Preparing New Pieces Virtually: Preliminary Activities, Pencil Points, and Preparatory Exercises

“How on earth can I get students excited about their new pieces and make sure they are learning them efficiently and correctly while doing virtual lessons?”

This is the question I’ve received in emails, and noticed on the numerous piano pedagogy sites online. Since many teachers know that one of my main pet peeves is “Proper Pedagogical Preparation” (that’s a mouthful), I thought I’d share how I’m dealing with this during this pedagogical journey we all are experiencing.

As we all get used to our new “normal" of teaching online, much to my great joy, I discovered that the series that I co-authored with Phyllis Lehrer, Classics for the Developing Pianist and Study Guides , has made my teaching so much easier during this challenging time. As I too was struggling with getting used to this new way of teaching, I realized that our Study Guides provide the necessary steps for students to know how to begin their pieces, and most importantly, how to begin them correctly.

Classics for the Developing Pianist is an original 5-book repertoire series that includes the 100 pieces we feel are the most important pieces for students to learn. Due to the enthusiastic response from teachers wanting to know more about our teaching strategies, we next created Study Guides for each book. (As of the posting of this article, Study Guides are available for Books 1-4.)

These Study Guides are what I’ve been using to start many of my students on new pieces because they contain activities for students to do on their own that will assist them in learning pieces correctly. We all know how many things can go wrong on the first reading!

Within the Study Guides , each piece has been mapped out to ensure an accurate reading and anticipate technical problems. Practical background information, efficient and effective practice suggestions, as well as tips for a polished artistic performance are also included. “Preliminary Activities” are designed to guarantee the most accurate reading possible. We were careful to lay out the best approach for these particular pieces, but just as importantly, we hope that you will learn from the example of this series and apply your own “Pencil Points” and “Preparatory Exercises” to all the repertoire that you teach!

Here is a sample of what we’ve included for each piece.

Preliminary Activities

To learn and practice a piece efficiently, pianists should anticipate the technical and reading issues they will face.

Pencil Points

Pencil Points provide suggestions for marking the score with ideas anticipating rhythm and reading issues.

Marking the music before playing a piece can help pianists perform more accurately from the beginning. There are boxes to check as each item is marked. The following activities may be applied to each piece in the series:

1. Identify and mark the formal structure of the piece.
2. Identify clef, key, and meter changes and circle or highlight them.
3. Mark passages where subdividing the beat will help maintain the pulse, particularly passages with long note values.
4. Circle finger numbers that facilitate the execution of difficult passages.
5. Cross out tied notes to avoid playing them again.

Preparatory Exercises

Preparatory Exercises anticipate technical problems and establish the appropriate technique required to play each piece. These exercises help prepare the basic technical and physical maneuvers necessary to play the piece.

1. Warm-up by practicing the scale in the key of the piece, hands separately (HS) and hands together (HT). Scale practice should include the dynamics and touch that occur in the piece. For example, if a piece uses legato in one hand and staccato in the other, the scale should be practiced with this articulation.
2. Additional exercises are provided to address specific technical issues that occur in the piece.

Preparatory Exercises should be completed with musical intention and should be incorporated continually through all stages of practice.

What a joy it is to assign a new piece and have a student proudly show me how they have completed the technical preparation and the written work at their next online lesson. The form is marked in, clefs and key signature changes are circled, and rhythm and potential fingering and technical problems are anticipated.

My 7-year-old student, Lilian, was so excited when I assigned her “Solfeggietto” from Classics for the Developing Pianist Book 2 . Imagine my excitement when she came back for her next lesson with all the Pencil Points done correctly. (Since she’s young, her Mom helped her). She also had done all the Preparatory Exercises perfectly.

After blocking the left hand broken chords, she had no trouble playing the score as written.

In addition to the “Preliminary Activities,” there are two other sections that are helpful to get students ready to begin their new pieces, as well as understand what the music is about:

Background

Knowledge of the composer and information about the character and mood of each piece aid pianists by providing a sense of history, style, and general context.

Features

This section provides a preview of the stylistic and musical elements that bring each piece to life. Specifics such as texture, phrasing, and compositional devices are highlighted to enhance the performer’s interpretation and emotional projection.

To give you an idea of what this looks like in the Study Guide, below are the Background and Features for a piece I know we all teach: Beethoven’s Sonata Op.49, No. 2, First Movement.

After hearing Golliwog’s Cakewalk in many recitals, my student, Arielle, had always wanted to play it. She was surprised and happy when I assigned it to her because it was much more difficult than any other piece she had played. Since she had so much more time than usual, with all of her other activities canceled due to COVID-19, I decided it was a good time to challenge her and she rose to the challenge!

The Preparatory Exercises helped her learn the correct rhythm and articulation. We are still doing this in her Zoom lessons 3 weeks later.

After students finish the Preliminary Activities, the Study Guides provide several different aids to practice: “General Practice Pointers” and “Creative Practice Techniques.” When students are feeling confident and ready to polish their piece for performance, the section called “Finishing Touches” provides ideas on performance choreography (opening and closing gestures); lyrics to assist in showing the character; plus additional suggestions for voicing, dynamics, rubato, and pedal.

I’m hoping you all can see how much easier and effective it is to start students on their new Early Intermediate through Advanced repertoire if your students use these Study Guides . Yes, they are always useful, but in this era of online teaching, they are especially helpful!