Rethinking Genius

...it’s about the skills you bring to the piece. This is always an interesting topic for me because not only is it something that changes with where you are in your teaching career but is also highly dependent on each student.  As a teacher I have grown to consider it my job to "hold back" the student. That's not to say that I won't move a child on to a more challenging piece when he/she is ready.  But as school becomes more and more competitive and parents, naturally, want to make sure that their kid is "keeping up," it's almost too easy to focus on the numbers.  Music doesn't have any truly quantifiable measurements... except number of pieces. What piece is YOUR child on? I'm on the FOURTH piece in the book.  I've learned THREE Vivaldi concertos. It makes a certain kind of sense why the piece number becomes the area of focus.  It represents linear progress which is easier to grasp than holistic progress.  But taken out of co