Piano Exam Repertoire: Substitutions Made Easy

By Kirsten Levorson, NCTM

Choosing repertoire for our students taking piano exams can be a complicated business.  We consult the syllabus lists for music that will appeal to the student and match their skill level, we consider the books the student already owns, we consider how the piano exam repertoire fits with other contests and festivals the student will prepare in the same year.  Sometimes it all fits together easily, and other times we need to dig a little deeper to find just the right combination of pieces.

Fortunately, our options include repertoire from the MMTA Contest lists for the current year and four previous years.  That’s a lot of choices! It can be a challenge to remember which year’s list can be used, keep together all the corrections and clarifications, and have all those choices at your fingertips.

MMTA has recently developed an online tool to help you manage those substitution choices and find pieces for your students easily.  Log into the members’ area of the website at www.mnmusicteachers.com and go to https://www.mnmusicteachers.com/repertoire-substitution-list. 

Here you have a searchable database of all the eligible Contest pieces from the combined five year list. You can search by composer, title of the composition, anthology or source, Contest year or level, or Piano Exam level and musical style period (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionist, 20^th Century and Beyond).

Let’s say you have a student preparing for Piano Exam level four.  You have selected Baroque, Classical and 20^th Century pieces from the syllabus lists, and you’d like to substitute a Burgmuller piece for the Romantic list, but you can’t find your contest lists and don’t remember whether the piece was on the list four years ago or six.  So you go to the Repertoire Substitutions page, enter Burgmuller in the Composer field and level four in the PE Level field. 

Click the Search button, and here are the first of many results shown.

That was easy!

• ·        You can search by the name of an anthology or book title to select pieces from a book your student already owns. 
• ·        Search results indicate at which Piano Exam levels a Contest piece may be used.
• ·        Search results include Notes about using the piece – whether or not to take repeats, for instance.
• ·        Search results also verify the list (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionist, 20^th Century) where the piece can be substituted for piano exams.  No more guessing and risking an error message.

We hope this new tool helps you plan your students’ repertoire choices with ease.

**Please let us know how this tool works for you – our long term goal is to have all the repertoire for the 2020 edition of syllabus available in a similar searchable database.

Building Your Studio Library

By Kirsten Levorson, NCTM

At a summer meeting of the Piano Exam Development Committee, we had a lively discussion in response to the question: Which anthologies do you find most helpful for students taking piano exams?

We talked about how daunting the syllabus can appear at first glance – how would a new teacher begin to select repertoire? What books would you recommend as an essential part of your studio library? We talked about how different students have different needs.  A family with multiple siblings or a student who works hard and learns quickly may need a bigger book containing many pieces, while other students need the sense of accomplishment that comes from more frequently completing a smaller book with fewer pieces.

Here are some of our favorites for traditional classical literature:

Beginning Piano Solos: 132 Original Masterpieces by Paul Sheftel (Fischer) contains some pieces from our piano exam level one all the way to level seven. One of our members noted that at levels three and four, you could select all four required pieces from this one book.  Great deal at $16.

Essential Keyboard Repertoire by Lynn Freeman Olson (Alfred) with its eight volumes is a foundation of many studio libraries. We love that the books are spiral bound.

Music for Millions, four volumes edited by Denes Agay was the third universal choice among our members. Each of these three series do a great job of presenting material from beginning to advanced repertoire.

Classics for the Developing Pianist: Core Repertoire for Study and Performance is the new five volume series compiled and edited by Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield and Phyllis Alpert Leher and published by Alfred. Many of our committee members had recently purchased the complete set. 

Masterworks Classics, Melodious Masterpieces, and Masterpieces with Flair by Jane McGrath were all books that received high praise from committee members, especially for intermediate and advancing students.

There are many more fine series of anthologies available – we all spoke of using the Bastien Piano Literature series, the Festival Collection, Keith Snell’s Piano Repertoire series, and more. Some of us use a different series with different students.  

If you are wondering what books will work for your students, don’t forget to check the MMTA Resource Reference availableonline. The Resource Reference includes many anthologies, listing for each title all the syllabus pieces it contains and the piece’s syllabus level.

Helping Students Benefit from the Exam Critique

By Kirsten Levorson, NCTM

This year our newsletter articles have focused on Getting Started with the Piano Exam Syllabus – highlighting the tools and resources available to help prepare your students, diving into the technical skills, and detailing what to expect at an actual exam.  Today we’re going to address one more important aspect of the exam experience:  helping your student get the full benefit from the adjudicator’s written comments.

Self Evaluation

At the next lesson after a student takes an exam, I like to start by asking the student to evaluate their own performance.  “How did the exam go? Tell me what it was like for you.” Often, students will tell me details of how they got to the site, whether or not their parent got lost, how they were running late or arrived early and had to wait, or where they went for ice cream when it was all over.  These details paint a clear picture of the student’s state of mind at the time of the exam – whether they were calm or stressed, excited or scared.

I ask about the performance, often zeroing in on a specific challenge they had worked to overcome. “Did the keyboard skills go well? How was the memory on your Bach piece?”

The student who was well prepared for the exam is usually quite self-aware and knows exactly how things went.  They can tell me whether the instrument helped or hindered their efforts to play with dynamic contrasts, and they can tell me right where their fingers stumbled or their memory slipped.

Reading the Judge’s Comments

After hearing the student’s view of how things went, I’ll bring out the critique and we read comments together.  Sometimes we have to decipher hard to read handwriting, and sometimes a word or phrase needs explanation.

The judge’s comments are a wonderful opportunity to confirm and expand a student’s awareness.

· When the comments reinforce the student’s self-evaluation, commend the student. “Yes, the judge agrees that you could have made the contrasts between loud and soft even bigger.”

· Comments that suggest areas for improvement can open the student to new ideas. Young students are often focused simply on whether or not they played the right notes, and a judge’s comments about dynamics, articulation and phrasing can help a student expand their idea of what makes a musical performance.
· Sometimes the comments reinforce a concept or skill that you as the teacher have been trying to convince the student is important – it’s helpful for the student to hear it from another source.
· Sometimes a judge’s comments will actually contradict your own philosophy or musical ideas. That’s a great opportunity to talk with students about subjectivity in musical interpretation.

The Value of the Learning

At the end of the conversation, I like to set aside the critique and draw the student’s attention back to the experience itself.  “Wow – you really learned a lot of music for this exam.”  I sometimes flip back in their assignment book and take note of how many weeks (or months) they worked on a particular piece, or take note of a new skill they worked to acquire. I congratulate them for taking on the challenge of the exam and working incrementally toward their goal. 

These conversations are great ways to congratulate students on their accomplishments, set some next goals, and reinforce the idea that it’s their daily commitment to practicing that makes their musical dreams come true. The MMTA Piano Exam Syllabus and testing program is a valuable tool in my studio, providing the structure and opportunity for students to learn and grow.

What to expect at the exam

by Kathleen Teuber Younker

Preparing students for piano exams for the first time might seem a daunting task, but if you follow a few very straightforward steps, the exam experience can run smoothly for both the teacher and the student.  The biggest questions that may run through the teacher’s mind are, “Am I teaching my students the right things?” and “How can I prepare my students so they are ready on time without stressing them out?”

            

As for the first question, the first step is this: Let the syllabus be your guide.  Read and re-read the guidelines for the level you have chosen, and go to the MMTA website to see if there are any corrections that pertain to that level.  The second step:  find a mentor, that is, a teacher who is experienced in preparing students for exams.  Most experienced teachers will gladly help another teacher get started because they are so enthusiastic about the program themselves.  Don’t hesitate to contact this person with questions, even if you think they are stupid.  There are no stupid questions when it comes to exams.  It is better to get it right than not to be sure.

            

The second question on how to prepare the student can be dealt with in a variety of ways:

1. Start early.  If you think a student is ready to prepare for a spring exam, begin preparing in the fall.  The keyboard skills for the level you have chosen can be continually perfected throughout the year.  Some of the repertoire can be started in the fall.  If your precocious student learns it quickly, it can be set aside and brought out when it is needed.  There is nothing so confidence-building for a student as bringing out an old favorite and realizing how quickly it comes back.
2. Try to choose pieces that might be used for other purposes, as well.  For example, if your student has a Contest piece, you may also be able to use it as an exam piece.  If your students are involved in the Federation Festival, they might be able to use one of their exam pieces as their “choice” piece for Federation. 
3. Build their confidence.  Students who know exactly what to expect experience less anxiety and conversely, more confidence.  At some point before the final preparation begins, make sure they have the “Piano Exam Preparation Sheet” and, for level three or above, the “Oral Questions Worksheet”.  Both of these resources can be found in the Piano Exam Preparation Packet, which came with the syllabus. In the last month before the exam, do a series of mock exams in the piano studio so the students know exactly how it will be conducted (keyboard skills first, then repertoire, questions, and finally sight reading).  Make sure to place the “Keyboard Skills Practice Test” (also found in the PEPP) in front of them during these mock exams, because it will be placed in front of them during the real exam.  They are sometimes terrified when they see the figuration of their chord progressions in print, so showing and explaining it ahead of time alleviates their stress on this point.
4. Explain to your exam candidates that there is only going to be one person listening to them during the exam, and that person is also a piano teacher, so in a way it is almost like going to a piano lesson. 
5. Prepare them for the little things that might go wrong (what to do if they get stuck in the middle of their piece, what to do if the piano isn’t to their liking, etc.), but more importantly, prepare them for what you know is going to go right:  that is, in this exam there are no surprises.  What they experience in their exam preparation with you in your studio is the same as what they will experience in the exam itself.  And of course, one of the most important things that will go right is the learning that will have taken place, and the feeling of accomplishment in having developed skills they might not have developed without this worthwhile goal.   

Syllabus Savvy

by Elaine Wipf

How is your Syllabus Savvy?  Are you able to maximize the teaching resources of the syllabus?  The syllabus, PEPP, and resource list are valuable tools that will help you with many aspects of teaching.   Certainly the syllabus helps with exam preparation, but the syllabus also is a wonderful resource for planning curriculum, evaluating student level and needs, and determining the available options for printed music.  The syllabus is truly a teacher’s helper.

The syllabus is in three sections, the Syllabus (repertoire lists and requirements for each level), PEPP, and the ResourceList.  These three sections work together to help guide you and your student through exam preparation.  The syllabus contains level appropriate lists of repertoire.  This is a great way to plan curriculum, not only for the current level but in planning ahead for advancement.  Even if your student is not preparing for the exam, you can be sure of making a quality selection of repertoire if you use the syllabus lists.  

Using the syllabus also provides you with an opportunity to evaluate your student’s level and progress.  Since each level includes appropriate technical skills, theory requirements, sight reading, and questions about style and form, you can be confident that your student is developing into a well rounded musician.  Also included in each level is a list of student expectations, so you and your student can evaluate their progress and readiness for testing.

The PEPP section (Piano Exam Preparation Packet) will help you assess readiness, and also build student confidence.  There are practice keyboard skills tests, and charts that help you track the progress of your student.  Even if your student is not taking the exam, the keyboard skills tests can be used for in studio testing and awards.

The last section of the Syllabus consists of the resource list.  Are you wishing to locate a specific piece?  Or are you wishing to know which pieces from the syllabus are in a specific book?  Many teachers use the resource list to make cost effective selections by finding books that contain pieces from the current level, and an advancing level for the future.  The resource section can help you locate, and plan your selection of printed music for your students.

The MMTA syllabus is a guide for exam preparation, but it is so much more.  Get the most from your syllabus and use it to plan repertoire, locate repertoire, evaluate your students, and plan a curriculum that is balanced and well rounded.  Be a Syllabus Savvy teacher!

A Student's View

This is a college application essay written by Jared Funk, student of Kathleen Tueber Younker.

I started playing the piano when I was young. When I started learning music, my teacher taught me rhythm by having me stomp and clap to the beat. This meant that my repertoire consisted of what I could stomp and clap. Now I am currently working on the piece "Through Moanin' Pines", an early advanced song. It has always interested me how I could go from all my musical talent being stored in one finger to reading pages of music covered in ink. I think this also applies to my high school education because I'm ready to finish the “stomping stage.”

           

When I went to my first lesson, everything seemed intimidating. There was a tall lady who kept telling me what to do, large machines with unusual buttons, mysterious charts, graphs, and tapes. I never thought I’d be able to comprehend what was going on and what I was doing. I was forced to do some odd rituals similar to a dance. It all seemed so suspicious. Soon after that dreadful day, everything changed: that tall lady, weird machine, everything. Step by step, I began to grasp the concepts behind this thing they call music.

            

My piano lessons started with simple games so I would understand things like rhythm or how long a beat was and gradually transitioned into chords and scales. At first it didn’t make any sense. “Why do these particular buttons work together but these don’t?” That was the general question asked by my 5-year-old brain. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t even the half of it. I had to press buttons at different pressures, speeds, and timings. I had to use more than one hand at the same time or use the pedals with my feet. All these tasks didn’t seem possible to do simultaneously. Those thoughts persisted until the moment I could actually do it. It was magic! Everything seemed supernatural at that point. It was time for the show: Lights, camera, action!

             

I’ll admit it. When I started playing piano, I loathed performing at recitals and concerts. Performing was pure agony. My teacher, however, insisted it was important. I could not understood why. Couldn’t we just learn music and keep it to ourselves? Now I understand that without something to strive for, without a testament to what we’ve accomplished, we’ll never have the motivation to finish it. That one idea, motivation, has meant a lot to me. The same idea that brings doughnuts and cake to people’s minds is what allowed me to accomplish great things.

              

I’ve been taking piano lessons for over 10 years, objectively speaking, but the impact from the simple practice of learning music has gone much farther than time. I’ve spent so much time pressing those keys of white and black no unit of time can do it justice. In retrospect, it's funny how this abstract concept of music, combined with this oddly shaped machine became such an influential part of my life.

              

Every once in a while my extended family comes in with their little troop of toddlers. They see that magical box of musical  wonder and start banging on the keys just to see what happens. I see in that moment a fraction of what I was like, how much I’ve changed. Then almost immediately one specific question pops up, “Can you play?” That's all I need to hear. There’s nothing left to do but bang on those keys.

Getting Started

by Kirsten Levorson
Originally published in the January 2014 issue of the MMTA Newsletter

The Piano Exam Development Committee would like to thank all of you for responding to our survey this fall with helpful feedback about this program! Your responses are being reviewed to guide our work. Our first impressions: You affirmed the value of this comprehensive program, and you want tools to help you make this program even more accessible for more students.

As a result, we’ve decided to make “Getting Started with the Syllabus” our theme for this year. Our newsletter articles will detail a variety of ways teachers use the syllabus with their students, discuss the tools and resources we use to manage syllabus planning for our students, and give tips for mentally preparing students for the exam experience and for interpreting the adjudicator’s comments so that the student gets the full benefit of the program.

One comment that we heard many times from survey respondents was, “the syllabus provides the framework for my curriculum; I use it with all my students, even if they don’t go to the site and take the test.” That really sums up the value our members find in the syllabus.

So how do you get started using this fabulous curriculum with your students, if you haven’t before?

 1. Some teachers get started by using one part of the exam with all their students. It might be the technical
skills, or it might be the sightplaying. Students can prepare these portions of the exam and test them
separately if the comprehensive exam seems too daunting for a first step.

2. Some teachers learn the syllabus level by level. One year, they enter a bunch of students in the Prep level.
The next year, those students advance to Level One and a new bunch of students start Prep. Each year, the
teacher is simply learning the requirements for one new level of the syllabus.

3. Some teachers use the syllabus just for their hardest working students.

4. Some teachers limit the choices – for instance, having all students at a certain level play the same
repertoire selections.

5. Many let repertoire selections do double duty – contest pieces can be substituted, so that a piece the
student has already learned well can be the start of a full program.

6. Use your mentors. If you don’t have one, find one or ask a committee member for help. Check in
with a mentor when you are planning repertoire selections, and ask questions when requirements
seem confusing.

7. Volunteer on testing days. It’s a great way to get some hands on experience with the program. Helping at
the desk, you will see how things work and what you can do to make it a good experience for your
students. You’ll have time for conversation with seasoned teachers, too.

8. Check out the resources available to support the syllabus: 2010 Resource List helps you find syllabus
pieces in many anthologies; Piano Exam Prep Packet includes sample skills tests plus reproducible planning
forms; Style Characteristics Chart helps students prepare for oral questions; reproducible Keyboard Skills
sheets are available for Prep and Level One (more coming soon). All of these are available online at
www.mnmusicteachers.com on the Teachers Resources page.