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Hello,

So I've been searching the forums, reading the Guild syllabus and searching the internet in general, but I want to know if anyone can confirm the conclusion I've come up with.

I know there are various books as to level appropriate pieces for the Guild and the syllabus itself includes a section on the various books and the current classification of the pieces, but are these just a guide?

In other words, I want to be sure that we are not supposed to stick to a specific book or a certain set of specific books when choosing repertoire.

I remember when I participated in the Guild I performed songs from John Thompson, Michael Aaron, Alfred, Schaum, and if I'm not mistaken Faber & Faber method books. This leads me to believe that we are allowed to choose pieces from any book?

If this is the case, then my second question would be what criteria do you use to classify pieces that you choose for your students from books such as the aforementioned and others?

I'd really appreciate any guidance on this issue.

I've been teaching piano for over a year now, and this will be my first year taking a small number of my students to the Guild.

That's the beauty of Guild Auditions...you have a lot of choice in the music you play and you don't have to stick to a strict music list. I bought some of the Guild books too, but I rarely use them. My beginning and early intermediate students use pieces from their method books, and the older students are using their repertoire.

The syllabus outlines sample pieces that fit with each level, so I use that as my guide.

Thanks so much for your response.
That definitely helps me out a bit, and it does open up the scope of choices!!

John should chime in here...he's the guild expert on these forums!

I definitely wouldn't mind hehe The more that chime in the better!

The Guild Syllabus spells it out quite clearly, IMO. Be sure to study it thoroughly, over and over. It takes time to absorb all the information within it. I was on pins and needles for several years while I mastered all the material within it.

Students are assigned audition levels based on what they are playing, not the other way around. If your student is playing pieces which fall into the ED category, then that's the one you select for their audition. If they are playing say Bach's famous Minuet in G major, they are at level EF. All of their audition repertoire should be approximately at the same level. For example, you wouldn't have a student playing 9 pieces at level EF and the Mozart K535, which is PA. The judge would be within their rights to throw out the K535 and down grade the student's grade level to EF, and also, downgrade the National to State.

OTOH, you can have 5 pieces from level EF and 5 from level IA, and call it an EF program, no judge would criticize you for that.

The repertoire grading scale is located on the pages immediately following the IMMT and Phase definitions.

Is this your first year in Guild?

Hi John,

Question and a comment for you. The comment first: the OP actually mentioned "I've been teaching piano for over a year now, and this will be my first year taking a small number of my students to the Guild." - you might have missed that.

How extensive are the Guild syllabus repertoire lists?

Thanks. I did miss it, but it's really not germane to her question.

The Guild doesn't provide repertoire lists, per se. They have published some books, not many, which are graded. They provide a couple of lists of repertoire with suggested audition levels, but they expect qualified and knowledgeable teachers to extrapolate from these to the music their students are learning. They also have lists of some early to mid 20th century material, but it's becoming severely dated. Pieces by David Krahenbuhl were very popular with teachers 40 years ago, but you probably haven't heard of him. BTW, much of his material is quite wonderful. But times change and teachers' ideas of what's at each level change with it. I should rephrase this. Preparation of students change with time, and thus, a student ready for piece A after a certain amount of time may no longer be ready for it, with today's methods. Or conversely, a piece easily reachable for today's students learning with modern pedagogy might have been unreachable 50 years ago.

Hope this helps.

40 years ago?

That's the bulk of the problem with 20th/21st-century piano music. There's just way too much music published, and a lot of gems get lost in the crowd.

John, Are you sure you don't mean K. 545 (the C Major sonata)? K535 is a Country Dance in C for orchestra.

Yes, K545.

This is what happens when you're trying to put on a major recital for the teacher's group, teach, and at my age, visiting dr's more than you'd like to! This Saturday,, we hold the Harvest Festival. Roughly 100 students performing over 3 recitals. Have to coordinate a performance instrument coming in, a herd of cats (piano teachers ), getting to a masterclass for one of my students who will be performing a concerto in a month, etc. Overall, a fun weekend! Oh, yes, I still have a full teaching load! Argh.

Thanks so much for your input John.

It really does clear things up for me. As kayvee clarified, it will be my first year participating in the Guild as far as taking students. I myself participated in the Guild as a younger piano student, but obviously had no idea at the time everything it means for a teacher to prepare her students for it.

This puts me a bit more at ease as far as what I can select!

And I wish you well in all your current activities John, it does seem like you have plenty going on!

Again, thank you everyone!

A reminder to all Guild teachers - scales, chords, are paramount. Students need to know, at minimum, the scales & chords for each and every piece they perform for auditions. Check the syllabus for how many octaves, tempo requirements, etc. The sooner you begin working with students on this, the easier it will be.

Also, you should now be reviewing student progress and be forming an idea of what level they will be performing at. You need to advise your audition center how many students and average level within the next few weeks at latest. Your audition list should be going into national late January/February.