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Kim L., Washington

I don’t teach arrangements sequentially, as far as Dreams first, Storm second, etc. I do usually teach them sequentially within each song, since they are ordered by difficulty. I did say usually, because concepts or hand shapes aren’t universally easier or harder. Some students find playing the 2 main chords in the accompaniment arrangement of Dreams much more physically challenging than the arpeggios in the third arrangement of Storm. Since each student/group develops differently, I tailor what arrangements I teach when according to a couple of factors.

1) Songs they love. Some students just love the minor chord sound (Night Storm) right from the beginning, and so I start in on the Storm arrangements (of course, I’m deciding when they’re ready).

2) Songs they don’t love or that have become “boring.” 🙂 As much as I can talk about the playlist and why each song is important and beautiful in its own right, I see my students thrilled over Alma Mater, and Jackson starts to lose its sparkle. Arrangements can breathe life into some of the earlier songs for them.

3) A challenge for “cross-overs.” I have a few students who had a fair amount of musical training before coming to Simply Music. One in particular loves to play, plays brilliantly and with feeling and lovely interpretation. He practices 1-2 hours daily, just because he loves to play (more now, I think, because it’s summer!) I’ve had arrangements as part of his program nearly from the beginning.

I also play duets with my students with the arrangements long before I teach them! They hear them repeatedly. I also use the arrangements as a composition project by telling students to create their own versions of songs using components of the original, foundation piece, plus the components of arrangements.

I love the arrangements program!

As far as your question about results goes — usually, I have excellent results, as I’ve learned to gauge a student’s readiness. Sometimes, I still teach too much in one lesson, which is always immediately apparent the next time I see the student. I’m honest about it, and am very clear that the problem was on my end, not theirs.

I’ve also learned not to be in a hurry, and not to teach according to the parents’ or student’s expectations of what they’ll learn in a lesson. The arrangements (as with all of the curriculum) have to unfold with enough time for good retention and understanding. I’m still teaching Level 1 arrangements while my students are in Level 3. There’s so much depth here, and I don’t want my students to miss any of it.

Gordon Harvey, Australia

I understand what you’re saying, Cindy, but I think the benefits of picking and choosing your sequence are greater.

I think a major part of success with Arrangements is choosing appropriate times to present them. For example, I’ve had a couple of instances where I’ve presented Dreams 3 a little too early. I found in those cases that the tailpiece was a bit more challenging than the rest of the song. The students were still finding it difficult to understand after presenting it a couple of times. I was then at risk of the student starting to think there was something “wrong” with them. If I’d left it a month or two longer, this probably wouldn’t have happened. On the other hand, I’ve had other students who handled it fine at a similar stage. I’ve gotten better at knowing when students are ready. Although it’s true we don’t always present Foundation pieces in order of difficulty, I see Arrangements as more sensitive in this regard because of the deliberate lack of support and the resulting higher pressure on students.

I’d rather tie Arrangements with the Foundation program so I can introduce them at a time when they can dovetail well. For example, doing Jackson Blues 2 around the time of Light Blue, to reinforce the new LH, or Chester Chills Out 1 soon after Comin’ Round the Mountain to cross-pollinate the BH ‘broken rhythm’. It’s also worth taking into consideration how various Arrangements cross-pollinate. I always do Honey Dew 1 before Night Storm 1, or Bishop Street Blues 1 very soon after Jackson Blues 1, for that reason.

If you focused on all Dreams arrangements before moving to any others, and the student “didn’t like” arrangement 2, you might have a lot of trouble convincing them to quickly move on to arrangement 3, especially if it’s more challenging for them. The outcome of this may be a feeling of discouragement, or worse, that they associate Arrangements with “I don’t like it”. Often “I don’t like it” really means “I find it difficult”. Even if it doesn’t, I think variety is critical. One of the reasons for presenting the Foundation pieces in the order they appear is so that each project is a different musical experience than the previous one.

The issue of a disjointed group of songs with numbers after them is fair enough, but students will know each arrangement individually if they have time to develop a relationship with them. This may just mean plenty of playing (perhaps more than a Foundation piece), enough time before moving to the next project, and maybe some experience of using arrangements in other ways, such as using Dreams 2 LH as the basis for an improvisation exercise. You can also distinguish between arrangements by renaming them, like Dreams Accompaniment for Dreams 1 or Jazzy Fur Elise for Fur Elise 1.

In my chat session called Justifying and Demystifying Arrangements I give an outline the general order in which I present Arrangements. It’s just a guide to what’s worked for me, but you may find it useful. You’ll find a chat transcript in Simpedia.