Active Repertoire

Active Repertoire: The 2021 Challenge

ACTIVE REPERTOIRE PROJECT
Music you can play, any time, any place

For piano players, like everyone else, 2020 has been a huge struggle.

We have needed to re-evaluate our goals and quickly change many of our plans. But in the midst of the turmoil, many of us have found a renewed enthusiasm for piano playing, while many more have returned to the piano or taken up playing for the first time.

We enter 2021 with growing numbers of pianists and teachers embracing a fresh direction and revitalised piano goals. Whether disenchanted with a dull exam-driven formula or eager to disentangle from over-prescriptive methodology, many are now hungry for a more inspired musical approach.

We want to embrace a more motivated, positive version of ourselves at the piano!

Thankfully, there is an answer…

Active Repertoire: An Adult Student’s Perspective

Guest Post by Joni Hawkes

ACTIVE REPERTOIRE PROJECT
Music you can play, any time, any place

The recent articles on Active Repertoire on Pianodao have struck a chord with me … quite literally.

As an adult beginner into my third year of lessons, I have often found myself avoiding situations where I might be asked to play something, because I simply couldn’t play anything spontaneously without my trusty sheet music to hand.

The more pieces that I learned, the more they were becoming just a growing collection of stuff I couldn’t play.

The concept of Active Repertoire (always having 3 pieces that I enjoy playing, without notice, without embarrassment and without notation) has completely changed my approach to playing.

I now start every practice session by playing my 3 favourite pieces, and whilst I still have the book in front of me, I’m finding that with each session I’m increasingly looking away from the music as I play.

Three types of Repertoire

ACTIVE REPERTOIRE PROJECT
Music you can play, any time, any place

Since writing my article What can you play? readers have shown quite an interest in the concept of Active Repertoire.

Now I am going to explain a little more about how Active Repertoire fits into the wider picture of your piano journey.

What Can You Play?

PATHWAYS FOR PLAYING • by ANDREW EALES
For lessons and advice • BOOK A CONSULTATION

One of the major stumbling blocks for players is that we too often feel that we are struggling, making little progress, and perhaps just haven’t got what it takes to become a “good player” (however we define what that is).

To enjoy playing an instrument, we need to move beyond this negative self-talk. And I suggest that one of the most easy and powerful ways we can achieve this is to adjust the balance between working and playing during our personal piano time.

Which brings us to the question,

“What can you play?”

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