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Melinda's Mini March - I haven't come across this one. What book can I find it in and what level of difficulty Elissa? (feel free to recommend your own collections here as we buy a lot of your books )

A couple of my favourites-
Brian Chapple's March Hare is a real winner with students - not pop or jazz.
Sonny Chua'a Midnight Snack is a good one too (harder).
Both of these have great contemporary appeal but are excellent teaching pieces for developing pianistic technique.

I like to direct, suggest and encourage the discovery of favourite pop or movie music on their own. Great for holiday exploration. I'll give a little bit of help in lesson time but more happy just to listen to products of student's own efforts and leave them in a rough state. The student learns how to explore music independantly and lesson time is spent developing technique etc using pieces that do this well.

I think if a student didn't do at least some finding, self-teaching, composing, inventing, improvising or exploring on their own it would put piano learning in a very strange relationship with the rest of the creative arts. And yet I once had some lessons with a teacher who assumed control of all of the lesson and practice - the exactly what and which bars and how, in such a pervasive way that the students learned to be dependant, and learned this very well. So the students didn't waste any time going down dead ends and arrived at perfect fingers and perfect reading in as short a time as possible, gathering excellent exam marks along the way. Observing the beneits and costs in a few of her students at different levels has greatly informed my own teaching.

Melinda's Mini March is in Jazzin' Around 1. It's on the G4 AMEB syllabus (piano for leisure).

Ta

It's inevitable that our kids are drawn to modern/pop music - its all around their environment. I look at the positive side of it - my son is the typical kid who loves his computer games and stuff - yet he is also learning piano and doing well.

A large part of his motivation comes from idolising David Archuleta of American Idol fame, and a very popular American-born Taiwanese pop artiste - Wang LeeHom! He was especially mesmerised that both of them play piano - and really wants to be able to play piano and other instruments just like Wang (FYI LeeHom himself is a trained classical violinist who graduated frm Berkelee NY, and plays many instruments such as piano, violin, guitar, drums, chinese instruments).

So there you go

I think it's rather sad that many teachers have two classifications of music: "the stuff we do in lessons" and "fun stuff." In my experience you can have both. Learning pop music can be extremely beneficial on many fronts. Yes the rhythms are difficult but kids pick them up easily if they are familiar with the songs. Granted I'm not a huge HSM or Hannah Montana fan but there is good pop music out there. As well, if you suggest that they go learn things on their own chances are they'll spend time learning from YouTube and ignoring their regular assignments!

Why not hone your own transcribing skills and offer a wide variety of music to your students? I'm in total agreement that the arrangements on the market are dismal at best -- this is the result of publishing companies cutting corners and allowing unacceptable transcriptions into the marketplace. But why not teach your students how to transcribe or learn a song by ear? Let's face it there are rarely more than 4 chords in a pop song anyways and it's an excellent ear training exercise.

I think as teachers we need to accept and embrace all that is modern because that is what kids relate to. Isn't the ultimate goal with teaching to instill a love for music into our students? If pop music is what they love then play on!

I don't ban pop music, but won't purchase bad arrangements to give to a student. There are some good arrangements out there worth playing, and a lot of bad arrangements with ridiculous rhythm notation. I occasionally have a student wanting to be a jazz pianist, so that often becomes a focus by the junior high years to prepare for high school jazz band. I'm more inclined to give a student a fake book chart than a bad retail arrangement.

I agree. I think bad arrangements, or sometimes score arrangements at all, do more harm than good for a student who actually wants to learn to play jazz, funk, rock, blues, or just about anything that isn't classical.

I have a pet peeve about transfer students coming to me and showing me the "blues" they played with their old teacher, pages and pages of grand staff notation. Often there is a lame attempt to notate the swing with dotted rhythms. I have to find a way to tell them "that's not the blues; the blues isn't written" without insulting their old teacher.

There are very few really good arrangements. One of my high school students is always downloading arrangements of band music, and it's difficult to make a good piano arrangement out of those. I suffer through it....my agreement with them is to learn one pop piece, and then learn one classic.

Jennifer, when it comes to modern or contemporary music, I like to differentiate between pop and art music. My students get to play a lot of modern music, modern classical (art) music. One of my students will be playing Christos Tsitsaros' Sonatina Humoresque, published in 2009, in the Sonatina Festival next weekend. This is an upper intermediate level work which is taking some time for preparation.

I do encourage my students to play anything they like after they have completed their practice assignments. And I do encourage them to visit our local music store which is good for both student and the music store.

It's my recollection that children love sugar, candy, staying up late, avoiding bedtimes, watching too much TV, etc. As parents and teachers, we don't really have to feed them that which they will naturally consume. It seems to me that part of our job is to feed them that which they would avoid as "icky" because they are immature and don't know better. Often, they fall in love with it!

I just can't swallow that John! You know I love ya right? . . . but!

Would just like one book for each grade 1-8 with pop music that we could use in exams! Is that asking too much????

Right now, and I might add, I have bought "all" the required books that we can use for exams. There is "ONE" piece in each book that is a pop piece and that can be used for exams!

Here's the music books I have bought just to get the "one" pop piece out of it!

Starting with the Grade 8 Poplular Selection List!

Grade 8 -
Somewhere - West Side Story Cost of book, $20.00
Star Wars - Dan Coates Popular Music Collection for Advanced Player vol. 3 - cost of book, $25.00
My Funny Valentine - Richard Reodgers Classics - cost of book $25.00
In Dreams - From The Lord of the Rings Cost of book $20.00
Clocks - from Top Hits 2003 - Cost of book $20.00
When Im Sixty Four - Sheet Music Cost $6.00
All the Things you Are - Great Standards - Cost of book $25.00

Each book has the "one" piece in each book required for the exam!

This is just a small selection from just the Grade 8 choice list! I haven't even given the list of books for the Grade 7-1! Each one of those books is in the range of $20.

Can they just make one book with a pop music for "that" grade like they do with the classical pieces that are all "NICELY" arrange in ONE BOOK!

And they wonder why teachers chose to only use the classical pieces in exams!!!!! Who'd be stupid enough to go by a $20 book for just "one" pop PIECE!

ME!!!!!!!!!! . . . Damn rights I'm bitter!!!!

And just to add to my point here! here's a story about a 8 year old girl who wanted to play a disney piece! yes Disney!

I had an 8 year old girl. She loves disney! Who doesnt'! I like playing disney pieces!!!!

Anyways, her mother wants her to take all her exams! Great! So she is doing Grade 3! She is not allowed to play pop pieces for the list A B C pieces because they HAVE to be from the CONSERVATORY book! All are classical pieces! Surprise surprise!!! So I give her "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" pieces is in Solo Book - LEVEL 4 of the Alred's Basic Piano Library! It is allowed in the Grade 3 exam . . . But . . . have a look at this piece! Grade 3? So she wants to play it for the exam anyways! She works hard at this 3 page piece! . . . Have to add here that it's WAY harder than the etude "ONE PAGER" pieces from the required classical selection!!!

So she is "thrilled" to play it for her exam! What she didn't know, was that it's classified in the "etude" list and is worth, a whole . . . are you ready for this . . . a whole THREE marks!

THREE whole marks for a 3 page piece? Well this little girl just loved playing it, regardless of how many marks the disney piece was worth!!!!

She got to play the piece she loved!!!!

I had an interesting "a-ha" moment the other day.

I was sitting arranging Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" for some of my students. I'm thinking to myself, wow I have two degrees in music, a bachelor's in performance, and a master's in musicology and I'm arranging Lady Gaga for easy piano and couldn't be happier. I've spent years in school studying "art music" both old and modern and while I love studying the canon, 98% of my students don't. Since changing my teaching focus towards music that kids can relate to I have the happiest bunch of kids who never have to be prodded to practice. The kids are happy, the parents are thrilled, and I feel like I'm making a significant contribution to their lives. ...and surprise surprise, I have an extremely low dropout rate.

Mind you -- I've never done state testing. I did the testing through MTAC when I was a kid and hated the restrictions on repertoire. I wanted to play all the other stuff. I've never had my kids do exams and my kids are just as dedicated to their musical studies as kids who have to take yearly exams. I think it's sad when teachers believe that exams are the only way to measure success and progress.

I'm not saying this is the route for everyone but it has totally transformed my teaching career and my outlook on what's important in a music education.

Just a few weeks ago I had an interview with a 12 yo girl who was feeling really disenchanted by her studies. I had a frank talk with her about why she felt piano was boring. She pulled out one of her lesson books and opened to her latest piece which was called "A Shave and a Haircut," she looked at me and said, "I seriously cannot play this for my friends when they come over." This was a big "a-ha" for me. My students love that they can play radio songs (that sound good) for their friends and it gives them pride in what they are doing.

I realize we all have different types of clientele and for those who love art music -- carry on, I think it's fantastic. For my kids who want to play music they know we will keep forging this path! I think as teachers we need to be open minded about the way in which we can give kids a skillset that they can have for life. Who says that we can't learn about rhythm, reading, dynamics, articulation, etc. through pop music instead of Beethoven? It's food for thought...

You can't swallow sugar? I love sugar!

And unlike the food patrol, I eat it when I like it, and that goes for pop music, too. You might not believe it, but I really like C&W and show tunes.

The trouble with analogies is that they are, well, analogies. Never perfect, and always possible to pick apart.

In all my years of teaching, I've never had parents come to me and ask if I would teach their children to play the latest top 20 hits. They all seem to want their children to learn to be able to play proficiently and be exposed to a wide variety of styles, most especially what we call classical.

It would be terribly interesting if someone did a study about this looking into students who only learn "classical" music vs. kids who learn a variety of styles. It would be interesting to see who sticks with the piano longer and more importantly who maintains the skill for a lifetime (I mean isn't that the ultimate goal?).. In 16+ years of teaching I've known plenty who have done all the testing, played through high school, and then never touched the piano again.

Again, it just depends on who your clientele is -- different strokes...

Jennifer, we could do the same study with English Lit, Trigonometry, Calculus, Latin, and other sundry studies which are "required" in schools. I'll bet the results would be even worse than for piano! So why do schools and parents insist students learn stuff they will never use?

Jennifer, I'm in a very similar situation, with a similar approach. It's nice to hear it articulated by another teacher, and in such positive terms. I was just arranging a Taylor Swift song for a 12 year-old girl. She is very excited about it! I think that's even more lowbrow than Lady Gaga I had a great sense of irony as I explained to her that one could play the tune differently to accompany oneself singing, and proceeded to sing the first lines of "Love Story" before coming to my senses and thinking better of it.

But the result is that she has a sense that she can play music that she loves on the piano, that she feels personally connected to.

Toejam, I love how expressive you are about HATING certain music. Or should I say "music". This sounds like me talking about Phantom of the Opera. I have almost an irrational hate of it.

I had a student recently dedicate several months to 'Seasons of Love'. It was a stretch, but in the end she did it. I wonder what she got from it, musically. Not really much, except a LOT of counting out loud. I had a hard time really finding much else to teach as I would a classical piece. However, it was a very good boost for her. She worked hard, she accomplished what she set out to do, and she was very proud of herself. Now, I'm hoping she'll come around to thinking that Beethoven is even cooler, and work just as hard at that.

Well, I'm all about BALANCE when it comes to piano repertoire. I think kids should learn classical music as well as pop music. I think they should also have proficient sight reading skills AND be able to improvise and create their own music at the piano. Too many students these days are missing 'chunks' in their musical education. They might play only classical music. They might be able to sight read any music set in front of them but can't plunk out 'Happy Birthday' with a nice LH improvised accompaniment against a RH embellished melody.

I have a group of almost-junior-highers that are really into contemporary worship, so we work on sonatinas, Anna Magdalena's notebook, and then switch to Chris Tomlin, Kutless, and Matt Redman. They're learning how to read lead lines/chord symbols and sing while they play a simple two-hand accompaniment.

The value of persistence. The feeling of satisfaction after reaching a goal. A spirit of can-do. An emotional connection from mastering a piece she loves. (I know you said "musically" - I'm just pointing out "the things you learn on the way to learning other things," as a teacher friend used to say.)

Good for you, for letting her do it.

Now if I could just figure out how to get my rhythm-challenged student through the quarter and eighth note rhythms of the Harry Potter piece he brought me.... I may be bald before it's done.