Author and teacher Karen Marshall shares tips for maintaining aural, sight-reading and technical work alongside preparing for piano performance exams.
Performance-only exams are now widely used by piano teachers around the world, and are offered by major exam boards including ABRSM, Trinity and LCM. This newer repertoire focussed format has its benefits, but it can be tricky for teachers to ensure that students still develop their technical skills such as aural, scales, and sight-reading when these are not assessed in the actual exam. So, how can we as teachers ensure a rounded curriculum when preparing students for a Performance Exam? And how should we go about selecting the ‘own choice’ fourth piece?
Scales
If you don’t have to do scales in an examination, it’s a good first step to explain to your student why they should do them anyway and what the benefits are. From finger dexterity and keyboard geography, to understanding keys and improving sight-reading, we know that scales are just as important to a pianist as warming up is to an athlete. But how can we convey this to our students?
💡 Why not…
- Explain to your student why scales should be played, then invite them to play all the scales and arpeggios/broken chords of the keys or repertoire they are preparing for their performance exam pieces as a practice workout
📖 Resource recommendation
The PianoTrainer Scales Workbook is designed to be an all-in-one resource for teaching scales. It includes clear scale notation, easy-to-visualise keyboard diagrams and excellent theory activities. Simply working through this book systematically makes sure all scales, arpeggios, and even three finger broken chords, are all covered maintaining your students technical work alongside the repertoire for performance exams.
Sight-reading
Developing reading skills can lead to independent learning where our students can self-discover repertoire. Just like a learner driver who gets their first car and gains the freedom to travel, a student with good reading skills will start to explore repertoire that inspires and interests them independently.
💡 Why not……
- Look at ways to develop note-reading especially tricky notes not often played like ledger lines
- Work on common recurring scalic and chordal patterns
- Make sight-reading part of your lesson every week, even if only a small duet or reading a new piece
📖 Resource recommendation
Play at Sight by Christine Brown (Faber Music) is also a super book to maintain skills. Covering Initial to around Grade 2 level, this book can easily be attempted one page at a time in lessons. While not linked to any examination system, the book is extremely systematic and particularly brilliant at introducing rhythmic elements such as dotted rhythms and ties. It’s a really good way to assess your student’s sight-reading level, particularly when it is not being assessed in exams.
Tutor books
After beginner students have completed a tutor book, we can end up (without realising it) on the examination conveyor belt with just the odd fun piece of repertoire in between. By using a curriculum style tutor alongside the performance exam preparation, you will develop well-rounded and balanced players.
📖 Resource recommendation
The PianoTrainer Foundation Pianist books cover sight-reading, technical work (including scales), aural activities, theory, musicianship and composing. There are some free samples from the books available here. Book 1 is post-Grades 1 to 2 and Book 2 is Grades 2 to3, and they cover all aspects of foundational technique as well as including music from a wide range of musical periods from Medieval, Baroque and Classical to Romantic, Contemporary and Jazz.
Own-choice pieces
So, what are some of the key criteria to consider when selecting the own-choice piece? For me, they usually fall into the following three categories:
- What piece is needed to produce a balanced programme and is great for the student’s progression?
- What popular piece (that the student loves) would be very motivational?
- What piece can be learnt quickly as learning time is in short supply?
💡 Why not…
- Come up with your own ‘go-to repertoire’ curriculum you can draw on for all your current and future students with a full range of characteristics.
Here is an example of some of my personal suggestions for go-to repertoire, selected from The Foundation Pianist Books 1 and 2.
Grade 1
| Purpose | Title and composer | Book | Skill it develops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance & progression | Our Song, by David Blackwell | Foundation Pianist Book 1 | Phrasing, balance of melody and accompaniment. Lyrical |
| Quick to learn | Quasi Adagio, Bartok | Foundation Pianist Book 1 | Phrasing and ties. Balance of melody and accompaniment |
| Balance & progression | Das klinget so herrlich, Mozart arr. Blackwell | Foundation Pianist Book 1 | Articulation and higher treble notation. |
| Quick to learn | Playing Soldiers, Rebikov | Foundation Pianist Book 2 | Dynamics, keyboard geography. |
Grade 2
| Purpose | Title and composer | Book | Skills it develops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Popular piece | Gaudete, trad. arr. David Blackwell | Foundation Pianist Book 2 | Playing at a fast tempo, dynamics and articulation. |
| Balance & progression | Mars, The Bringer of War, arr. David Blackwell | Foundation Pianist Book 1 | Phrasing and ties. Balance of melody and accompaniment. |
| Balance & progression | Menuet in A minor, Krieger | Foundation Pianist Book 1 | Pattern and playing two-part counterpoint. |
| Quick to learn | Ecossaise, Schubert | Foundation Pianist Book 2 | Dynamics, keyboard geography. |
Grade 3
| Purpose | Title and composer | Book | Skills it develops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance & progression | La Rejouissance, Handel arr. David Blackwell | Foundation Pianist Book 2 | Finger dexterity and semi-quaver work. |
| Balance & progression | 2nd Mov. ‘The Clock’, Haydn arr. David Blackwell | Foundation Pianist Book 2 | Dotted rhythms, articulation and dynamic contrasts. |
| Quick to learn | Minuet in F, Mozart | Foundation Pianist Book 2 | Octave staccato jumps, ledger lines and even finger work. |
| Popular piece (hard 3 or easy grade 4 – it’s currently on the Trinity Grade 4 syllabus) | Aquarium, Saint-Saens arr. David Blackwell | Foundation Pianist Book 2 | Voicing, even finger work and pedal use. |
| Quick to Learn | Hot Air Balloon, David Blackwell | Foundation Pianist Book 2 | Ledger lines, balance of melody and accompaniment. |
A final thought
Providing our students with a well-rounded musical curriculum is so crucial as it builds the foundation for lifelong piano playing. With performance exams, we as teachers can get creative about building our own curriculum and finding new ways to make all-round musicianship as important to our students as it is to us as teachers.
Good luck and happy music teaching! I hope you've had a wonderful start to the term.