Planning and presenting a piano studio recital is a major effort, no matter how many years you’ve been doing it. Between thinking about student order, calming performance jitters, oh, and not to mention, putting on a great show, there’s plenty for teachers to worry about when planning a performance event! In an effort to lighten your load, here’s our list of five ways to plan the order of students at a recital, with the pros and cons of each. The first two methods are probably the most common, so if you’re looking for inventive ways to order your recital, keep reading!
➡️ Program order by age
Organizing program order by age is definitely a simple way to get the task done. It makes sense to highlight the progression of your studio’s abilities, and showcase how they develop as musicians the older they get. However, there are cons to this approach, too.
Pros:
- Easy to organize
- Young students can go first and be less nervous
- Shows progression of your teaching and the benefit of more time in your studio
- The program gets more musically complex as it goes on
Cons:
- Older beginners will be embarrassed to be grouped with younger students
- Audience members may be tempted to leave early once their young child performs
- Less balance in the program
In the end, mixing ages has advantages – for example, you can begin with the most confident student, regardless of age. And, you can place busier kids and families towards the beginning of the recital, allowing them to leave early if need be. However, if you like this “tried and true” method, scroll to the end of this post for extra tips to up the “wow factor” of your next recital!
➡️ Program order by level
Most of us have planned the order of students at a recital by listing students by level. I would guess this is the most common method. Typically, this means that the beginners go first. They’re followed by students a little further along, and the most advanced students end the recital. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it’s not the most creative. But if “it ain’t broke,” do we need to fix it? Let us know your opinions in the comments!
Pros:
- Again, simple to organize
- Beginners or first-timers can go first for less performance anxiety
- Audience hears more complex pieces as the recital goes on
- Ends with a “wow”
- Shows progression of student ability
Cons:
- Again, older beginners will be embarrassed to be grouped with possibly younger beginners
- Highlights who is “better” and could foster negative competition
- Predictable
- Less freedom in planning the order
If you feel that you’d like to consider a more creative approach to determining student order at a recital, the following three methods will give you motivation and new ideas!
➡️ Program order by pacing and psychology (Wendy’s method):
Choosing program order by the mood and pacing of pieces is a concrete way to mix up the ages and levels of students. Of course, you could always separate the two, but keeping both in mind means your program order will be set very quickly. Here are Wendy’s thoughts about the method she uses when planning recitals:
I have never wanted to encourage comparison among my students. I wouldn’t ever want them to think that I thought Jose was a better student than Sophie, for example. So instead, I organize the order based on the mood of the music. This means that I make sure there aren’t two slow songs right next to each other, or that all of the fast and furious pieces aren’t grouped together.
It’s also important to put students who are new or get especially nervous toward the beginning. I make sure that the psychology of each student is a factor: I don’t place confident or proficient students next to those who struggle. The comparison and resulting discouragement is just too great. Of course, the most important thing is that a confident student who knows their piece very well is placed at the beginning and the end.
Then, I try to organize it based on music mood and the psychology of the students.
Pros of planning student order by pacing and psychology:
- Variety in the types of pieces the audience hears
- Students won’t be able to compare themselves to each other
- Has a good flow within the recital
- Avoids student discouragement
- Anchored by confident performers
- Nervous students still “get it over with” by going towards the beginning
Cons:
- Less predictability for certain routine-based students (that is, unless their teacher preps them)
- Beginners play next to more advanced kids
- Takes careful thought from the teacher to plan the best order for students
In essence, the variety of breaking up ages, levels, and styles, while anchoring your recital with confident performers means that the recital will flow well. By saving a few exciting or advanced pieces for the ending, the audience still leaves being impressed with your students and your teaching!
➡️ Program Order by Theme
When a recital theme is involved, organizing your order of students at a recital gets an extra dose of creativity and ease. The sky is quite literally the limit when it comes to choosing themes – and ComposeCreate® teachers have incredible theme ideas! Don’t forget to tell us your favorite or current recital theme in the comments! Here are just a few ways to create your program order by theme:
- Connections between pieces: This could be small groups of pieces with similar tempo, small groups about animals, or even pieces with glissandos! This idea might require a little explanation – but still a fun way to utilize whatever pieces your students are preparing.
- Pieces grouped by historical era or musical genre: Classical Music, Pop Music, the Great American Songbook, living composers (ahem, we know a few!), just to name a few ideas.
- Alphabetical by Name: By far the least complicated theme of the bunch, listing kids alphabetically by name is always an option.
- Art and Music Recital Theme: This blog post plans the whole recital out for you – Art and Music Recital Theme. The new Art and Music series is a perfect place to start when selecting art-themed pieces.
- Nature Theme, Animal Theme, Seasons Theme, “Around the World” Theme… should we go on?! 🙂
Pros of planning student recital order by theme:
- It’s FUN!
- So much creative potential when choosing themes
- Unexpected, engaging and clever for the audience
- Results in a cohesive recital
- Can result in students choosing repertoire or performing with a different mindset than normal
- Opportunities for collaboration or students making the theme their own
Cons:
- Takes forethought when planning repertoire
- The teacher has to choose a theme with plenty of repertoire options
- The piece a student may have wanted to play may not fit into some themes
➡️ Random Program Order!
I have to admit I never considered ordering students randomly. However, during a past Idea Share, teachers shared some of their tips for choosing program order in that way. Enjoy these ingenious ideas:
- Andrew used a beach ball, and stuck numbers on it. Each performing student had already been assigned a number. The audience gently tossed the beach ball around the venue and whatever number the person who caught the ball touched would be the number of the next student to perform.
- Barbara taped the names of each piece to be performed on the bottom of a wrapped candy. She put the candies into a box, and invited audience members to choose a piece. They would say the title on the bottom of the candy, and that’s the piece of the next performer! Some other teachers have done something similar, but with chocolates, or names taped underneath chairs.
- Nancy decided against a printed recital program, and instead, wrote each piece to be performed on slips of paper. She placed the pieces of paper in a container and passed it around the audience. They would choose a paper from the hat and announce the next student to perform.
- Another idea might be to riff on the idea of musical chairs – whether that be students actually playing musical chairs, or having a countdown to an audience member choosing a name randomly, whether on paper, a candy, or with a beach ball!
Pros of random program order:
- Includes audience participation or “props”
- No gripes about program order from students
- Breaks up the performances
- Allows for levity
Cons:
- Students who don’t like surprises may not like it
- The teacher doesn’t have as much “say” when picking student order
- May require a more flexible studio
Extra tips for a memorable recital
No matter which method of planning student order you choose, here are a few extra ideas to make your next recital a positive experience for everyone!
- Try playing first to ease student nerves; or choosing a confident student to model good recital behavior
- End with a duet, ensemble, or audience participation piece!
- Allow kids to introduce themselves with a mic – it adds personality
- Entertain your students’ ideas to make it fun
- The “Cute Factor” is undeniable – place cute, young students first
- Consider showcasing your students’ compositions
We hope this list helps you choose the order of students at your next recital with confidence and grace. Please give us your thoughts in the comments! Don’t forget to download our free Student Solutions Catalog. It’s your one-stop-shop for planning the perfect recital pieces! And finally, a big thank you to the teachers who contributed to this blog post, whether acknowledged by name or anonymously (you know who you are)!
Need more help planning your recital?
Here’s a little round-up of just a few of our blog posts about recitals:
Generally for my Christmas recital, I break it into two “sections” – secular holiday music and religious holiday music. Within those themes, I tend to group students loosely from beginner to more advanced, so sometimes there are older students and younger students performing next to each other.
For my spring recital, which is thematic and changes each year, I create the order to tell a story. I learned a great tip from a different teacher I follow who actually comes up with a story/poem using the song titles to tell the audience at the beginning of the recital. I am going to try that this year! The only exception is that if I have any graduating seniors, I do schedule them at the end so I have the opportunity to spotlight them in a special way.
I prefer a printed program for the audience & the students as well as for my collection of programs.
Inserting duets between solo numbers adds variety and can help a beginning or older student sound more advanced. Since I’m down to 9 students we have plenty of time for all students playing both a solo and a duet (one student plays a duet with his sister and a more advanced one with me). We have a trio and that goes at the end of the program. With most of the students preparing for Syllabus exams, they tend to pick their solo from that repertoire. So it’s difficult to do a “themed” recital, although I think that would be nice to do. When I had a bigger group of students years ago, we had lots of duets so I purchased props to go with each title (for instance we placed a red rose on the piano when we played a tango). A challenge to find something for some titles!
I really appreciate this topic, because I do think order matters a lot. I agree that going by age or level causes too much comparison, and makes for a less interesting program.
A couple things that I do:
1. I prefer to put longer pieces in the middle or earlier part of the program. Ending with a long piece, or several long pieces can make the concert feel longer.
2. I use an adjustable bench and footstool, so I usually try group together 3-5 students who need the footstool so that I’m not moving it in and out as much.
3. I ask students if they’d rather go in the first part, middle or last part of the concert.
For a theme recital when you have a piece that a student would like to play that isn’t part of the theme – brainstorm with the student to come up with an alternate title that fits the theme. For example: a sonatina movement become Frisky Squirrels. Helps to include good upper level pieces.
I enjoy thematic recitals, but don’t do them every year because it takes extra planning. I have given specifics because this is one of my favorite themes.
In May, our studio theme is “A Little Night Music.” As people arrive, I will have night sounds playing, like crickets. I am generally following the order of a 12 hour night. The first piece will be “Vancouver Island Sunset,” – followed by “Night Song”- and ends with “Prairie Creek Sunrise,” all from this website. After sunset, I have pieces that would occur during the evening, like “Evening at the Ballet” and “Polynesian Nocturne.” As it progresses, the recital will move to midnight (“Tick Tock the Jazz Clock/”Big Ben” and 12 bongs). The recital will continue with various styles of music to include “Night Escape” by Gurlitt, “City of Stars from LaLaLand,” and “Firefly” by Bilotti. I am excited about two unique selections for the performance: 1) one of my 10yo students will play “Night Sounds,” that was written by her mother at 10yo when she studied with me, and 2) I have invited a piano student and her violinist friend to play an adapted version of “A Little Night Music.” by Mozart.
So many ways to do a recital! Great suggestions! Wish I’d known these during my earlier days of teaching. Having taught for over 60 years, I’m down to 5 students, by request, so recitals don’t exist down, since they live all over the country.
Thanks for the ideas.
I also, unknown to me, do my recital mostly like Wendy’s, EXCEPT the ones using the graduated footstool go in order of footstool height to keep disruption as minimal as possible on stage. I have used an older student as stage hand some years, especially as I accompany my voice students, to change the bench and piano lid height.
I like the mixing of peices, and actually (kind of!) keep this in mind as we choose peices and duets to perform.
Oh what a great detail to note! Thank you for sharing that, Swan!