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It's not about learning the next piece...


...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 context this standard makes no sense at all.  Consider any other skill:

What recipe is YOUR child on?

I'm on the FOURTH recipe in this one recipe book I'm working on.

In the context of cooking, recipe numbers are immediately scoffed at.  You would never say someone is an excellent cook because that person can cook fifteen different dishes.  You judge a cook based on the quality of food produced.

The same goes for writing.  An author can have one published book or fifty.  In no way does this reflect on the quality of story being read.  Jane Austen isn't "better" than Charlotte Bronte because she has six books compared to Bronte's one.

As with any art, music should always be about the skills brought out in the performance.  Good technique and beautiful tone can make even the most "beginner" pieces sound enjoyable.




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