This year, we would like to introduce a unique programme for all our students. It is called the “40 PIECE CHALLENGE PROGRAM” This idea, is very successful in helping the students learn much more music, become better readers and helping them advance more quickly in their skills. It has been one of the best ways to help students learn more pieces, become acquainted with different styles, become better sight readers, and advance more quickly.
What’s not to love about the 40 piece challenge?
The 40 piece challenge encourages students to learn around one new piece each week of the teaching year. So, daily practice is not only implied but mandatory!
Here’s how the 40 piece challenge works.
We are challenging each of our students to learn 40 new pieces this school year starting from 1st October 2018 to November 2019. Here are the most important and exciting results of this challenge:
- Students will gain a wide and practical knowledge and experience in a variety of music forms. Instead of learning 1 folk, classical, pop etc piece, they may learn 5. Instead of 1 Baroque piece, they might learn 4.
- Students will become more astute sight readers. The best way to improve sight reading is to not only do it, but read a variety of styles and formats of music frequently. The more repertoire that is “under their fingers” and “in the ears,” more they can predict patterns and harmonies and improve their sight reading. Students also playing music from different composers and publishers will see a wide variety of notation styles and will keep them from getting “locked in” to a specific method.
- Students will play more musically in part because these pieces will be learned well. The better students are at sight reading, the faster they learn the details of music, and the more time they have to spend developing the fine art of communicating their music through their musicality.
- Students will be happier. The more music they can play, the more confident and proficient they feel, leading to a generally happier student.
