04/07/2025
A very sensible post!
The problem with the “three pieces a year” frankly outdated and damaging methodology in piano teaching is that it causes significant problems when a student transfers to another teacher.
For the new teacher, it often takes guts to explain to the student and their parents or carers - in the kindest possible way - that there are gaps to be filled.
It’s hard for them to grasp, because, of course, it’s hard to recognise what you don’t know!
And when a student has already achieved a certain grade, it’s very difficult to gently steer them towards filling those gaps.
Here are some of the things I’ve found can be signs of a slightly restricted diet of repertoire.
❗️Lack of confidence in sight reading.
❗️A tendency to always start from the beginning of the piece.
❗️A reluctance to look at the music but rather look at their hands instead.
❗️ Difficulties in starting from a given point in the music.
❗️ An inability to play hands separately.
❗️Lack of imagination in tone colour and phrasing (as they’ve had to push so hard to learn the pieces, they have little room to allow for expression).
❗️Lack of awareness of technical aspects of playing such as use of the wrist (lateral movement, rotation, etc).
❗️A difficulty in recognising patterns in music notation.
❗️Lack of experience in important musical skills such as improvisation and composition.
Of course, this is not a given that they present with all of these.
But what is your experience? Do you find that the 24 pieces to grade 8 school of thought gives rise to some of the above, in your experience as either a teacher, a student or a parent?
