The Piano Rewards (PR) program will go from September 2, 2024 through April 18, 2025.
The deadline of the Piano Rewards program ends in April this year to allow enough time to order trophies for the May 10th recital.

The program is designed to emphasize three areas of well-rounded musicianship:
20-Piece Challenge, Theory, and Scale-a-thon (Keyboard Skills). It is a student’s personal progress throughout the year.  Each student achievement within these three areas will be rewarded at the end of the school year. 

10 and 20 PIECE CHALLENGE - 2024-2025

Out of the 20 pieces, at least 15 pieces should be in any one of these categories: Concerto, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th century, Seasonal, or Short Pieces. The other 8 pieces can be songs, contemporary, movie themes, hymns, etc. These must be in original composition for piano. All 20 pieces must be at least 24 measures long, piano solos or duets. Your 20 pieces must be pre-approved by the teacher.

Students are encouraged to learn and pass off their pieces each week/month throughout the school year. You can earn no more than 2 pieces at each weekly lesson. The deadline for 10 and 20 piece challenge is April 18, 2025. Have fun learning the music!♫

This program:

• Motivates students to learn a lot of music

• Helps students advance more quickly

• Improves their sight reading

• Exposes them to more styles of music and more composers

• Gives them a weekly sense of accomplishment

• Encourages polishing more pieces than usual

• Excites students about music instead of just a treat

Being able to play a large volume of music in different styles in a beautiful way is the best reward.

First ten pieces are on the “blue” level. The next ten pieces are on the “orange” level if the students would like to “level up”.

In order for any of the pieces to be checked “DONE”, the music must be learned correctly in Fingering, Expressions, Rhythms, and Notes, as well as be able to play the music in the correct tempo with articulations, phrasing and interpretations.

THEORY - 2024-2025

With consistent theory work, note reading will improve, and ear training & sight-reading will enhance overall musicianship when it comes to learning a new piece.   Understanding what is in the music score will enrich the learning and memory process.  

Throughout the year, students must complete pages of homework from their theory book as assigned weekly by the teacher.  Two pages are assigned each week.  Student must have the two pages finished before they arrive at the studio for lessons (or at their virtual lessons).  Parents, please double check that the theory assignment each week will be done 2 or 3 days after the lesson day. I will correct the pages with the student at the beginning of their lessons each week. The number of pages completed will be totaled by April.  Remember to do your homework the day after the lesson; don’t wait or else you will forget. I highly encourage students to do two pages a week and stay consistently throughout the year rather than do many pages in April. The last day to count for the total pages completed is April 18, 2025. The top three winners will receive a beautiful trophy at the spring recital in May.

SCALE-A-THON (KEYBOARD SKILLS) 2024-2025

Having good technique is essential to a great performance. Students are encouraged to practice their scales, chords, cadences and arpeggios daily. Scales are great as a warm up exercise for your fingers and for your mind.  Once you’ve played through each of the Major and minor keys, you can then have the confidence of recognizing any scale patterns, chords, cadences and arpeggios when you see them in the music.  

There are twenty-four keys total, 12 Major and 12 minor keys. Students will pass off as many keys as possible at the lessons throughout the school year. All scales, chords, arpeggios and cadences must be played with correct fingering, by memory, and with the metronome tempo given by the teacher. Please see the required tempo markings on the “Scale-a-thon” log in the student assignment book. The top three winners will receive a beautiful trophy at the spring recital in May.

The last day of the Scale-a-thon is April 18, 2025.

BREAKDOWN OF THE REWARDS PROGRAM

There are three areas of the Piano Rewards Program:

REWARDS

Last day to finish the rewards program is April 18, 2025.
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners for Theory, Scale-a-thon, and winners of both 10-piece and 20 piece challenge will be recognized and awarded at the spring recital in May.

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Please disregard the following block (not applicable for 2024-2025).

PERFORMANCE (not applicable for 2024-2025)

The more you perform the more confidence you’ll have.   The key to overcoming performance anxiety is simply to play often for an audience.        

Each memorized solo/concerto performance (with musical details, accuracy, and up to tempo) of repertoire studied with the teacher during the year is worth 20 PR points. The concerto movement must be performed entirely by memory in order to count points. Each solo piece must be performed entirely by memory in order to count performance points. If the student only performs the piece partially memorized, no points will be counted. Students may use music if the piece is an ensemble piece. Performances in the teacher’s recitals and performance classes do count toward PR Points. In addition, performances at UFMC concerto and solo festivals, auditions, Honors Recital, AIM, school concerto nights, church, and retirement homes all are worth 20 PR points each. Performances for family and friends throughout the year will also count for points.

NOTE: Remember students may not perform the same piece(s) for the same audience more than once for PR points. Students should perform both Federation pieces at the same time for the same audience. This will count as one performance. If the student already played the Federation solo piece for Friend A and recorded the performance, then the same piece cannot be counted for Friend A again for another day, another time.

Students are encouraged to perform both Federation pieces in ONE PERFORMANCE to count 20 performance points (Example: performance classes, recital and solo festival). The same two pieces should not be performed more than three times a day. It is important for students to perform every day, and for different audiences. However, find opportunities outside your home to perform, so you are performing for different audiences, and on different pianos. The audience must be actively listening to the student’s complete performance in order to count points.

To parents, please remember to write down the performance on the day immediately after the student has performed.  Many times students have told me at the lessons they have done several performances during the week, but I don't see anything being recorded on the "Performance Log" in the student assignment book. Please don’t forget to record the performances as they occur, and write in your initial for each completed performance. Thank you!

If students or parents have questions on performance points, please let me know.

Performance sheets must be submitted no later than two weeks before the last day of lessons. The teacher will need ample time to calculate the points from the three areas for each student, and have the cash award ready for the Student by end of the year.