Managing Appropriate Progress
Found in: Accompaniment, Student Management
Ginny W., Western Australia
I have been in this situation many times – i.e. students who are only marginally behind my own playing ability. Sometimes I’ve kind of fudged it by avoiding playing the entire piece, if it isn’t sounding smooth yet but I can still teach chunks of it. I prefer not to have to do that! With regard to the Arrangements/Variations, I have leaned on these a fair bit (selectively as students go), to stretch out the core program materials.
Gordon Harvey, Australia
I’m one of those teachers who had very limited piano experience before starting teaching (Neil was my first teacher) and I’ve often been in the position of having students creep up on me, and in many cases overtake me. I’ve had quite a few students who have been far quicker learners and with far better physical dexterity than me. Working with these students, I’ve reminded myself of the fundamental principle that, first and foremost, we are teaching a way of learning. Obviously, it is far more desirable that we can play the songs in a way that our students are inspired and motivated, but even more important is our ability to teach the songs. So, while less than ideal, it is possible to teach the songs without being able to play them well. Remember that the students have the songs played for them on the videos and audio recordings.
However, without question, it’s better to have the songs confidently in your own repertoire before you teach them, and it’s interesting to observe the very fact that students catch up with us. Why would this be? I asked myself this question, and here are a few possible answers:
1. In my case, the method I’m teaching is streets ahead of the way I initially started learning 11 or so years ago. My only solution to this dilemma is to adhere as well as possible to the SM approach as I teach myself the pieces, or even better, go to a SM teacher for lessons.
2. I’ll be really honest and admit that I practice far less than I expect my students to, and I don’t maintain a proper Playlist! The solution to this one is obvious.
3. As I mentioned earlier, some people simply learn and get things into their hands quicker than I do.
4. The student may have prior experience.
5. It could be that I’m moving my students through the program more quickly than I should. This point is a huge topic in itself, but I’d summarize it by saying that, in my opinion, advancing the students too quickly is the second biggest mistake we make in our teaching. The very fact that they’re catching up with you may be evidence that they’re moving too fast, and may not be taking the time to establish a firm foundation on which to build more advanced projects. The last three points can be addressed in similar ways. Anyone who’s moving rapidly will benefit from projects that broaden, rather than deepen, their experience.
The Variations and Arrangements are invaluable for such students. The simpler of these can give beginning students great rewards within each level, and others can give experienced students more satisfaction and justification for the beginning pieces.
I don’t see the Accompaniment process quite the same way as Ginny. If you look at Star Spangled Banner & Amazing Grace, taught way back in Level 2, these are way more advanced than the earlier pieces from the Accompaniment program. From my point of view, the Accompaniments provide exactly the kind of solid repertoire that they can draw from in higher levels.
I start the Accompaniment stream before Level 4 with all my students, and in the case of students with prior experience, sometimes as early as Level 2. The trick is evaluating the speed of unfolding the conversation. One teacher said, “I found my students and I became so engrossed with the Accompaniment Program that we neglected our Playlists somewhat”, which I agree with, but that’s a matter of the kind of management we always practice with all our students.
If anything, a danger of Accompaniments is getting a little too engrossed with the “theory” behind the process, but as always, we wouldn’t move a student forward if they can’t get the current task comfortably into their hands. As they progress through the Accompaniment process, students can also source their own pieces to work on, subject to your making sure the pieces are at a suitable level, and of course not photocopies or otherwise illegal.
There are also plenty of other tasks that can serve to strengthen a student’s skills without moving into higher levels – composition, improvisation, duets, preparing for concert performance, focusing on pedal and other elements of expression.