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I have a 17 year old student I have been teaching for about one year. She is really doing great and has made amazing progress. Prior to studying with me, she took some lessons when she was younger but did not stick with them.
My dilemma is this: She now wants to start learning some contemporary pop/rock songs that she hears on the radio. I have looked at the music for these songs and they are much too difficult for her. I would be happy to make my own arrangements for her, but the problem is that I know that they will not sound like what she is expecting.
I do believe in students being able to learn what they like as well as what is important for them to learn in order to progress.
Has anyone else come across this and if so, how do you handle it so as to keep the student happy and also so that you dont give music that is too difficult. I dont just want to say "no, these songs are too hard for you right now" without offering some other option that she would like.
I appreciate your feedback!
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I don't often teach pop music in lessons. It's just not my thing. I make it clear to prospective students that I teach mostly Classical piano and if they want to learn pop/rock styles then they would be better with a different teacher. Having said that I do get a lot of younger students who obviously become more interested in pop music when the reach their teens.
What you say about the difficulty level is quite true. Most of the vocal lines are extremely complicated with many ties and dots and syncopation. They are notated in this way because if not they just don't sound like the real thing. When students bring simplified versions to lessons I will play it from the sheet music for them. They often tell me it sounds nothing like the original. Most of the time I have no idea what the original sounds like so I take their word for it.
What I do is tell them to have a go at working it out in their own time. I would love to hear it when it's finished. This gives them the responsibility of learning something off their own back. You find that most of the rhythm they will play by ear. The harmony is often quite basic and repetitive and once they spot the pattern they can play it. If there is a particular passage they want help with then that's fine. One girl played me something last week (couldn't tell you what it was but it was very pretty). I was pleased because technically it was above her usual level and she had worked out some complicated chords and inversions that she might not have played for a while otherwise.
As a child I remember plaing a lot of jazz and rock music by ear. I liked to play theme tunes from TV shows and video games also. I would never take them to lessons because I knew my teacher would not want to hear them and would probably have little to say about them. I wouldn't have taken kindly to being told I mustn't play them though. My point is that it is important to allow your students to play anything they want no matter what the standard. If they have motivation it is surprising what they can do. I will listen to their pop songs briefly and praise them accordingly. Other than that I can't say much about it because I don't know much about it. I often joke with them that my knowledge of modern pop music is non existant so it won't matter how many mistakes they make. What I won't do is sit there week after week watching them sight read the first page of a pop song. If they want to play it then they can get on with it at home. It does them good.
I would tell your student that you are thrilled with her progress so far. Explain to her that this progress is the result of practicing material which you have selected for various reasons. The sheet music for these pop songs may look difficult but you would be interested to see what she can make of it. If there is anything specific that she does not understand then you would be glad to help. Other than that you look forward to hearing it when she can play it.
Pianist and piano teacher.
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If she is really eager, it might be great motivation. I have had students who were extremly patient and willing to work slowly on a harder song because they really wanted to learn it. Is she the kind of student who gets easily frusterated when learning something difficult? Personality will play a big part in it. Also, maybe she could could think of a song she likes that actually has a real piano part. I have had a lot of students who have been very disapointed when they have actually heard the piano versions of pop songs. No matter how well you play it, a piano is not going to sound like a 50 cent song.
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I started taking lesson at 12 and took until 17 so I was right in the teenage years during that time. One saving grace for me was that I used to just go to the music store, buy a book (not even thinking in terms of difficulty), take it to my teacher and say, "I want to learn some songs out of this". I never even asked permission. I just initiated and took it upon myself to buy the books and bring them to lesson. Perhaps this wouldn't go over with some teachers. I played a lot of music I enjoyed. I learned a lot about counting rhythm because I had to sit there in practice and disect the rhythm bit by bit to figure it out. Looking back now, the pieces were beyond my ability but i plugged away and enjoyed it. I also was learning out of a couple classical books alongside so it was IN ADDITION to the assignment.
I've had a similar struggle with kids wanting to learn pop/rock. I don't mind except as said, it's hard to find music to suit the skill level and sound decent. I am thinking of making it part of the information I give out to new students and maybe sending it to current students, any pop, rock songs the student wishes to learn is fine but it is up to the student and/parent to purchase these books and bring them to lesson and they must be in addition to the assigned material. It will get me out of the loop of having to search for such pieces by having the student be responsible to find the pieces themselves and also get me away from them wanting to replace all their music with pop. I find it really difficult to teach.
The only thing I would like to do is teach them how to improvise and show them more to improvise their own version or arrangement of their favorite songs, if only I was more proficient at it myself so I could teach it better.
Also, I don't teach any music or from groups that would have lyrics that would be a negative influence.
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p.s. Although most likely not what your student is hearing on the radio, Faber and Faber has some pop books, rock, jazz, and blues according to level and I've found the arrangements to sound decent. Also Dan Coates has many "easy piano" books out and I think the arrangements sound good as well although maybe you've found this too that easy piano isn't necessarily easy enough for students in their first year or two of lessons just because notes are found all over the staff not just on or near 5 finger positions.
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Ditto on the Dan Coates books. I saw a workshop he did at a music teacher's convention and one book that caught my eye for called "Something New For the Girls". It has the following songs: You Raise Me Up (Josh Groban), The Notebook, The Way (Clay Aiken), White Flag (Dido), two Kelly Clarksean songs, and songs by Jessica Simpson, Hilary Duff, etc...
Pop music is a great way to teach improvisation and adding LH accompaniments to a RH melody. I teach all the chord progressions in all keys, then we pick out a melody and I have students add first blocked chords, then come up with different LH variations, runs, etc... I have students who also like to play the worship songs that are really popular in contemporary churches. I use the same techniques with them.
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Thanks Sarabande and Dumdumdiddle, I'll be checking out those books!
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You could tell her why you are hesitant to teach her pop. Explain to her that she could learn the piece but it might take a very long time.
Alternatively, you could buy her some easy Beatles arrangements, or sheet music to Lucy and Linus, The Lord of the Rings, or perhaps the Faber books. Then start with one phrase and see how it goes. If she does what is required, she may surprise you. But I wouldn't take more than one third of the lesson for her pop music until I saw progress on her own time.
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If your student got certain pieces on her mind she might be disappointed with some easy version which sounds different. What about explaining to her about the difficulty and offering her to help her manage play one if she wants to try, and in addition also go ahead with the regular program. That way she'll see for herself whether she wishes to invest the time and effort needed and she knows that for things she CAN do, she'll have your support.
If you tell her from the start that these pieces are way beyond her level, she will not be disappointed if she doesn't manage.
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Thanks everyone for the great ideas. I will definately take a look at the books that were recommended by Dan Coates. I already use Faber and agree that they have some great arrangements.
I also agree that just because the music says "easy piano" doesn't mean "easy" as I would like it to be for some of my beginners.
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I agree with everyone here. I did one or two pop/rock songs when I was younger but the rhythms and the syncopations are VERY difficult. I would set her of with some easy Jazz first like "Misty" You can find a few good arrangements of Jazz pieces in the Faber BigTime Piano Series. Level four I think.
But if she REALLY wants to then I would suggest looking into SOME of Dan Coates' arrangements. They're easier than some of the other composers, but tell her that if she really wants to push it and they are beyond her level, she'll just end up getting frustrated.
THAT I know from experience.
"Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable." -Leonard Bernstein
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In my opinion, teach them what they love, and they'll love to play....and they'll PLAY instead of practice!
When I took guitar lessons, I'd do what my teacher asked for about 15 minutes a night....and then play what I loved for anther 2 hours.
I'd say teach her what she loves.
Self taught with a Yamaha Clavinova CVP-303
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Hal Leonard has a series of books called "Popular Piano Solos" and "More Popular Piano Solos". I also like their series WB Popular Movie Hits Piano Library. It comes with a CD with orchestrated accompaniments. The Primer Level has two songs from Harry Potter, the Pink Panther, Star Wars, Over the Rainbow, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, James Bond Theme, etc. Maybe not what a 17 year-old wants, but it's something.
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Tara, this was a November posting from you, but it's been revived recently, and I'm glad about that. I hope you get to see the new comments after you last checked in.
I would come at it through the back door, but providing supplemental music from the rhythm-blues-jazz social music such as Martha Mier Late Elementary/Early Intermediate books from Alfred, and there are so many other composers doing the same. Plus there are mood music and soft rhythm pieces such as the sheet music "Ballad for Our Time" by Catherine Rollin.
The tied notes across the bars in 1/16 and 1/8 notes, so prevelant in recent pops and new age music, is, I'm convinced, because of not counting well. If writing from a keyboard through the computer, all rhythms can be easily distorted,when the truth might be, the composer might have been slightly ahead or behind the beat in different places. I think you will find this in contemporary sacred music and praise songs too. I believe it's inadvertant, no one wants to count that maddeningly (is that a word?) through a whole piece written like that.
Somebody set me straight about this please.
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I believe the tied notes you are mentioning are a function of what the vocalist is doing. I give the publisher the benefit of the doubt that they are not as careless as you suggest. And if it's so hard to read the syncopated rhtyhms, then just get a recording and copy the rhythm by ear. Also, I'm sure there are rhythm reading books, maybe something for drummers would be good, with alot of sixteenth note examples. There are only a finite number of possible rhythms, (in a given number of beats, and up to a reasonable subdivision) and once you get used to them it is easier to read a measure or two of different sixteenth note patterns that are really just made up of 1 beat sixteenth note patterns.
working on: Goldberg Variations
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