Pre-College Piano Development

One of the most valuable pre-college experiences is the senior high school recital which can serve as preparation for both the college entrance audition and the ultimate graduation recital. A typical program might include one or two of the easier preludes and fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, a Haydn or Mozart sonata, a group of nineteenth-century works of the level of the Chopin waltzes and nocturnes or Schumann's Fantasy Pieces opus 12, and possibly closing with an impressionistic or twentieth-century group of the difficulty of Debussy's Pour le Piano, Copland's Cat and the Mouse, or Bartok's Allegro Barbaro. Even at this level, though, an effort should be made on the teacher's part to expose the student to as wide a range of musical periods and styles as possible.

A common error in the pre-college training is the assigning of pieces that are overly difficult both technically and musically. The experienced teacher will develop the student's playing gradually so that proper attention may be given to all areas of musicianship.

The prospective piano major should not only have acquired a degree of competency in performance, but should also be well-grounded in technique (scales, chords, arpeggios, etc.), have a thorough knowledge of theory, and have some knowledge of the literature. Supplied with an adequate pre-college background, the student will be well prepared to meet the demands of the college music department as a piano major.

At California State University at Los Angeles, for example, the Bachelor of Music degree is a rigorous curriculum for students who wish to prepare for a professional career in music or for those who wish to reach a professional caliber of music attainment. Within the Bachelor of Music degree program, students may pursue specialized study in vocal, instrumental, or keyboard performance; composition; jazz studies; and music education.

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Creative Practice

We all know that the results of piano lessons are largely dependent upon the practice done by the student between lessons. Every good piano teacher realizes this fact, and tries to encourage students to give consistent time and energy to home practice. Various plans work with greater or less success. Roughly these plans are

1. parental cooperation;
2. a card system for checking the time which the student has given to practice and some form of rewards; or
   
3. organization of home practice so it can become a creative experience

The third type, creative practice, can be the most effective, especially when combined with the spirit of emulation naturally stimulated by activities such as watching the teacher perform, listening to music, attending concert pianists' recitals, or attending local classical music events such as chamber music or musical ensembles. If a student can develop an interest in his practice, an initiative in going to the piano for pleasure, a desire for regularity in home study, this attitude will be a great step toward successful pianism.

Plan of Creative Practice

Essentially the plan of creative practice consists in presenting a musical problem to students which can be solved in different ways, or which can be worked out by the student from material of his own choosing culled from his previous experience. The music should be able to be worked out at the keyboard. This helps motivate good piano practice. The student then brings his solution to the lesson and has an opportunity to express his own ideas, to consult his own taste, and to have his opinions sympathetically considered by his teacher (and family). He has created something - thereby exercising one of the strongest incentives to playing piano. Of course, the teacher must exercise her own ingenuity and inventiveness in applying this idea.

It's best if lessons are varied, flexible and alive. Truly, home assignment shouldn't degenerate into mechanical drilling or to merely assigned tasks. Intense drilling can come in later years. When a particular composition is to be studied it is approached with the ideal of attaining an expressive result, as nearly as well as the child can make it; and whenever possible, taking a creative practice approach to the piece.

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