I have so many memories sitting at the piano growing up. I played all the time. I played for hours on end most evenings.
I remember going to our local music store with my mom. She’d let me scan through the piano books looking for music for me to take home and play.
I almost always looked for specific songs I had heard from somewhere before. There were two genres I was always look for. I was looking for music I had heard at church, and I was looking for music I had heard while watching Disney movies at home.
(If you ever need Lion King, Little Mermaid, or Aladdin piano music, be sure to give me a call. I have allllllll the piano books from the 1990s.)
Why do I tell you all this?
My favorite kind of music to play on the piano growing up was music I had heard before.
Because of those particular memories, I have had a tendency for many years to give my piano students music books with familiar songs. There are many popular repertoire books, hymns books, and Christmas books that are available for just that.
(Popular Repertoire books are simply piano books with popular songs for children. They are printed specifically with songs in mind that the average child would already have heard before. Maybe simple folk tunes, Sunday school songs, or popular movie tunes.)
Playing Christmas music is such a blessing for a child. Last November, I gave almost every one of my students a Christmas book to play from for the holiday season.
Next year, I’ll do the same.
Mrs. Curwen has taught me something, though. Christmas music is often hard for beginner pianists to play. Popular repertoire songs are too. And, sometimes hymns are hard for them to play no matter how familiar they are with the tune.
I’ve observed how meticulous her plan really was. Mrs. Curwen wanted so badly to see the beginner pianist succeed.
How many of us have seen children wade through three or four years of piano lessons and then stop taking near the end of the grade school years?
Mrs. Curwen wanted to lay such a solid foundation of music that she didn’t want children to grow weary. She wanted them to understand the FULL concept of music and piano. Her method is so very well rounded. Despite that I have a degree in theory, and even though I’ve played piano since I was six years old, she has shown me music in a new light.
She wanted children to find more joy around the corner with each new book. She didn’t want a child to ever open a book and think how hard that piece of music is to play. She builds such a strong foundation that a child can naturally progress to more difficult pieces not necessarily knowing they’ve moving forward.
I was flipping through some of her recommended beginner books. There are a few I viewed online, and I was looking through her 1st Solo Album. At first glance, they don’t appear to be ‘beginner’ music. They look like relatively difficult music. I showed my husband some music in a bit of disbelief since it was in the list marked ‘elementary.’
We both agreed that likely the ‘beginner’ pianist was more advanced in the Victorian era than the ‘beginner’ pianist of today.
But then I saw the music a bit differently.
Mrs. Curwen’s beginner music is specifically written and designed for a beginner pianist. And, she’s gone the extra mile to ensure this beginner music is aesthetically pleasing and beautiful to the listener.
Mrs. Curwen’s method trains a child from the beginning to understand intervals and to understand staff notation. Every child understands that a sound on the piano is represented by a line on the page. They know from the third lesson how to find and hear the intervals of a 2nd and 3rd.
She has meticulously found composers to write music within these bounds. She, by the way, was also one of the composers writing music for beginner pianists.
What are the guidelines she is essentially using to find beginner music?
- She wants the music to be appealing to the child’s ear.
- The music moves only in intervals of 2nds or 3rds.
- The music spans no further than the five finger span.
- The music consists of whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes.
If you take these four qualifications, the music is going to be playable by a beginner pianist.
Do you see what she’s done?
She’s rewarding the child. She’s giving satisfaction to the child. The child is quickly reaping the benefits of only understanding basic principles of music. She’s giving them music that is written well just for them.
Most importantly, though, is that she’s providing music for the child that they can play well! She’s giving them beautiful music well within their powers. She’s made well rounded observations about what makes music playable for a beginner and what makes it difficult.
How nice of her to share this with piano teachers.
Back to the my title. What are the hesitations I see right now with popular repertoire books and Christmas songs?
I have no doubt that there is a time and a place for popular repertoire books and Christmas books for children. The hesitation I see, though, is no matter how simply some of these songs are written, they may still be quite difficult for a beginner pianist.
Think of the popular Christmas carol Joy to the World. The first phrase spans an entire octave. It’s a descending full octave. While the tune may be familiar to the child, it always requires them to move their hand multiple times. It requires crossing fingers over or a thumb under. These techniques alone can be difficult for a beginner to accomplish.
If we go back to Mrs. Curwen’s notes on recreative music, am I giving children music that will satisfy their ideals?
She says,
“To give a pupil a piece just a little beyond his powers is either to mislead or to discourage him. If he is satisfied with his own performance his artistic judgement is being misled; if he does not satisfy his own ideal he is discouraged.” (page 149, fourteenth edition.)