the first set

Chopin, F  - Minute Waltz
      - Nocturne 9/2

Liszt, F - Consolation No 3
    - HR 2

Brahms, J - One of the Hungarian Dances/Lullaby/Waltz??

Rachmaninoff, S - Bells of Moscow?

Modern(ish)
________________________________________________

Scriabin, A - A Mazurka or two?

Gershwin, G - Rhapsody In Blue/Prelude

Glass, P -

Clayderman, R -

Tatum, A - Tiger Rag

Joel, B - some of his solo piano stuff?

Schostakovitch, D - One of the Three Fantastic Dances/ Tahiti Trot


___________________________________

On the accompanying writing, Id concentrate less on the music  - throw in a few gossipy bits about the composer and then discuss their importance and the form/period/development represented by the piece (but only briefly)

List is by no means exhastive and pieces are pretty ramdom.  The modern was the area that gave me most trouble, I have to say and there are whole areas left out.

[keypeg]

I suspect that most teachers have at least once experienced a new student arriving and not really being able to articulate what it is exactly that they want to get out of piano lessons. You can ask them what they want to learn and the most they have is a vague sense of "I just want to be able to play" - from there we have to go digging trying to find what motivates them musically.

I remember when I started my first lessons, which were on a string instrument.  What motivated me musically was - ahem - learning how to play.  I'll qualify that: I was fascinated by what the instrument could do, and what I could do with the instrument.  I wanted to learn how music works, and what to find out about music itself.  What motivated me, and what interested me, did not hinge on pieces or repertoire.  It still doesn't.  A student's goals are not necessarily repertoire-based.

WHAT I was motivated to work on were the stuff of music, and pieces were coincidental to it.  So any piece that contained the things that I was learning to do and hear was a piece that interested me.

I was also interested in learning about genres, periods, composers, things that would go into theory and history.  With the level of hearing that I had, and of experience, I couldn't really tell much yet, and did not want to be limited to my current tastes.  I wanted to learn to hear through what I would be taught.  So if it came to repertoire, there is no way that I would want to be asked to choose which pieces or which composer interested me.  I'd want to have a selection and be introduced to them, including things which for the time being I might "hate".  How do you grow, if you are limited by where you already are?

This is me.  I'm told that I'm "atypical" as a student.  But then I've also seen other atypical students, so who knows how rare we are?

In regards to a CD ---- what about links to the Net where we can hear various interpretations of any given piece?  In fact, if you had such information on your site (if you have a site) for your own students, then potential students could latch on to that, and if you added comments, they could already start learning.

Sorry, it's not exactly what you were asking, but those are my thoughts.

[ajspiano]

As usual, keypeg - your thoughts are most valuable. It'd be nice if that was how they all thought.. you certainly sound like the ideal student to me. You are lucky enough to have retained the child-like natural experimentation approach to learning i think, along with being open to all possibilities.

You have to help them find that sometimes, and so a piece of music that they would like to be able to play because they just like the piece functions as the medium through which they begin learning what you are talking about.

The idea of the CD is not just to determine their tastes, it simultaneously exposes them to styles they probably haven't heard. Most of my beginner adults haven't listened to much solo piano music upon arrival, except for only the most well known (and often WAY too difficult) works.

Some students can be quite set about 1 thing on arrival too, and especially when that thing is too hard they need to find something easier that they do like - otherwise they feel like they are doing something that they don't want to do at all.

The repertoire that eventually goes on this is going to be carefully considered against beginner pedagogical concerns and there will be other pieces and structured lessons waiting in the background that lead to the CD pieces..  the point will be to try and encourage a guided exploration not just of a piece as is, but also the musical constructs that go into it..  the "what the instrument could do, and what I could do with the instrument" thing, just in a context that is in part determined by the students desires, as well as my own ideas about what they should do.

...................

j_menz - I like you're (note intentional incorrect placement of apostrophe) suggestions.. I'd like to see easier ones though ..modern is definitely the harder section to fill I think, though easy romantic is also a bit of a challenge. I think in modern I want there to be a piano arrangement of a beatles tune or something like that.

[j_menz]

I think in modern I want there to be a piano arrangement of a beatles tune or something like that.

There's an arrangement of Yesterday on the AMEB grade 3/4 or thereabouts syllabus.

[outin]

I don't know if I am alone in it, but ever since the beginning I have gravitated towards more serious or slow cantabile style pieces instead of flashy fast ones. So it would be good to include both because adults often have fixed taste in music already. Methods for kids tend to have much music that is not to my liking at all.

For Baroque how about this one by Purcell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-27pe_s-BGs

And one of the shorter Scarlatti sonatas, like K32 or K34

For romantic some of my favorite ones to learn from my first year:
The berceuse from Lyapunov: Morceaux faciles, Op. 59
Not really that easy though...unfortunately the sheet music in IMSLP is very low quality.

Les plaintes d'une poupée (A Doll's Lament) by Cesar Franck

And this one has some easier gems (not PD though):
William L. Gillock: Lyric Preludes In Romantic Style. (24 Short Piano Pieces in All Keys).

This one is very easy:
Shostakovitch Waltz op 69
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XONxA78Su3Q

[outin]

modern is definitely the harder section to fill I think, though easy romantic is also a bit of a challenge. I think in modern I want there to be a piano arrangement of a beatles tune or something like that.

The Candyman theme?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gdTlZ3w32w

[outin]

Couple of things to consider when selecting the pieces from my POW as a student:

Adults sometimes are already familiar with composers like Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Bach etc. So it would be nice to have something else. For me (like Keypeg) much of the enjoyment comes from learning about new previously unknown works and composers. Also the adults may have less pressure to sound like what they hear on professional recordings (this was a huge problem for me) when starting on something they haven't heard before. Also they might be more interested in reading about the lives of lesser known composers (if they are curious in nature).
 
It would be good to have pieces that sound pleasing to the ear also when played at much slower tempo, to prevent rushing to learn to play it in the performance tempo. Some of us can be impatient is this way...

Adults can also be musically mature (whatever that means) even if they cannot play the piano, so if the pieces sound too simple, it gets boring easily.

And one more thing... when starting with lesser known works there's not as much risk of comparing oneself with all the 6 year olds playing the pieces perfectly already and getting frustrated