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I am a somewhat new piano teacher, and I have one student who is beyond the Faber books, and getting into short pieces. I am just wondering whether I should have her continue working on her pieces until they are pretty much perfect/memorized, or if I should give her lots of pieces and just work on the basics. I don't want her to get burned out with working on the same thing for a long time.

I don't think there's a clear-cut answer for this. Each student is different and you'll have to gauge what seems to work for them and make adjustments if you notice their interest waning or increasing frustration.

I usually assign pieces with a specific concept in mind of what I want them to take away from it. If I sense the student doesn't really love it, we'll work on it enough until they learn the concept, and then let it go when it is in a reasonable condition. Other pieces we will take to memorization and performance level. The amount of pieces that you assign depend on how much practice time they have.

Having said that, as the pieces get more complicated, you should let the student know that they will be working for loner periods of time on each piece, adding layers upon layers. So they should not expect to go through 4 pieces every week or two.

There are several good repertoire series you can use; it will provide you and your student a wide range of composers and styles. You can supplement with a number of jazz, pop and other literature, all carefully graded.

Students need to learn to play correctly and musically. They cannot do this with a rushed, once over approach. However, this has to be balanced against keeping the music forever.

Part of our job is firing up enthusiasm. If the student goes home, plays a piece once or twice each day and considers it practice, then comes to the lesson and stumbles through it, you have to get them thinking about changing their expectations and attitude. One way to do this is by illustrating to them the way they just played the piece and then playing it again correctly and musically. Let them have the awakening.

Thanks for the advice!