Why are there levels for students learning piano?

Butterflies
Why are there levels for students learning piano?

If you think about it, it doesn’t make any sense.

First of all, for those wondering, these levels are all made up. Some group of people decided a while back to start categorizing pieces by difficulty and then organizing them into 10 levels. Level 1 is the easiest and 10 the hardest.

This graded system is useful to get a general sense of the difficulty of a piece, but it shouldn’t be used to describe the ability of students. It’s very misleading and is causing educational design problems.

“So if I can play a level 3 piano piece, am I level 3?”

This is what this 10 level system leads students and parents to think.

Is an 8 year old who’s mimicking their teacher and a concert pianist at the same level? They both play level 10? 🤔

And for teachers and parents, especially ones doing CM or some graded test, it leads them to ask, “can we only do the 3 pieces we should do to pass our level 4 test?”

In my view, a “Level 3” student should have 15 or more pieces for the year and then select their favorite 3 pieces for the test.

But the reality is that many students aren’t doing a high diversity of pieces over the year and probably only complete what’s required to pass a test. This is not anyone’s fault in particular, more of a side effect from this system. But the issue is that it doesn’t allow the student to actually focus on what they need to improve themselves.

This leads to an important point.

Why do kids take piano lessons?

To be able to play level 10? Or pass a test?

I would argue that the real goal should be, “to become literate in music as a language and to become an independent learner of piano.” And for those wondering, yes, a child will love music if they see it as an organic part of their self image (hint: it’s a language they speak). In this model, a “finished” student would not need to have a teacher and they could teach themselves almost any piece they want.

This led me to think about the difference between myself and someone who just started piano yesterday. Fundamentally, how are we different?

I am completely independent and they are completely dependent.

Like a butterfly versus an egg.

I can learn and perform any piece from the easiest to the absolute hardest and longest and they are learning how to find middle C.

But I needed to get to this level because I built my touring career off of performing concerts. Does that new beginner need to be as good as me? Probably not, but how would we design a music learning system to give them the highest rate of success so whether they choose to be a concert pianist or simply an independent learner of piano, they could be?

I would say the latter would be selected by most parents and students. And I’d also argue that most concert pianists are built by first becoming independent learners, not prodigies. And what would parents say if I could make their child an independent learner of piano within 6 or 7 years of starting to learn?

I honestly see it that way.

So in this design, there would be an end to piano lessons?

Absolutely.

If a student really wants to go on and become a concert pianist, then after the age of 12, they can go take private lessons with a professor at a university or a concert pianist. And along the path up to 12 years old, I see the child moving through a continuum of 4 stages (I’ve estimated years in each stage):

Years 1 & 2

Stage 1: Illiterate (Goal: Learn to read piano music notation)

Years 3 & 4

Stage 2: Literate (Goals: Learn how to use Practice Tools and develop more difficult music reading and comprehension skills)

Years 5 & 6

Stage 3: Semi-independent (Goal: Learn how to break down music pieces and build practice assignments to solve problems or weak areas)

Year 7+

Stage 4: Independent — Student can now teach themselves most advanced pieces of music. A piano teacher is no longer required unless the student chooses to pursue music performance further.

There’s an evolution that takes place.

Eggs. Caterpillar. Pupa. Butterfly.

Stages make more sense than levels because they explain the state of the student, their current educational focus, and the destination.

And with the current daily piano lesson model that I’m testing, it allows for me to guide students along this path of independence with a much higher rate of consistency.

Why?

Simply because I can control for the most wacky variable in learning piano — practice time. Pracfice must be engaged and focused and it’s not happened at home, at least not for most students I know.

Getting closer to a music learning system that makes sense. More on the daily lesson model next time.

The tortoise always wins,

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