*AddenDUM
April 2016
At the Certificate of Achievement meeting in April 2016, a motion was made and passed to expand the “5th Time Period" to Levels 3 and up. Please read carefully below for more information in choosing repertoire for your students.
Respectfully,
Suzy Clive, President TVMTA
At the Certificate of Achievement meeting in April 2016, a motion was made and passed to expand the “5th Time Period" to Levels 3 and up. Please read carefully below for more information in choosing repertoire for your students.
Respectfully,
Suzy Clive, President TVMTA
5th Time Period Created:
12-13-2013
Dear fellow TVMTA Members,
At our recent board meeting, we discussed the issue of time periods with regard to selecting repertoire for students in Certificate of Merit. As many of you are in the process of choosing repertoire for CM, we wanted to let you know of a an upgrade we made to repertoire selection to assist you in this process.
We discussed the fact that the 20th century has been over for a while now, that most periods we use in music history are approx. 80 years long, and that we are in need of a new time period classification. We also noticed that the Syllabus no longer makes any specific requirements about having to use specific time periods, except to say each piece must represent a different time period.
At Level 6, students make the upgrade from having to prepare 3 pieces, to having to prepare 4 pieces. Frequently students at this level are in Middle School or High School and these students often really enjoy playing current pieces, or more recently composed works, and these pieces are often of a decent difficulty. Also, some students also participate in Festival and use this pedagogical piece for CM, therefore preventing them from learning some of our wonderful 20th Century works since the "20th century" category is already spoken for.
We are officially making history in Idaho by creating a new time period, "Contemporary/Popular". Pieces in this category can be a church solo (not just a hymn though - a real fleshed out solo), a challenging piece by a pedagogical composer, a piece by John Schmidt, etc. You could even include pieces by Gillock, Thompson, and others in this category. The "20th Century" category will more appropriately refer to Bartok, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, Turina, Cage, Schonberg, Glass, Webern, Ravel, Debussy, etc. There are invariably going to be some questions about individual pieces and composers. The bounty of styles we have to choose from in the 20th Century is one of it's greatest attributes, yet it brings up questions as well. What if your student is playing an arrangement of a Jazz Standard? What about Gershwin? What about Joplin? This will be our first year at this and therefore will be a learning process. I would have no problem with designating a Joplin Rag as "Contemporary/Popular" OR "20th Century". Someone else might have a problem with it. Please just use your best judgement - when in doubt, abide by the spirit of the event, and most importantly, choose a variety of textures, styles and speeds between pieces.
Here are 3 examples:
Let's say for example Johnny wants to learn an impressive piano solo for church. He may use this piece for Certificate of Merit in the category "Contemporary", as well as his Bartok Sonatina, his Chopin Waltz, and his Bach gigue.
Let's say for example, Mary Lou played a Kevin Olson Impressions on Color piece for Gold Cup Festival. She may use this piece in Certificate of Merit as her "Contemporary" piece, and also still play her favorite Kabalevsky Gallop, Schubert Waltz and Beethoven sonata mvt.
Let's say Jose is dying to learn "All of Me" by John Schmidt. You can use this piece in the "Contemporary" category, and still learn that Prokofiev sonata movement as his second piece.
Please do make sure that the level of difficulty of a "Contemporary" piece is at or above their CM level. If you are not sure about leveling, please consult your CM syllabus which has lots of pedagogical pieces listed for each level. Also, the Royal College of Music has a small "addendum" syllabus of "Popular Music" arranged by level with publisher information they let their students choose from. Remember the "Contemporary" piece can always be MORE difficult than their CM level.
For those whose students also participate in Gold Cup Festival with the Boise Tuesday Musicale, here is a rough guideline I jotted down one day for my own use that I am happy to share. I make no guarantees to it's accuracy. ;) Festival level is listed first, approx CM level is listed second. Remember there is some variance in difficulty between pieces in each Festival level.
FESTIVAL LEVEL - CM LEVEL
Primary Class II - Level 1
Primary Class III - Level 2
Primary Class IV - Level 3-
Elementary Class I - Level 3+
Elementary Class II - Level 4-
Elementary Class III - Level 4+
Elementary Class IV - Level 5-
Medium Class - Level 5+
MDI - Level 6-
MDII - Level 6+
MD III - Level 7-
DI - Level 7+
DII - Level 8-
VDI - Level 8+
VDII - Level 9
MAI - Level 10
MA - Level 10+
SUM UP: IF YOU HAVE STUDENTS IN LEVEL 6 AND UP, YOU HAVE 5 "TIME PERIODS" TO CHOOSE FROM IN SELECTING YOUR PIECES AND THE ADDITIONAL TIME PERIOD IS "CONTEMPORARY/POPULAR"
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns whatsoever! If you do not yet own a syllabus, go to the California MTA website and order one. Thank you!
Suzy Clive
TVMTA President 2012-2014
clivepianostudio@gmail.com
Dear fellow TVMTA Members,
At our recent board meeting, we discussed the issue of time periods with regard to selecting repertoire for students in Certificate of Merit. As many of you are in the process of choosing repertoire for CM, we wanted to let you know of a an upgrade we made to repertoire selection to assist you in this process.
We discussed the fact that the 20th century has been over for a while now, that most periods we use in music history are approx. 80 years long, and that we are in need of a new time period classification. We also noticed that the Syllabus no longer makes any specific requirements about having to use specific time periods, except to say each piece must represent a different time period.
At Level 6, students make the upgrade from having to prepare 3 pieces, to having to prepare 4 pieces. Frequently students at this level are in Middle School or High School and these students often really enjoy playing current pieces, or more recently composed works, and these pieces are often of a decent difficulty. Also, some students also participate in Festival and use this pedagogical piece for CM, therefore preventing them from learning some of our wonderful 20th Century works since the "20th century" category is already spoken for.
We are officially making history in Idaho by creating a new time period, "Contemporary/Popular". Pieces in this category can be a church solo (not just a hymn though - a real fleshed out solo), a challenging piece by a pedagogical composer, a piece by John Schmidt, etc. You could even include pieces by Gillock, Thompson, and others in this category. The "20th Century" category will more appropriately refer to Bartok, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, Turina, Cage, Schonberg, Glass, Webern, Ravel, Debussy, etc. There are invariably going to be some questions about individual pieces and composers. The bounty of styles we have to choose from in the 20th Century is one of it's greatest attributes, yet it brings up questions as well. What if your student is playing an arrangement of a Jazz Standard? What about Gershwin? What about Joplin? This will be our first year at this and therefore will be a learning process. I would have no problem with designating a Joplin Rag as "Contemporary/Popular" OR "20th Century". Someone else might have a problem with it. Please just use your best judgement - when in doubt, abide by the spirit of the event, and most importantly, choose a variety of textures, styles and speeds between pieces.
Here are 3 examples:
Let's say for example Johnny wants to learn an impressive piano solo for church. He may use this piece for Certificate of Merit in the category "Contemporary", as well as his Bartok Sonatina, his Chopin Waltz, and his Bach gigue.
Let's say for example, Mary Lou played a Kevin Olson Impressions on Color piece for Gold Cup Festival. She may use this piece in Certificate of Merit as her "Contemporary" piece, and also still play her favorite Kabalevsky Gallop, Schubert Waltz and Beethoven sonata mvt.
Let's say Jose is dying to learn "All of Me" by John Schmidt. You can use this piece in the "Contemporary" category, and still learn that Prokofiev sonata movement as his second piece.
Please do make sure that the level of difficulty of a "Contemporary" piece is at or above their CM level. If you are not sure about leveling, please consult your CM syllabus which has lots of pedagogical pieces listed for each level. Also, the Royal College of Music has a small "addendum" syllabus of "Popular Music" arranged by level with publisher information they let their students choose from. Remember the "Contemporary" piece can always be MORE difficult than their CM level.
For those whose students also participate in Gold Cup Festival with the Boise Tuesday Musicale, here is a rough guideline I jotted down one day for my own use that I am happy to share. I make no guarantees to it's accuracy. ;) Festival level is listed first, approx CM level is listed second. Remember there is some variance in difficulty between pieces in each Festival level.
FESTIVAL LEVEL - CM LEVEL
Primary Class II - Level 1
Primary Class III - Level 2
Primary Class IV - Level 3-
Elementary Class I - Level 3+
Elementary Class II - Level 4-
Elementary Class III - Level 4+
Elementary Class IV - Level 5-
Medium Class - Level 5+
MDI - Level 6-
MDII - Level 6+
MD III - Level 7-
DI - Level 7+
DII - Level 8-
VDI - Level 8+
VDII - Level 9
MAI - Level 10
MA - Level 10+
SUM UP: IF YOU HAVE STUDENTS IN LEVEL 6 AND UP, YOU HAVE 5 "TIME PERIODS" TO CHOOSE FROM IN SELECTING YOUR PIECES AND THE ADDITIONAL TIME PERIOD IS "CONTEMPORARY/POPULAR"
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns whatsoever! If you do not yet own a syllabus, go to the California MTA website and order one. Thank you!
Suzy Clive
TVMTA President 2012-2014
clivepianostudio@gmail.com
