I want my students to graduate with the same constellation of skills, regardless of the year they graduate. There needs to be some consistency to the experience, year after year. I want to have novelty – I am teaching between 15 and 20 pieces per year to each of my ensembles, and if I repeat the same ones year after year, or even in a 3 or 4 year cycle, I get frustrated by the sameness.* Additionally, my students benefit from experiences in the recording studio – and I don’t want to rerecord pieces I’ve already recorded.
So how do you balance the opposing needs for consistency and novelty?
- By prioritizing the individual music-making, even when the pieces is familiar. Yes, I’ve conducted this piece every year for nearly 20….no, it shouldn’t sound the same as last year. Because we’re different.
- By selecting different music that can teach the same skills.
- By always focusing on highlighting the skills beyond the notes and rhythms. Contextualization is key!
- By understanding that sometimes you’ll need to focus more on the consistency that comes from reliable repertoire, on other times on novelty, even at the expense of consistency.
If I were teaching a so-called “core” subject, it would be different – every day a new lesson, every few weeks a new unit. But when we focus on the same pieces, week-in and week-out for months, sometimes, it becomes important to bring novelty into the equation.
* An argument could be made that focus at all on novelty is a betrayal as an educator – centering my own needs when I should be focusing solely on the needs of my students. But I assert that I do my best as an educator when I am engaged enough with the material to deliver truly excellent teaching. (There is, after all, a reason I’m not a history teacher.)