MUSIC APPRECIATION PROGRAM

Admission	Private Lessons	Music Purchase	Program Requirements	Daily Practice	Memorization	Graduation

MUSIC PURCHASES
Most method systems do not extend into the intermediate level, and those that do are not always that good. Each department has its own guidelines regarding required repertoire and technique at each level, and the young musician should also consider developing a music library. For Music Appreciation students, music books have been selected for their broad representation of the literature. Such books are called “repertoire series”, and are often graded to help teachers make selections based on the student’s ability.

Technique Books: The faculty have designated a single most important technique book for each level in the Music Appreciation Program. This book serves both as a teaching tool and as reference, because it will have scales, arpeggios, triads and other important technique items that a student will need for practice throughout her or his life.

Repertoire Series: The best way to make sure that a student has a broad exposure to different periods, styles and composers of music is to require them to purchase books in a repertoire series. Repertoire selections are pieces composed by the famous composers of history, and are not arrangements or simplified.

Major Works & Collections: These works or collections are the “must haves” of music for that instrument. Collections are usually all the works of one type by one composer, for example “Violin Sonatas by Beethoven”. Although repertoire books can be excellent for teaching, they are not as useful in the future after lessons have stopped. A collection of Beethoven Sonatas can be so much more meaningful in the years to come than the graded series of repertoire used in lessons.

Therefore, students are encouraged to start building their music library now. At each level the faculty have listed some important collections as required and some as suggested for optional purchase. The student who purchases an optional collection, will usually study only a couple selections, and the remainder are to be enjoyed by the student at another time – possibly years later.

Consideration must be given to the quality of publication. The publishers held in highest regard are Peter’s, Henle and Bärenreiter, both for quality of printing and scholarship. Of course, such quality comes at a price and music from these publishers tends to cost as much as three times what can be purchased from other publishers. The lowest cost publishers are Schirmer and Kalmus, and again you get what you pay for in that the print quality is often poor, and the scores often are filled with errors.

In addition, Schirmer music is almost always edited – which means that the music is filled with fingerings, accents, and other playing notations, which were never provided by the composer. This can be helpful to the untrained pianist, but can be very annoying to one with more education and experience. There are also many cases where certain publisher’s have produced special editions that have earned merit beyond the generalizations above. For example, Dover is well known for its special Padarewski Edited Chopin scores, and Alfred has produced numerous series and collections that are very educational (their Bach Preludes and Inventions are very good).