Consistency/Novelty

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?

  1. 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.
  2. By selecting different music that can teach the same skills.
  3. By always focusing on highlighting the skills beyond the notes and rhythms. Contextualization is key!
  4. 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.)