A Parent's Guide to Piano Repertoire

Every fall I make a curriculum plan for every student in my studio which details where they are now in their piano study and where I would like them to be by the end of the year. This takes many hours, but the results give me a pretty cohesive roadmap for each student's next steps, the logical progression of concepts we need to learn, and activities I want to complete to get there in nine months.

I LOVE getting feedback on these plans from parents, and that feedback can come in a variety of forms throughout the school year. From "This was Emily's favorite piece EVER!" to "We are really struggling with the rhythm in this piece," to "Johnny is really into video games right now," this kind of guidance can add an extra spark to each student's repertoire plan.

Where things can get a little hairy is when Johnny's mom or dad come to lessons and say, "We would love to hear Johnny play Un Sospiro by Liszt for the spring recital." Let's say Johnny is a level 5 - a student roughly at the point of studying moderately complex sonatinas. Trying to explain to parents why this is neither possible nor good for Johnny's development can be tricky. Sometimes parents have heard these pieces played badly (or maybe well!) by a younger student and assume their student must be able to master them too. Sometimes well-meaning parents assume that any student can play any piece given enough time at the instrument.

I'm sad to say that these kinds of requests can be disastrous for students if teachers concede to them against their best judgment. While it is likely possible to find a scaled back version of a lot of repertoire, pushing ahead with a piece that a student is not physically or emotionally mature enough to handle leads to frustration at best and physical injury or quitting lessons at worst.

While piano repertoire does tend to lack a completely cohesive system for leveling, some basic guidelines for leveling can be used to help parents understand what repertoire their student is ready to tackle.

Elementary or Levels 1-3:

Students at this level fall on the spectrum between reading no music and reading notes on the staff in several changing positions. Early elementary students may not read notes on the staff or may just be beginning to read in one fixed position with quarter, half, and whole notes. Late elementary students are typically able to move between several related positions on the keyboard while reading quarter, half, and whole notes and simpler eighth note subdivisions.

DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT $200.

If your student can't read all the notes on the staff and find their locations easily, has not studied all the major and minor five-finger scales, and cannot change positions quickly while maintaining a steady beat, DO NOT MOVE ON. Don't worry - they will get there!

Intermediate or Levels 4-7:

Students typically spend a number of years in the intermediate level, and it is both the easiest phase to rush and the most essential for a students' development. Early intermediate students are able to play in more quickly changing hand positions with basic rhythmic syncopations, while late intermediate students can handle large, rapid changes of position, larger hand spreads, and complex rhythmic subdivisions. This stage of growth is VITAL to building the relaxed technical foundation for advanced repertoire, as well as recurring patterns of chords, arpeggios, and fingerings that students can build on in advanced study. Most students need time to physically grow into late intermediate repertoire as these pieces require larger hand spans than early and mid-intermediate pieces, as well as attention to detail and the expressiveness that emotional maturity bring. A study of major and minor scales, arpeggios, and chord inversions are deal breakers for moving past the intermediate level and into advanced repertoire.

DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT $200.
If your student has not played all major and minor scales, arpeggios, and chord inversions, or plays with excessive tension in the shoulders, arms, and wrists, DO NOT MOVE ON.

Advanced or Levels 8-10+:

Students in early advanced repertoire can execute very large position changes quickly, have the hand span to reach large and complex chords, and can accurately count very complex rhythmic figures. Most pieces at this level require complicated voicings (playing one finger louder than the other nine), fluent note reading, and the relaxed hand position formed in the groundwork of intermediate repertoire. Career musicians spend the rest of their lives mastering pieces of advancing complexity at the this level, and the sky is truly the limit!

As parents, we all dream of a day when our students can play at the advanced level - as a parent of two high school musicians, I share that dream! Part of our role as parent cheerleaders is to encourage our students to enjoy the journey, mastering each sequential skill without being in too big a hurry to rush on to the next bigger and faster piece. Taking on pieces that are too technically challenging can cause injury and stall progress in reading by limiting the number of pieces kids are exposed to regularly. This has the opposite effect of what parents intend, halting progress altogether since reading ability will continually fall below technical ability.

SO, take your time. Enjoy the process, and remember to make music at whatever level you are today. The big stuff will come as long as you stay dedicated to the process and don't give up.