We heard from a lovely piano teacher from WA today, who writes about the challenge:
“I did venture into the 40-piece challenge last year (read about it on one of Tim Topham’s blogs) – well, I gave my students a choice of 20 or 30 or 40 pieces – and found there was quite an even spread amongst them of which challenge they undertook (though I did have one little lad who opted for the 20 piece challenge but completed that in 2 1/2 terms and then asked me for another challenge sheet!!)
I asked parents to give their children a little treat/reward at 10, 20, 30 and 40 pieces and asked the kids to make sure they reminded their parents!!”
Irene – WA
Teachers, to encourage suitable musical “rewards” to be given by parents to students, why not assist with a list of repertoire suggestions. Ensure the repertoire is easy enough so that the student and parent achieve instant musical gratification when the book is gifted.
For example, if a child has just completed their 3rd Lesson Book in a series (for example Level 3 of the Hal Leonard Student Piano Library)
suggest one of the books from the correlated series, perhaps a Broadway or Popular Collection. Allowing the parent to choose gives them some ownership or the idea and allows them to hear the music that they want to hear in the home.
