Last week, I shared the form my students use to record the titles of their Practically Perfect Performance Pieces. Today, I thought I’d share the form that we use for their WTL pieces. These are pieces that they “want to learn” at some point in their piano career. I encourage them to write any piece they want to learn including pop, classical, Christmas, etc.
Sometimes this means that I need to find very simplified versions of the piece, other times it means that I have to tell them that we’ll work to develop the technique they need to play the piece. Still other times, we make a skeletal version of the piece. But I haven’t had any student complain yet about our modifications. I think sometimes we piano teachers are just too worried about staying true to the original piece and forget that our student may never make it to that level of playing if they don’t stay interested now!
So I’d encourage you to ask your students what they want to play and then do everything in your power to help them play at least one of their desired pieces. It might be the difference between having a very happy student play a version almost painful to our ears and not having that student at all the next year. Sometimes it’s that important.
So, here’s my WTL Pieces form.
