Simpedia

Sharissa D., California

This problem pops up for me from time to time. What I do to remedy this is introduce different arrangements of the songs and also encourage students to get creative to make their own arrangements. My rule is that if you play a song that someone else plays it has to be different in some way. Not only do the students have fun being creative but they also have fun hearing other versions of the songs that they play!

Mark M., New York

Different arrangements/variations/versions, let students do different sections ordering them from earliest to latest to show (and talk about) the evolution of the piece over time during lessons, and in the end also just allow repetition to whatever extent you’re comfortable, explaining that you value letting students choose pieces they want to play. Hopefully you can strike a balance, and hopefully students themselves will help with that (at least some may be reluctant to play an exact repetition of someone else’s and may therefore be motivated to pick something else that has less/no repetition within your recital program).

Here’s what I tell students to consider in my recital selections request:

• Outside pieces you’ve learned by reading or otherwise
• Accompaniment pieces, whether in the curriculum or your own outside choices
• Your own original compositions, improvisations, variations, arrangements and medleys
• Duets at the piano or with a guest singer or someone playing another instrument
• Repertoire pieces — Foundation, Arrangements, Variations, etc.
• Almost anything else you might think of, tell me your ideas!

Ian B., Pennsylvania

I’ve had recitals in the past where multiple students played the same song. It really wasn’t a big deal 🤷‍♂️ and I don’t think anyone minded. I did sequence the performance so that the same song wasn’t back to back however.

That said, I’ll agree with what others have already commented that variations and arrangements work well to remedy the monotony. But don’t forget that Accompaniment songs are fantastic for recitals. Either you can sing or the student can sing or use a student who is also a good vocalist to sing several songs if they’re open to it. You could also find singers through vocal teachers in your area to see if they’d be willing to collaborate. If all else fails even using a backing track works well and it will inject life into the entire recital if you just have even a few students do this. 😁

Ruth P., North Carolina

Ian B. Agree with Ian about accompaniment songs. I have the audience sing along!

Original Compositions or improv with the teacher is also fun

Kerry V., Australia

i’ve had plenty do the same song.
1. I got the student to choose 3 songs they’d like to look at.
2. we’ll see which one they were most confident with and Really wanted to play.
3. we’d practice that, and also the others in case.
4. Final decision.

I would then set up a schedule of students playing and would mix the genres around so we didn’t have all blues and then all slow in groups

I would open up with a catchy but not too energetic song. The last one would be the most WOW, maybe a family playing ensamble, most accomplished playing of a particular piece etc.

All flows well that way

Leeanne I., Australia

I have a whiteboard in my studio and use the back to list all the students names and what they are playing. They choose one Foundation Piece/Variation/Arrangement and one original composition. I write them on the whiteboard. I explain we are performing for the families and don’t want them to get bored by hearing the same song from everyone. So everyone has to choose a different song. First in gets to choose. I haven’t had any students complain and all the performances have gone well.

Robin T., Australia

Yep I find that students have their own unique versions as the SMP scores are not overrun with dynamic and tempo instructions as traditional teaching based scores often are

Laurie Richards, Nebraska

Agree with all of the above. I will add that I instruct students to choose pieces that are solid NOW (when first announcing the event), not newer pieces – their confidence level will be much higher. But can be flexible with that. I’ll reiterate what everyone else has said, there is a lot more in the curriculum than Foundation pieces to choose from. Even in the first year of lessons, students should have plenty to choose from Arrangements, Accompaniment, and Compositions.