More Sonatinas Please, why piano students should spend less time in exam prep and more time at the intermediate level
Dear Piano Teacher,
My child has been taking piano for several years and is working towards Grade 5. They’ve been working on it a long time and feeling frustrated and wants to quit. We are looking for a fresh perspective. We just need to GET THROUGH THIS GRADE!
Can you help?
Sadly, this is not an uncommon email in my inbox, it’s also the most heartbreaking. Here in the UK music exams are a BIG deal. Everyone knows that music grades exist, people believe that sequentially passing these grades marks musical achievement, some parents have heard that passing the higher grades contributes to UCAS points (the points students collect and then use toward University applications) and most people believe that the grades make or break the future you will have as a musician.
Most of this is not true, but this idea has led to a culture that thinks going outside of the grading system is a little bit hippy, lazy - and quite honestly - pointless.
I challenged these notions once to a British colleague saying that in the USA, where I grew up and studied, this focus on exams is not as strong. I argued that there might be a better way to achieve high musical standards without them.
The reply I received was a terse “When in Rome…”
I am going to press the point though. This high focus on an exam based curriculum leaves students exhausted, uninspired, burnt out, and at the most extreme - unable to compete at an international level.
How many students on the music exam path have a repertoire that consists exclusively of exam pieces, some Christmas songs, and the couple of lead sheets they played in the school jazz band?
Answer? Too many.
I have sat beside grade 8 transfer students, watching them struggle through a second movement of a Mozart sonata. Finally, unable to continue watching them suffer, I stop them and ask how many other sonatas they have played - none. Have they played the other movements of this one - no. Have they every played a sonatina? - no.
This brings me naturally to the point of my blog title. Students should spend more time studying sonatinas. They should spend several years at this level. The intermediate piano literature is beautiful, powerful and vast. The technical demands and musical ideas found at the intermediate level are within a young person’s grasp. They can learn to be imaginative, creative and fluent musicians at this level. In turn, these little successes and moments of achievement are the foundation of a life-long passion for music. Time spent at this level allows students to develop skills that will easily lead them on to advanced repertoire.
When does “Intermediate” start?
I think perhaps this is better answered with “when does the beginning stage end?”.
In summary, the beginning stage ends when…
Students know their way around the grand stave (their reading might be slow but they know what they are doing)
They have a healthy practice routine (20-30 minutes most days)
Their technique has developed enough to handle legato playing and two octave scales
They know most of the major and minor scales
They have some performance experience; school/church concerts, family parties, formal recitals master class/group work
They have some experience in ensemble playing; piano duets with me and other students
They have experience memorising repertoire and performing from memory
In my studio I find that students begin to transition from the “Beginner Phase” into this “Early Intermediate” phase after about 3 years of lessons. The timeline is different for every child but I find this to be average.
Honest confession - it is easy as a teacher to get overly ambitious at this stage. We’ve worked with a child for all this time, we know them and their families well. We have seen them succeed many times. We look at them and think “wow, they could pass grade 4 with a bit of a push.”
Stop, stop, stop!
I have done this. When I was a younger, less experienced teacher, I made the mistake of rushing kids at this level too far ahead too quickly. Students at the early intermediate level need to put the brakes on and slow down. They don’t need to rush. There’s a lot of material to cover and they need to be able to absorb it all. Also, students at this level are often at an age when lots of things are changing. They might be getting ready to move up to secondary school, taking entrance exams, managing new social pressures, and facing physical changes.
Slowing down and taking time at this stage is absolutely critical. Music needs to be the thing they come home to, not an extra stress on top of everything else.
Practically, what repertoire is considered "Intermediate”?
I take my students through the following list of repertoire. I add supplements along the way as needed making sure they have several of these:
Pieces from the “Anna Magdalena Notebook”
Several complete Sonatinas
Lots of Children’s repertoire from the 20th century Russian composers
Bach Inventions
Lots of songs and dances, Gurlitt, Bartok, Minuets, Folk Songs, etc.
Lots of ensemble pieces; duets, accompaniments etc.
The Intermediate books I use in order:
Piano Literature Volume One Jane Smisor Bastien
Piano Literature Volume Two Jane Smisor Bastien
Piano Literature Volume Three Jane Smisor Bastien
Piano Literature Volume Four Jane Smisor Bastien *
Piano Literature Volume Five Jane Smisor Bastien *
* I consider books four and five of the Bastien series as ‘early advanced’. I add them here because they offer a wonderful collection of repertoire and are excellent introductions to the advanced levels of playing.
Students learn most of the pieces in each book. We might skip certain pieces but as a rule they learn most of them.
Widening Musical Experience:
The intermediate stage is also the perfect time to broaden musical education. I encourage students to attend concerts, compose, sing, study music history, join bands and ensembles, and listen to recordings of classical music.
This is also the time where students begin to increase practice time, preparing them both physically and mentally for the higher levels of repertoire and study.
How long is the intermediate stage?
Simple answer - years.
Students can easily spend 3-5 years at this level. If they start lessons when they are 6-years-old they might begin the early intermediate stage between the ages of 9 - 11. This means that when they are 15 / 16 - years they might be ready for the early advanced repertoire. It depends of course on what’s happened in their lives and their style of learning, but I have found this to be a good general timeframe.
In the UK it means that they will very likely feel comfortable enough with their abilities to take music as a GCSE and then go on to take music for an A Level. They will be becoming well rounded young musicians with options on how they can permanently include music in their lives.
What about the parents who want and push for exams?
I like to think of myself as a good teacher which means that I have good communication skills. I take time to talk to my families about their children. I educate them on how I prepare children for higher music opportunities. I never say NEVER when it comes to exams but I delay them until a child is well into the intermediate stage and they can take Grade 3 with extreme ease. This is often an ongoing conversation I have with parents and we end up working together with each individual child.
Mostly, I find that the parents who push for exams are often not particularly advanced musicians themselves. They don’t necessarily know the limitations of the exam system. These parents just want the best possible education for their children. I love this parental enthusiasm and I welcome it. I just have to communicate, explain how music education works best and how it is working for their child. I have found that when parents see their children progress and succeed at music, they feel safe in my teaching and we work well together. Students flourish in this environment and exams become an interesting occasional addition to an already full musical education.
What about the transfer student?
Teaching a transfer student can be tricky if they come to me because they feel they need a new teacher. Arriving at the point where you think you need a new teacher means you have likely spent a long time feeling dissatisfied, confused and tired with music. The things that need to be developed and healed in these circumstances sometimes don’t have anything to do with music itself but instead with practice routines, under-confidence, general apathy or fear. I take these students out of the exam system as quickly as I can, replacing exams with recitals, ensembles and as much creativity as possible. If I had a penny for every time I’ve said “perhaps we take a break from exams for a while and fill in some gaps?” I would be swimming in pennies. When I say this, parents usually sigh with relief, especially if they have been watching their child suffer through one exam after another for years.
Teaching music is as much about building relationships and trust as it is about anything else. But of course, this is the nature of music. The language of the soul, nothing less than beautiful will do.