More About Christmas
Is everyone else in the midst of Christmas music and preparations for Christmas recitals? Somehow it snuck up on me this year, so I didn’t get the recital selections to all my students until last week. Gulp! I hope they are motivated to work really hard between now and the recital to get them learned well! My process for selecting Christmas recital music is about the same as what I outlined in this post.
I start off by taking requests from students for a piece that they would like to play for the recital. And this is basically first-come-first-served because I only allow one rendition of each carol/song. No, all 30 of you cannot play Carol of the Bells! 
Then I spend hours and hours pouring through the books I have on hand and sitting at the music store trying to find just the right arrangement for each student. I want them to love their piece and to sound beautiful when they play it!
Once all the pieces have been selected and assigned, I incorporate them into our theme for the recital and write the narration or other elements that will be included along with the performances. This year’s theme is Jesus: God of the Galaxy! (This is in keeping with our Exploring A Galaxy of Music theme for the studio this year.) We’ll have our recital on December 17th, with a mandatory rehearsal the week prior. This Name that Christmas Tune game that Wendy posted looks fun! I think I’m going to use it at the rehearsal as a fun game in between our two run-throughs of the program.
I love doing our annual Christmas recital! It’s become a favorite tradition among my students and their families, and I’ve found that the students play so much better since I’ve started holding regular group classes throughout the year that give them the opportunity to develop their performance skills on a regular basis. I’d love to hear what others are doing recital-wise. Are you doing a Christmas recital? Do you have a theme? Favorite pieces? Traditions?
We look forward to playing Christmas music every year and usually play twice in our community: a recital, at a local cafe, or a nursing home. And I encourage all my students to stay current on every Christmas piece they learn this year so they can give their family a concert the week of Christmas.
96% of my students starts a Christmas book of their own the first week of October. It’s difficult with so many beginners and intermediates, but I can put nearly all 25 students in different books. No recital pieces are decided in October – this month is just for getting to know your book, playing pieces just for fun, 1-2 pieces per week. In November we decide on recital pieces (1-2 pieces per student) and I have the same rule about not duplicating a similar version of a piece (ie: Silent Night). If there are 2 Silent Night’s, however, I’ll allow it, but they must be completely different versions (ie: beginner vs. advanced) and I will program them far apart from each other in the recital.
We then spend Nov-Dec polishing recital music, but I also assign other Christmas pieces in their book (and keep up on theory, technique, and any other repertoire). Our goal is to finish the Christmas book they started in October, by the time Christmas break starts. Next year, they will probably have advanced to a new higher level book. When they resume lessons in January, the Christmas book stays home, much to the shock and awe of many students! We pianists get to play some of the best Christmas music ever, it’s only during a very short time of the year, so we like to make the most of it!
I don’t do a Christmas recital, and I’ve been thanked many times for that! My student’s families are mostly very busy, with both parents working, lots of extra activities, and there’s no way I could find a date for all or even nearly all of them to attend.
I have a recital in early February, when there’s hardly anything else going on, and that suits almost everyone.
I think a Christmas recital is a wonderful idea for students. It provides a time for them to show off what they’ve been working on, and it’s a nice time for parents to meet each other and to interact with the teacher.
However, I don’t think too much time should be devoted to learning the music for the recital. The time could be much better spent working on other things.