College Coursework for the Piano Major

Piano classes for the keyboard major include:

• applied keyboard study
• history of music literature
• accompany and ensemble performance
• chorus
• functional piano

The student will be exposed to a broad range of piano literature. Insight into various styles, an understanding of performance traditions, interpretative depth and sensitivity toward music are areas that are developed. The piano student should have at least a listening aquaintance of these composers, be able to identify the periods based on the style heard, and to be able to play increasingly difficult selections from each:

1. Representative seventeenth and eighteenth century works by D. Scarlatti, Couperin, Handel
2. A cross section of J.S. Bach's keyboard works
3. Familiarity with important sonatas, concertos, and other solo works of Haydn and Mozart
4. A representative sampling from each of the three periods of the Beethoven sonatas, as well as acquaintance with the concertos and variations
5. A cross section of such nineteenth century composers' works as Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, Brahms
6. Familiarity with representative impressionistic works of Debussy and Ravel
7. An examination of representative pieces of twentieth century figures as Scriabin, Stravinsky, Bartok, Prokofiev, Copland, Schoenberg

The piano teacher should be able to analyze technical problems, and over an extended period systematically guide the student toward ever greater physical ability at the piano. Exercises alone, introduced with the usual arsenal of scales, arpeggios, etc. will not be adequate preparation for virtuoso playing. The teacher must also be able to explain how to use the playing mechanism, what to do with the arm, wrist, and fingers as in keyboard phrasing, how to produce certain effects, how to go about unraveling a technically difficult passage, etc. Without correct technical training, the result can be lost time, sore muscles, and tight, poor playing.

The piano student learns to make his own interpretative decisions - especially in regards to keyboard dynamics - to gain even greater technical security, and able to produce finished results without the teacher's prompting. In short, he becomes an artistic entity in his own right.