25 Piece Challenge

The new "25 Piece Challenge" is now on and will run till  30 June 2024.   Make 2023/2024  your best music period ever by learning and finding that motivation to practise effectively. 

 If you like to participate, speak to your child's teacher about it. Here is the form.

Piano pieces and jigsaw puzzles have many things in common. Some come together very quickly, others take a longer time.

Your piano repertoire can be perceived as a series of technical and musical challenges to solve, like pieces of a puzzle. By building a repertoire rich learning program, you develop new skills which would allow you to get to the finished product of the jigsaw puzzle. 

The pieces that go on the list would make a trove of concert pieces too!

Some tips  to get to 25 Pieces! 

Most of the time when you do a puzzle, you are working off a picture. Usually, it’s a picture you like – otherwise there is less motivation to see the finished product. There are two angles to this particular part of the analogy:

1. If you weren’t allowed to look at the picture, it would be much harder to do the puzzle and probably not as fun. In the same way, trying to learn a piece without having heard it and without knowing whether you even like it makes it much harder to learn. This is why it is so important for students to listen a lot to the piece(s) they are learning.  The more familiar the piece, the easier and more satisfying it is to work towards that big picture. 
2. Sometimes, you might absolutely LOVE the picture, but it’s a 10,000-piece puzzle that you thought you could handle and it’s taking too long and now you’re losing interest. You wish you had bought the 5,000-piece version. See where I’m going here? This is equivalent to needing an easier arrangement of a piece. You get to enjoy the same picture/sound, but you won’t lose interest and you’ll get there in the end. Some easier arrangements suggestions:- classical, contemporary, rock/pop jazz & blues, country, movies, tv shows/video games, musicals & Broadway.
3. Your teacher can help you select pieces  that can be learnt within 2-3 weeks ("quick learn" ones) which can almost double up as sight reading material which you may continue to polishing phase.  Discuss with your child's teacher what would be the appropriate repertoire under the "Quick learn ones" and the medium to longer pieces your child could explore.  

What is the reward upon achieving this Challenge? A smart looking trophy that is similar to the one  on display  at our reception.