Beginning Material

[tabris]

Hi

I'm just starting to get into teaching piano.  I was wondering what material is good to give to beginning students.  I learned out of the Bastian series I think, I can't really remember.  But I know some people who started off doing nothing but Bach and easy Mozart.  Is it good to start on books like the Bastian series or Piano Adventures or stuff like Bach's Anna Magdalena Notebook.  None of my students are little kids right now.  Any advice?

Also for some people that have been playing for a while and have learned some things about the piano but have never had formal lessons what's the best way to figure out their ability.  Should I give them easier pieces to try and read and determine from that.

Thanks

[dveej]

Hi. I assume you want them to study classical piano pieces, not (or not exclusively) jazz/pop/etc.

For new students who have had some training or have taught themselves, what I would do is have them play me something they like to play. If they balk and say "I don't know anything", don't let them get away with it. They must be able to play SOMETHING, or they wouldn't say they have been playing already.

When they play for you, while they are playing you should try to think what easy, early repertoire piece is similar to what they are playing in terms of difficulty. If they can read music pretty well (i.e. know where all the notes are on the staff, and can struggle out a few bars of a piece like AMB Musette in D or Minuet in G), then I would start them out with level 2-ish method books. My favorites are Piano Adventures and Piano Odyssey.

You can also, if you are very experienced and have lots of knowledge of supplementary material, just teach repertoire without method books. But method books make it easier on you the teacher, and for many (most?) students using a method book is psychologically beneficial, because they can see their own progress and feel that they are moving forward. With only repertoire pieces, especially if you pick pieces that jump quickly in difficulty levels, a student may feel that it's always really hard and it's never going to get easier, because you're picking pieces that always challenge them at the cutting edge of their ability. So if you are smart you can avoid this trap by picking pieces that give them a sense of challenge alternating with pieces that give them a sense of "Boy, this is easy! And what's more, I can see that it contains things I couldn't do six months ago. I am getting better!!!"

What I do is: I use method books AND I give repertoire on the side. It makes for a lot of books (I'm famous for this!!) but it covers lots of things I feel need to be covered.

For picking carerfully graded repertoire, I like the RCM Piano Syllabus, published by Harris in Canada. It has extensive lists of repertoire in all periods for levels ranging from simple Mozart minuets to Gaspard de la Nuit. If it's an important and famous part of the piano repertoire, it's in there. It's about $8 American. There is a similar book which I read about on this forum called the Un-Method, which I haven't seen, but it looks good and I will buy it. There is also a book by Jane Magrath: Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, which has extensive listings of pieces by difficulty level (although it isn't very specific sometimes...). And there is another book published by Harris: Intermediate Piano Repertoire, which classifies intermediate repertoire by difficulty level.

If you don't know off the top of your head several pieces for each "level" leading up to pre-sonatina literature, then I would suggest you should take refuge in a good set of method books until you have a feel for such things.

If you have specific questions about what a particular student should play, I bet you lots of people on this forum would be happy to offer advice. (I would!)

Good luck!