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Hey Guys!

My piano student is 10 years old has been playing for 2 1/2 years now. This year he played already the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata g-Major KV 283, Chopin‘s Minute Waltz (not finished) and from Children‘s Corner Doktor Gradus ad Parnassum and Jimbo‘s Lullaby. Except for the Chopin waltz, Mozart and Debussy was played quite well.

Now I am searching for reportore and styles will bring him further and that continue the difficulty that he is now at. Any suggestions are welcome, thank you!

Hi
RCM snd ABRSM both list repertoire by grade level in their syllabi. Have you looked at those lists?

Is this in the context of a teaching program that you have set up for your student? What other elements are there?

Is this your first student? Some more details would be nice.

After 2.5 years?! That is very fast progress! Is your student able to read music at this level or is he learning by rote? It's great that he is motivated to learn such pieces but I think you should moderate his enthusiasm and assign pieces that develop musicality in other ways and not just flashy show pieces.

How much JS Bach has he learned?

You say the Chopin wasn't so good so maybe more lyrical Chopin pieces - waltzes, mazurkas, nocturnes?

Grieg lyric pieces?

Schumann?

(If this is for teaching)

Thanks for the input! My student is very smart and already won some chess championships. He likes the piano but doesn’t spend so much time practicing, maybe 20 minutes a day. For the two student recitals he already played at he practiced probably more. He becomes very good when perfectionizing for a recital. In my opinion, he is a little bit over-loaded with program (Chess, Piano, Cello, Badminton). I think the Chess influences his ability to understand quickly in a positive way.

Other pieces he played were the Kuhlau-Variations over an Austrian Folk Song, the Arabesque by Burgmüller, the Invention nr. 4 by Bach, the first movement of Beethoven op.49 nr.2, the waltz a-minor posthumous by Chopin, some Czerny etudes from op.599. Also he played with a flutist in his age in a small competition an Allegro by Blavet amongst two other pieces.

Yes, Grieg is a good idea, often underrated. Bach WTC gets very difficult in the Fuges sometimes, but of course also brings your playing to the next level. I suggested him BWV 866 together with Doktor Gradus and a Chinese piano piece and he could pick. He chose Doktor Gradus. Maybe I should prescribe him Bach the next time without any choice 😂With repertoire choice, I alter between let the students pick from 3 that I find valuable and one that I tell them they have to learn. Of course I am also open for their wishes that come solely from them.

Schumann, great idea! Lyrical Chopin as well!

We also do one Hanon-exercise a week, but maybe we can change to scales as they bring more Music theory with them. However, Hanon is great to activate finger activity. I know that you either hate them or love them, I am the ladder.

Thank you for your suggestions!

How about sight reading? The problem I see with moving so fast to advanced pieces is that his reading skills are going to lag behind. Is he mostly following the score when playing or does he learn note by note and then look at his hands all the time?

I think he can already follow the notes relatively well without too much looking down. But you are right! Sight reading is very good idea to make him able to learn such pieces we are doing right now much more faster.

For children, I think it is important that they develop all-round musical skills as well as all-round technical ones.

For instance, has he learnt any scales & arpeggios? How about aural skills? Can he play the tune of the (German) National Anthem - which is composed by Haydn, of course - by ear, say in C, F and G majors? Does he know whether the tune is in duple, triple or quadruple time, and does he know how to tell the difference? Does he know some basic theory?

Also, in terms of pieces, how about something from the 20th century which isn't by Debussy......like Bartók's Merry Andrew (which is at his current level)? More difficult but just as enjoyable, some of the pieces from Romanian Folk Dances?