Tracking Music Appreciation: Simple Ways to Turn Piano Students into Music-Lovers
One of our most important jobs as piano teachers is to help our students love and appreciate great music. If we can turn them into music-lovers and ignite a spark of excitement about music, great composers and the piano, the rest of our job will be so much easier!
Today I want to share four simple ways to encourage your students to listen to classical music. As piano students do these things and keep track of what they’ve done it will help them to discover great music on their own and be motivated to learn about new composers and pianists.
Listen to Great Music & Keep Track of Favorites
Our students need to listen to great music to be familiar with great composers and beautiful music. We can’t expect them to become great pianists if they don’t regularly LISTEN to great piano music. We also can’t expect them to love a lot of the music they are learning in piano lessons if we don’t teach them about composers, styles and genres and guide them in their music appreciation journey.
Listening should be a REGULAR part of piano lessons and piano practice. Parents can help a LOT in this area but it is up to us to guide and teach and encourage.
As your students listen to classical music they will start to come across composers and pieces that they love! They will find some recordings that they want to listen to over and over. Have them keep track of their favorite recordings and composers. Keeping a list of favorites will help them discover their particular music tastes and preferences. It will help them to really listen to music, and to recognize what it is about certain recordings and pieces that speaks to them.
Keep Track of Pieces You Want to Learn Someday
Studies have shown that piano students have a lower rate of dropping out of lessons when they are given more autonomous choice in the repertoire that they learn. One study showed a music student practicing twelve times longer per note on a piece of their own choice compared to a piece assigned by their teacher! The student’s practicing was also more strategic on the piece that they had chosen on their own. Having some autonomous choice is VERY important in helping our students be more self-motivated in piano.
As they are listening, have them keep a “Repertoire Wish List” – a list of pieces they have heard that they would LOVE to learn someday! When they are at an appropriate level, be sure they get the opportunity to learn pieces of their choice.
Look for Role Models
Are your piano students familiar with great pianists – both living and from the past? Can they list ten or more living pianists by name? Not knowing of any great pianists by name is like aspiring to be an athlete but not knowing of any professional athletes. Our students need role models to look up to. We have the amazing capability of being able to watch and listen to performances of great pianists simply by typing their name in a search on YouTube! The great pianists are literally at our fingertips and it is so important that our students have opportunities to watch them perform. Much can be learned from their skills and techniques, their interpretation of music and simply from being inspired by an amazing performance. Have your students keep a running list of pianists they admire.
Experience Live Music
Although the opportunity to access great performances online is wonderful, we must not also forget the importance of LIVE music. Do your students attend live professional performances? Have they been to the symphony? What concerts and recitals are available in your area that you could recommend to your students? Live performances are inspiring and motivating. Attending a live music event allows you to experience music WITH OTHER PEOPLE. Piano lessons can feel like a really solitary thing, so it is important to experience music with others. Invite your students to keep a list of concerts and recitals they have attended. You could even have them write down their favorite pieces they heard live – they may want to add some to their Repertoire Wish List!
All of these tracking sheets pictured in this article are included in my Piano Practice Journal, available for digital download as well as in paperback.
