Piano teachers,

Thisis my first post not in the Pianist's Corner, and I hope its okay that I post here as a student, not a teacher.

I've been playing piano for six years and would call myself intermediate in level. Here is my question to you as teachers:

If a student asked to work with you on a certain piece or set of pieces (at his level), for the purpose of building a repertoire of performable material (as opposed to method book pieces), would you allow it? Why or why not?

(In this case, the set of pieces in question is Clementi's Op. 36 Sonatinas.)

Thank you!

A repertoire of performable material sounds like an excellent idea. From the info in your post a resounding yes. If you've played for 6 years it's likely that the Clementi Opus 36 would be within your capabilities. Perhaps I would suggest that other pieces be learnt alongside the clementi (for example some Bach, some Romantic, some Bartok for example) so that other parts of your playing will be developed at the same time. All 6 sonatas is a big group to get to performance level, so I'd suggest choosing your 2 favourites to make a start on. When they're done you could choose the next two.

I would also discuss performance opportunities so that there is an exciting goal to look towards, the next student concert and something else as well.

Just read your post again "as opposed to method book pieces". Well my gut feeling is that if you want to do something outside of your method book then you absolutely should! Method books are not a good place to be if you are wanting out. And Clementi is such good training. Six years seems like a very long time to still be using method books (but I dont know your whole story obviously), a challenging change might push your playing to another level.

Perhaps your teacher doesn't like Clementi? maybe it's these pieces in particular. Is there something in your technique or knowledge that your teacher wants to put in place first?

Hope that this post is a useful answer to your question.