New topic: Teaching New Repertoire
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!
For this week’s topic I thought we’d talk about how we teach our students new repertoire. When your students begin a brand new piece, how do you introduce it to them? What strategies do you use to teach it, and what practice techniques do you encourage? If it is to be a recital piece, when do you have them start memorizing it? What are the important elements of the piece that you stress right from the beginning? Do you have them initially only work on it in smaller sections, or do you encourage them to sightread the entire piece right away? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic!
I am very interested in this topic. Can we discuss a "syllabus" lesson, maybe where we set everything up for the semester for goals? What about metronome markings for goals?
I have thought a lot lately about practicing and how I can make goals each week with my students on what to hear the following week. When I have a student learn a piece with FERN, do they do it just 5 times hands alone per day for a week? When do they start putting hands together? I have run into problems with how much each student can handle and sometimes when I write the metronome marking I would like to hear a section at the following week, they can't get it. Do I just rely on them to make their own tempo marking?