One of the most common experiences shared amongst piano students across the US is a disdain for piano lessons, and this often stems from participating in Piano Festivals. Just to note, I am not talking about festivals like Treefort or other events where countless artists perform music under one event - those are awesome, and I think we need more festivals like that in the Boise area.
I am speaking of the kind of festivals where piano students perform pieces in front of a panel of judges and get a score. The pieces they play aren't chosen by the student, but are determined by the committee putting on the festival or the teacher. A five star performance is a Superior, four stars is an Excellent, and so on.
I recall sharing my passion for playing piano in high school, and my peers would hit me with the amount of stars they got at festival. They would say, "I play piano too, and I'm pretty good. I got a Superior rating five years in a row." Naturally, I was impressed upon hearing this. Surely it must be an accomplishment. Well, I hate to burst your bubble...
It's NOT, unless the piece truly pushed the performer.
And I'm not saying this out of envy of anybody's accolades. I even got some Superior ratings myself. My problem with the whole piano festival system has to do with what teachers and students are measuring. Piano festivals give rise to questions like "How can I win at music" which is a silly question at best, and dangerous at worst.
If a piano student wants to win at a festival, it means they will be disappointed at anything beneath the highest rating. They may begin to compare their scores with their peers, and start to feel like they aren't even real musicians without that perfect score; or worse, they may see themselves as real musician because they won a superior rating!
However, this is often not the root of the problem. I think ambition and raising the bar will get students far, and so shooting for a superior/perfect score may be the goal that will stretch them musically. But this is hardly the problem, since a student wanting to push themselves doesn't need a festival to do so.
The main problem is that festivals aren't for the student, but for the teacher.
I've noticed patterns from well-meaning instructors that have negative impact on a student's growth or love of music (the most important part). When piano teachers want to win festival, they are willing to lower the bar so they can boast of a studio where students get "superior" ratings. This would in turn increase the number of recruits to their studio (because what parent would settle for anything less than a "superior" teacher for their child?).
I recall working retail at Dunkley Music and helping piano teachers find music for their student's upcoming festival performance. The most common trope between these teachers is their desire to pick pieces that their student will succeed at. These decisions are made on music "difficulty" from a repertoire that's chosen by the piano festival committee. If the "Medium 3" piece is a stretch for their student, they'll give them a "Medium 1" because they're almost guaranteed to have a superior rating. Here we see the clash between the desire to win with the desire to teach.
What's worse is that the students get burnt out by this process. Most students start taking lessons because they were signed up by their parents, while some get put into lessons from showing their own desire to learn. The student gets tired and stressed from practicing and "perfecting" pieces they didn't pick for a panel of judges they don't know, who will give arbitrary scores. The conversations often go like this:
Piano Student: "I started learning Don't Stop Beleivin' and I'm excited to show you what I have so far!"
Teacher: That's fun, but we can't spend long on it today. You should be practicing for the upcoming festival instead.
And so the student pleads with their parents to quit piano lessons so they can actually begin learning like they want to, and they often never regain their love of music after.
Every student I am teaching now that participated in piano festivals before has told me they weren't interested in doing it again. This is exciting news for me, because now I get to teach my students what they want to learn. My goal is to use music the student is interested in to encourage them to grow. Not only can I teach my students technique and theory whether they are playing Coldplay or a Chopin Etude; they actually learn these concepts better because they have the desire to learn them through these pieces... no impending fear of being judged is necessary for them to start practicing!
Passion matters more than a perfect score.
As music educators, we ought to aim for inspiring and encouraging our students to be curious instead of trying to impress a board of judges, big wigs, or otherwise.
One last note: Not every teacher who has their students participate in festival acts in a way that discourages growth. I've seen exceptions where students are excited to perform their festival pieces, and I've seen teachers use piano festivals as a tool to challenge their students.
Despite a teacher's intentions, I encourage and challenge them to measure what truly matters. Inspire passion and excitement, not perfection and superior ratings. Let's aim to be educators that light the path of the student's musical journey while igniting the spark for their love of music that everybody has within them.
Thank you so much for reading! Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
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