When to Introduce Outside Pieces
Found in: Curriculum, Reading
Sheri R., California
When Neil says, “. . . once a student has ventured far enough into the syllabus, we routinely begin dealing with the full array of pieces from any typical classical repertoire, Moonlight Sonata included”, does “far enough into the syllabus” mean once students are somewhat into the reading process, somewhere around Level 3 or 4?
Gordon Harvey, Australia
I typically find students show an interest in their own projects once they’re confident about the reading process, usually after their Play List is around the 45-50 level. They may not have gone all that deeply into reading, but at that stage it usually feels like they’ve tackled that “eye of the needle” experience and feel that they can handle something of their own choosing. I don’t especially encourage students to do their own pieces, because it seems to me that the Simply Music pieces are enough to nourish just about any student for most of what they can learn through us, but I welcome the confidence I see in students exploring their own special projects.
Of course, I make absolutely sure the student is ready for the piece, and check as they go that the one piece isn’t gobbling up all their practice time. When it’s something they particularly want to do, it’s easy for them to be totally consumed by it, to the detriment of their Play List and any other projects. The big danger is choosing a piece that’s relatively more advanced than anything else they’re working on at the time. They may be able to tackle one more ambitious piece at a time, but even though it’s the student’s choice, I’ll be the one to determine how much of the piece the student looks at each week. And I very rarely spend more than 10-15 minutes on any one project in a lesson, especially when the Play List is below 50, or if they’re only part way through the fundamentals of reading.
Original discussion started May 22, 2003