Keys to Success for your students

MMTA has a special gift for its piano teaching members and their students – a new printable poster on which you can track your students’ progress through the piano and theory exam programs.

Keys to Success is a poster you can print for every student.  You might display them on your studio walls so all your students can show off their accomplishments, or you might prefer to keep a copy in each student’s binder as a personal measure of progress.

The poster lists the sequence of both piano and theory exams, as the program requirements intertwine. Students will always know what comes next in their journey to pianistic success. There is room for you to note the date the exam was taken, and whether the student passed with High Distinction, Distinction, or Excellence.

(Please note that the poster shows the sequence of piano and theory exams using the new 2015 Theory program levels.  Feel free to adapt to fit your studio for students who started their study using the 2002 theory curriculum.)

Where can you get this poster for your students?  Go to www.mnmusicteachers.com, log in, and then explore the resources available at https://www.mnmusicteachers.com/teacher-resources-educational-programs. 

Convention Session - June 2015

Did you miss the MMTA Convention this year?

Here's a few reminders from the Piano Exam Development Committee's session.

Our session was titled, Getting Started with Piano Exams, Part 2:  Repertoire Selection.  The big question on everyone's mind was, Part 2?  Where is Part 1?

Part 1 was last year's session.  It covered topics like, using the syllabus as your studio's core curriculum, helpful resources, building your studio library, getting parents on board, what to expect at the exam, and how to help your students benefit from the written critique.  A number of these topics were turned into newsletter articles and blog posts.  Check out the link to all our Getting Started articles.

We reminded our session attendees that the primary resources needed to get started with exams are the Piano Syllabus, Piano Exam Prep Packet, and Resource Reference.  These three items are available in the MMTA Store for the bargain price of $30!

To help visual learners with keyboard skills, we are in the process of developing a print resource showing all the keyboard skills required at each level.  The Prep, Level One and Level Two keyboard skills are available to members at no charge -- download from the Member Resource area of the MMTA website. (Log in to access.)

Another new resource for members is the Repertoire Substitutions: 5 Year Contest List database. This is also in the Member Resources area of the website - log in to access.  Here you can search previous contest lists for repertoire suitable for your student.

Watch for our next blog posts, where we will share panelist suggestions for repertoire selections.

New theory prerequisites

MMTA is abuzz with excitement – the new theory materials are being published this spring! Along with the excitement come questions about how the new program will align with current program requirements.  Here’s a chart you can keep close to your piano exam syllabus.

Piano Exam Level	2002 Theory	2015 Theory Prerequisite
Prep	None	none
1	None	none
2	None	1
3	1	2
4	1	3
5	2	3
6	2	4
7	2	4
8	3	5
9	3	5
10	4	6
11	4	6

The column on the left shows Piano Exams by level.  The middle column shows Theory requirements as listed in the current piano exam syllabus.  The column on the right shows the updated Theory requirements, as passed by the Board of Directors.

You will notice some new things:

• ·        The 2015 Theory program includes eight levels rather than the previous six. 
• ·        Starting in September, Piano Exam Level Two will now have a prerequisite of 2015 Theory Level One.

Keep in mind, if your students have already passed required levels of the 2002 Theory program, those scores will qualify for the prerequisite theory.  For instance, if you are registering a student for Piano Exam Level Five and the student has passed 2002 Theory Level Two, you are all set!

Also, keep in mind that meeting the theory requirements qualify students for the comprehensive piano certificate and make students eligible for monetary awards.

If you have questions about the theory requirement for piano exams, please contact Program Director Gina Skule.

Using Downloaded Scores

Among the many resources for acquiring printed music today is downloading sheet music from various websites. The practice of downloading music from the internet is infrequent at this point, although it may become more popular with teachers and their students.

Because the Piano Exam program (and MMTA, generally) has a strict rule prohibiting the use of photocopied repertoire, this article addresses the verification of legitimately obtained music for purposes of the exam.

As you are probably aware, several websites offer free printed music as non-copyrighted or public domain works which some of you may use to fulfill syllabus needs for piano exams. Other websites sell sheet music for instant download and usually include “permission granted to...” or “copyright granted to…” which prints at the bottom of each page of the music. This article will not go into the names or legitimacy of the various websites, which is rather complex and certainly beyond our scope.

In order to respect a composer's copyright and to protect ourselves as teachers, and MMTA, from copyright infringement, the Piano Exam Program is requiring compliance regarding downloaded sheet music. Basically, piano exams will use the same policy adopted by the Young Artist Program.

If your student is using printed music from a website, the MMTA Music Release Form included in this article will be available at the exam site and will need to be signed by a parent of the student before testing. Please make your student aware of this extra step on exam day. Although the form contains a lot of legalese, it is essentially declaring the music has been obtained without copyright infringement and without holding MMTA responsible in any capacity.

Who’s Who in the Piano Syllabus Program?

It takes a lot of people to administer a program as extensive and complex as MMTA’s Comprehensive Piano Syllabus and Examination Program.  Let me introduce you to our key people.

Program Director Gina Skule oversees the administration of the program, is a member of the piano exam development committee, and sits on the Piano Education Council.  She is the go – to person when you have a question about rules, procedures, repertoire or substitutions.

Level XI Program Director Dr. Richard Lange can answer questions about the highest level exam.  Remember to send repertoire selections for approval well in advance of the exam – even before the student begins to prepare the program. Level X students also need to have their program approved by the Level XI Program Director.

Site Administrators around the state are in charge of the local test sites.  They schedule students, coordinate judges and volunteers, and handle any surprises on exam day. These dedicated members are listed on page 63 of your Handbook.

MMTA staff members Sonja Gustafson and Riley Pritchett are the efficient people who receive your registrations when you mail them or register online.  They process payments, check for accuracy, and compile reports for each site. If they can’t answer your questions, they can point you to the volunteer who can.

Repertoire checkers receive the student repertoire lists and verify that all the selections conform to the syllabus requirements.  They contact teachers when they see incomplete or inaccurate information.  They do this as speedily as they can, so students have time to adjust repertoire when needed.

Materials coordinators receive reports for each site and then send all the materials needed for the site – enough copies of the keyboard skills test and sightplaying test for each judge, enough critique forms for each level.

Judge coordinators from the Judge Education Committee coordinate the hiring of judges for each site.

Volunteer coordinators work at some of the larger sites to recruit volunteers to staff the registration desk and grading tables.

Judge Education Committee Chairs Marcia Vahl and Marianne Bryan are the key people to resolve any questions or complaints about judging issues.

Piano Exam Development Committee members: Elaine Wipf, Ann Mishler, JoEllen Kloehn, Marcia Vahl, Gina Skule.  Not pictured: Philip Low, David Schaffer-Gotschalk, Elise Rieke, Grace Kopitzke, Judy Payne, Sarah Mensen, Kirsten Levorson.

Piano Exam Development Committee members are working on the next syllabus edition, scheduled for publication in 2020.  These are the people who want to hear from you – what do you like about the current edition, what do you wish was different, what are some great new pieces that should be included in the next edition? Please contact Chair Kirsten Levorson or any member of the committee when you have ideas to share.

Thanks to all who make this valuable program work for our students!

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.