A Holiday Season Survival Guide for Piano Teachers

The holiday season can be incredibly busy for both teachers and students. There are so many different events and activities vying for everyone’s attention, and our students can be particularly overwhelmed with everything going on around them at this time of year:

• Rehearsing for holiday performances
• Holiday shopping
• Writing wish lists for Santa
• Parties and events
• Preparing for trips
• Studying for final exams (even Elementary and Middle School students in my area have them!)

Introducing new musical concepts or challenging repertoire during this time can often be counterproductive, so what's the alternative?

This season is perfect for review and reinforcement. Here are five ways to keep lessons productive and engaging during the holiday rush.

1. Take a break

I don’t mean to take a break from lessons, but rather to take a break from lesson books or exam preparation and concentrate on fun repertoire that is not overly challenging.

In my studio, this often means an accessible holiday book or a variety of festive solos . For students who don’t participate in winter holidays or who don’t love Christmas music, we’ll often spend time reviewing their favorite pieces from the semester and playing through some other kinds of gratifying repertoire.

Prevent repertoire boredom by finding something that is new to you and your students. Alfred Music’s Holiday Piano Promotion is a great place to find a variety of collections to keep students engaged and to prevent your head from spinning while listening to all of your students play the same arrangements of the same carols that you teach every year.

These pieces should provide a review of concepts that students have been working on this year. They should present some sort of challenge, but nothing that can't be worked through in a week or two.

Rather than one challenging recital piece, consider assigning a wide range of repertoire during this time to give your students ample opportunity to put their skills into practice.

I like for my students to have a handful of pieces they can play for their families over the break.

2. Be creative

This is also a great time to get students to flex their creative muscles. Challenge students to move away from the page and create their own arrangements of their favorite holiday songs or embellish the arrangements they’re learning with a fun introduction, new articulations, or a fresh harmony.

Getting students to use the musical concepts they’re learning in a creative way is a really effective way of solidifying their understanding.

Need a little guidance or inspiration? Try this free “Jingle Bells” Arranging activity!

3. Get off the bench

Games and off-the-bench activities can be a great way to review reading concepts, musical terms, rhythm, and all kinds of other theory concepts.

Find some holiday-themed music games, do rhythm activities with jingle bells, and get students singing and moving around to their favorite festive music. Getting students away from the piano to practice their knowledge in different and enjoyable ways helps them to secure their learning.

Alfred Music has resources for young students that combine holiday repertoire with off-the-bench activities, including the Let’s Celebrate series, Christmas Carol Activity Books , and the Music for Little Mozarts: Christmas Fun! books.

4. Host a Holiday performance opportunity...or not!

Hosting a holiday recital can be a lot of fun and a great way to help students show off what they’re learning, but it also can add a lot of stress to an already busy time of year. For this reason, I skipped having a holiday performance altogether for many years and only hosted two recitals each year: one around Halloween and one around the end of April.

On the other hand, hosting some sort of festive occasion during this season can be a great way to foster warm feelings in your studio, which is excellent for retention and referrals!

If a full-blown Christmas Concert feels too daunting, try hosting one or even smaller, lower-key events. Maybe host a cookie exchange at your house (so you’re not responsible for securing a venue or providing food) and let your students provide the entertainment—they get performance experience, and you don’t have to create a playlist!

5. Send home some Holiday fun!

Alfred Music’s free Holiday Family Music-Making Kits include festive recipes, musical activities, crafts, and more to keep your students making music over the break. They are a fun way for students to get their families involved in their music learning without it feeling like homework.

Before I began dedicating the holiday season to review, I had to spend a lot of January reteaching concepts students had learned in the fall. Spending this season on review helps students to solidify their learning. They come back from the break confident and ready to push ahead.

What are your favorite review activities? Let us know in the comments below!