Do you have students/parents who bring you their editions of baroque and classical pieces and insist that you use them?
What if you don't like the editions due to inaccuracies and such?


Just another cat and dog thing in the studio

Hee hee...

Luckily, I have not really had too many people show up with pre-purchased music. They are happy to buy what I tell them to. If someone did show up with a crappy edition, I would explain to them why it's important to learn from a good edition and urge them to purchase one.

Well, a couple of my students' parents play the piano, and they insist on having their kids use their old books. Oh, my god. The "book" is barely holding together, and there are dates on the pages that predate me. Pretty good prices on those books, though!

I love Henle Urtext, but I did find some books that aren't well spaced out. Just today I was sight reading through a Bach book, and squirmed at how "squishy" everything was--like having all three voices in one clef and leaving the bass clef blank. Who made _that_ editorial decision??

Barb, I'm sorry, I meant to answer this yesterday, but got tied up preparing our chapter's Sonatina Festival program which comes up in less than four weeks.

Occasionally, I have students show up with ancient, worn, tattered editions. Most recently, in Korean. Of course, this is of no use to me, because I cannot read and evaluate what is being said in the preface or as foot notes. Then there are the "Worlds most beloved music" before 1900, no longer under copyright, with no fingering or editorial content, in ten volumes. This isn't suitable for teaching.

Most often, however, if the transfer student who shows up and is mid-way through volume 3 of XYZ method. One which I don't use and am not very familiar with.

I have found, in years of teaching, what works best for me and which allows me to help the student along rapidly, but completely, is to use graded repertoire series. There are many, but my primary set is the Keith Snell Piano Repertoire series. My secondary set for use with siblings is Jane Tan's series and Helen Marlais' series. I find Helen's Festival series very useful for older (teen) transfer students who need "excitement" in their musical life in order to keep motivated.

As students begin to reach the upper intermediate level, I transition them to composer sets or individual sheets, and for those, I use Henle, UA, the new Schirmer, Peters (the German, not NYC editions). Contemporary music is problematic, because the music is under copyright, and most of the time, the composer or heirs have selected a publisher who makes most economic sense, not whose forte is necessarily the best teaching edition. You just have to live with this.

As far a parents insisting that you use a certain edition, your basic response should be diplomatic but firm: I use the editions I use because I've evaluated many and found these best for students and my teaching style. If you insist that I use such and such edition, you're tying my hands. Surely you don't really want that for your student?

Or you could take the more aggressive approach: When you went to college, did your professors give you a choice of text books? Then neither will I.

Something similar was presented to me yesterday, "Popular Classics" copyright 1910 and the pieces are so smushed on the page I don't see how the student could read this, let alone me try to teach from it. That's what prompted me to post this subject. Parent asked if "the pieces are complete" and I said I wasn't sure, I would have to look at each one we are interested in. "Way back when", did the publisher have to indicate if these selections were just exerpts from pieces or not?

Barb, I would avoid these like the plague. Several reasons.

1 - Heavily edited, doesn't reflect the composer's intentions, but the editor's idea of what will sell and make money.,

2 - Often excerpted or reduced.

3 - Poor print quality.

Really, you're the teacher. Tell the parent while these may have some historical value (not much), you won't teach from them.