Do you have students who love to doodle around on the piano (or, as one student once declared to me, he liked to “type around on the keys sometimes” 
) and do all sorts of things at the keyboard besides practice their assignments? Or perhaps you’ve encountered the student who can play up and down the keyboard with ease, but struggles to read the most simple hands together pieces? I’m sure I’m not the only one with students like this!
The solution I’ve come up with over the past several years is what I call the “Any Song” assignment. That’s about all there is to it! I write Any Song… in the student’s assignment book and tell them that they can prepare anything at all that they want and surprise me with it the following week. For someone like me who loves to sight-read and stick to the printed page, an assignment like this would be nerve-wracking, but for students like I mentioned above, this is like giving them a bucket of candy to munch on. They love it!
I was actually inspired to do this by the older brother of a student that I started in lessons a couple of years ago. He made a point to tell me one day that his younger brother was capable of playing much better than he had demonstrated up to this point at his lessons. A desire to encourage his natural musical gifts while still developing other important skills is what prompted the implementation of the Any Song assignment. He’s been surprising me with new songs almost every week for a couple of years now, and I’m convinced that he’s never going to run out! I’ve since used it with several other students, also with great success.
In fact, a few weeks ago, I introduced the concept to a high school student who has been studying with me for about a year and a half. I knew he enjoyed doing creative arranging and such, but for some reason it just occurred to me recently to try the Any Song assignment. Once he clarified exactly what it was, he got this huge smile on his face and exclaimed, “You’re going to let me play any song that I want to? I love you!” Oh what fun it is to discover the things that excite our students!
Wow…thanks Natalie…I have just the super creative student who should love this idea! “Any Song” seems so simple to implement, and great for creating enthusiasm. Often I try to pick pieces for my students, thinking that the piece is just perfect…but they don’t always like them for what ever reason. Letting them pick one and surprise me is a great idea…and they will probably stumble upon new musical concepts that they will ask me about at the next lesson! What a great way to inspire the creative students who tend to resist careful classical practice. I will let you know how it goes with one student in particular. He is musically gifted, but just not motivated to practice what i ask him to practice…maybe he will practice what he asks himself to practice. =D Thanks again Natalie!
I have doodlers in my studio, too and use the incentive of once-a-month improvisation with a book called Pattern Play b Akiko and Forrest Kinney. This book provides you with 24 or 25 patterns to use as improvisational duets with students, either assigning them to learning the basic pattern, or more commonly, to be the pattern player on the bass notes while they improvise above. I use these patterns as an interview tool as well; it gives me insight into how well as student can hear a beat, how they respond to my prompts in emotion or character. Though I have an undergraduate degree in music, this curriculum has been one of my strongest teaching tools.
What a fantastic idea. I’ll be trying this out with one of my students in the morning!
I cannot believe I just had a student like this yesterday!!!! And I have been trying to figure out what to do to help him. Thanks so much!
BTW, he told his parent, he probably should be a self taught pianist
like Bach and Mozart. tee hee
This is a wonderful idea. I have several doodler’s and this would be great for them. Have you thought of trying to notate some of the songs your student’s come up with? I have done this with a 6 year old student of mine. I write out the measures, tell him to use middle C position since this is what he is familure with and I write out the tempo. He loves it he tells me the notes he wants in “his” peice I notate them for him on staff paper and then I have him play afterwards. He is so proud of himself and it is a great teaching tool also. I wish I could afford the midi programs that I could connect a keyboard to my laptop, so I can allow my students to see what they have created.
I had a student once who could only play by ear and was always writing songs on the piano. I think that to encourage anyone to keep this skill and not quash their imagination is vital. Piano Lessons London