Episode 209: Cheers to Choosing Recital Music

Well, hello, my teacher friends! Welcome to the Beyond Measure Podcast. My name is Christina Whitlock, and I have taken the liberty of designating myself as your Anytime Piano Teacher Friend.  I love to think about the human condition, and how it shows up in the music studio.  You too?  Oh, good.  Let’s link arms and move beyond the status-quo to build valuable musical experiences that impact our students for a lifetime.  Sound like a plan?  Excellent. Let’s get on with the show.

Today’s episode is full of fun surprises, you guys. I’ve got the actual episode, a big announcement, and a GREAT Teacher Friend of the Week story for you. Suffice to say, I’m happy to be in your ears today, and I’m ready to get this party started.

Recital season is looming ahead for many of us music teachers. Before we go any further, I just want to say: if you are a teacher who is NOT having any kind of performance event this spring, THAT IS PERFECTLY FINE.  We all seem to have our moments where we feel less-than because we think we’re SUPPOSED to be doing something that we’re not doing.  Don’t let recitals be that way for you.

Yes, I love recitals. They provide tangible evidence that you are doing good work. They make families happy. They make you look good. They make you feel good.

…but if that is NOT your experience?  Or the many headaches they cause leading UP TO the event are not worth it to you?  That is totally, completely fine.  No one is going to come take away your Piano Teacher License if you don’t have a spring recital.

BUT. Since many of us do, I wanted to talk today about criteria I have when it comes to choosing recital pieces.

It should come as no surprise to you that I dabble in A LOT of music when I teach.  I love buying new music and supporting composers and publishers in the process. I love teaching a variety of pieces.  It challenges me and it challenges my students.  It also allows me to hold performances where students play a wide variety of music from a wide variety of composers.

Here’s the second disclaimer of the day, friends:  If you only teach method book pieces and if your recital is only comprised of method book pieces?  Guess what?  THAT’S FINE TOO.  If ALL your students are beginners and you don’t have a lot of wiggle room in your variety, THAT’S ALSO FINE.

I’m still confident this episode will benefit you.

Are you getting the idea here, that there are no rules when it comes to recitals?  You can literally do anything you want.  It’s your show.  That’s both the beauty and the overwhelm of the whole thing.

Anyway: Since I am committed to teaching such a wide variety of music throughout the year, I find it helpful to point out that not every piece of music is a great recital choice.

Your criteria may vary from mine, but since I’m the one on the mic today, I guess we’ll start with my ideas.

In no particular order, I’ve come up with a list of 7 things that make a great recital piece.  Are you ready?  Let’s go for it.

Number 1: The student has to want to play it. Especially with spring recitals, guys: Things are TOO CRAZY. Kids – and teachers – are TOO OVER IT to have it any other way.  My rule is that students are allowed to choose anything we’ve studied this year to play in the recital.  I do tell them I reserve the right to VETO their choice, but that basically never happens.  Students, essentially, get to choose what they want to play.

Now – does that mean I’m completely removed from the process?  No way.  I think I’ve told this story on the podcast before, but we have friends whose daughter, many years ago, got it in her head that she wanted a purple robot for Christmas.  They looked high and low for a purple robot, and couldn’t find one. On Christmas morning she was crushed because there was no purple robot under the tree. They told us this story when our first daughter was born because they said there’s an art to helping your kids choose what they want for Christmas.  You can often strategically steer their attention to the right kinds of requests. In other words, the ones you are actually willing or able to purchase.

Well, I see recital music as the same thing. Throughout the year, if I think a particular piece would be a good recital choice, I will mention it.  And, once we hit February or so, I start dropping hints and steering the conversation towards the pieces I think would showcase my student the best.  That way, if I get a feeling that we are on drastically different pages, I can be proactive in introducing a good compromise or adjusting my own expectations.

So, yeah. Criteria No. 1 is that students have to WANT to play their recital piece or pieces.

Number 2: Recital selections should encompass a variety of styles. No one wants to sit through 25 toccatas in a row.  Nor do they want to listen to 25 lyrical ballads. The excitement… the beauty of each individual piece will get lost if it’s too similar to everything else around it. So: when it comes to helping my students steer their repertoire choices, I also keep a bird’s-eye view on the big picture so we have a nice variety of style, tempo, energy, etc.

Number 3: Absolutely related to that? I like to make sure my program has a variety of KEYS and TONALITIES.  This is newer to my list of recital criteria, but it’s a big one.  Last year, I was really pleased with my student selections… but I couldn’t help but notice there were WAY TOO MANY students in a row who played in C Major or C Minor.

Obviously, the majority of the audience couldn’t say they noticed the same… but I do believe the pieces all began to feel a little homogenous for my liking. I decided to make sure I was more aware of the keys my students were playing in as I was building the recital program to avoid too much of any single key this year.

Number 4: This is an important one, friends…. Recital pieces SHOULDN’T BE TOO LONG.  This is tough in a lot of cases.  Students work hard to prepare an entire multi-movement work or even a single sonata movement and OF COURSE we want them to show it off.  I just think it’s worth remembering that, for the majority of us with larger studios, longer pieces should be the exception, not the rule.

I will remind you of this, which I’ve said many times here on the podcast before:  I am stubbornly committed to NOT splitting my recital up into more than one group. We’re a family over here and I can’t stand the thought of breaking us up for the big spring recital.

To balance that, I am OBSESSED with efficiency during my recital. We start RIGHT on time, and we transition quickly between performers like a well-oiled machine.  We have it down.

I typically have somewhere around 32 students play in my spring recital, give or take. Most of my adult students do not want anything to do with playing, and that is fine.

The trade-off of having 32 students play in the same event, when I aim to have it wrapped up in just over an hour, is that each student typically just plays one piece.  Do I love that? No. But is it okay?  Yes.  In fact, it keeps the variety changing quickly and parents seem to appreciate that.

I say all of this to illustrate why I try to make sure recital pieces are not overly long. If a student is torn between two pieces, I will almost always vote for the shorter one.

I actually think this is a great opportunity. I remember choosing repertoire for my degree recitals and it was kind of the opposite situation.  You don’t want to choose a piece that is going to cost you hundreds of practice hours just to fill up 45 seconds of performance time.  And there are plenty of pieces out there that do just that. Instead, you want those hundreds of practice hours to translate into LONGER pieces.

Well, in student recitals, the opposite is true.  BRING ON THE 45-second pieces!  Woohoo!

Number 5: Good recital pieces often sound harder than they are.  Can I get an AMEN on that one?  We all know there are pieces out there that do not sound NEARLY as difficult as they actually are.  It’s HARD to make what we do look easy, right?  That is the mark of a fine pianist that those of us professionals can appreciate.  A general studio recital audience, though?  They appreciate things that SOUND HARD.  In Piano World, that translates to things like hand crossing (isn’t EVERYONE wowed when one hand crosses over the other, even though it’s not that difficult to do?!). Anything that moves back and forth between the hands quickly, or involves a big arpeggio?  Audiences LOVE that. That’s why great studio recital pieces are often heavily patterned.  They end up sounding much more difficult than they actually are.  Some piano teachers use the term ESH to describe these kinds of pieces:  Easy Sounds Hard. ESH.

Number 6: Somewhat related – and a bit of a soapbox – a great recital piece is not necessarily THE HARDEST THING you can play.  I’m on a mission to normalize playing pieces that are easier than we can manage.  This is something that STILL trips me up, friends.  I get embarrassed playing anything that I don’t consider a monster piece in public.  Why?  I don’t know. It’s just deeply conditioned into me that I should be performing the hardest thing I can play.  But guess what… when you’re performing something at the brink of your abilities, it is MUCH more likely that it’s not going to go well.  So – even if your student bit off a big piece of repertoire this year – it doesn’t mean that’s the best choice for them to play in the spring recital.  They’re much better off playing something that meets some of our previous points: something they WANT to play, something that sounds harder than it is, something that stands out as unique in style, etc. Repeat after me: It’s okay to perform something that feels easy.

Number 7: When programming my recital, I make use of duets and other ensemble opportunities as much as possible. I used to have this hang-up that I wanted my students on stage alone for at least one piece. I don’t know where that came from, but life is better now that I’ve let that idea go. Playing with the teacher duet, or a peer-to-peer duet is SO MUCH MORE engaging for the audience, and in a lot of cases, it eases the students’ nerves as well.

Utilize ensembles any time you can. They really break up the monotony of solo performances better than anything else.

And there you have it, friends!  My list of 7 criteria for choosing great recital pieces.  NOW: Here’s the really exciting part.  This has all been top-of-mind for me because I’ve been putting a little something together FOR YOU.

Hot off the presses, I’ve put together the 2025 Beyond Measure Piano Recital Guide!

The 2025 Recital Guide is a resource I’ve designed to help you get to know some of the tried-and-true repertoire I’ve used in my recitals year after year.

Many of you look to me for advice in choosing supplemental repertoire. That’s a lot of what we talk about in the SuperFriends Community, and I meet with a lot of you one-on-one in teacher consultations to talk about repertoire.

But – if you are looking for an easier commitment than either of those things, the 2025 Recital Guide is perfect for you.

Those of you who DO primarily teach method book pieces and who DO wish you could learn more about what’s out there?  The 2025 Recital Guide is for you. And, for now, it’s only $12.

This was hard, guys, I’m not going to lie:  I chose five pieces – just five! – in 7 different levels of piano study:  Pre-Reading, Early Elementary, Mid Elementary, Late Elementary, Early Intermediate, Mid-Intermediate, and Late Intermediate.

I could have chosen SO MANY MORE pieces, but then the point of the Guide gets sidetracked.  I’m trying to help you narrow your decisions here, so I stuck with 5.

These are all supplemental pedagogical works. No historical literature. No movie themes or pop arrangements. No method book pieces or series were used. I tried to stay away from the most widely recommended pieces because I really want to help you find new stuff.

These are tried-and-true pieces that show up on my recital programs year after year.  I give you a list of all 35 pieces, links to purchase, a description of each piece written by ME, and additional links to listen, etc.

I do have plans to drop in some additional video content with this resource, and I’ll raise the price accordingly once I do that.  BUT – if you want to grab the 2025 guide for just $12 (and then get the bonus material for free when it’s ready), head to ChristinaWhitlock.com/2025. I’ll also put that link in the shownotes.

Let it be known: These recommendations are all my own. I could have worked out deals with composers and publishers and made this more financially beneficial on my end, but… if you haven’t figured it out by now… I don’t like to monetize my recommendations.  I will collect money off affiliate links when you click on some of the links to purchase, but other than that, these suggestions are entirely my own and not being steered by anyone else.

(This stuff drives my business-minded friends crazy.  So – if nothing else – if you appreciate the fact that I am not constantly chasing the highest bidder in exchange for my recommendations – go pick up a copy of the 2025 Recital Guide and do us both a solid).

So friends: Hand crossovers? Big arpeggios?  Patterns?  Variety of styles and keys?  Pieces students love playing?  I’ve got you, friend.  I’ve got you.  Go to ChristinaWhitlock.com/2025 and grab your copy of the 2025 Recital Guide while it’s still $12.

PS: Even if I’m too late to help you with your recital selections, this list serves as an EXCELLENT introduction to the supplemental piano repertoire.

Okay, friends.  That’s the big announcement I have for you today.  Let’s toast our way out of here AND THEN talk about our Teacher Friend of the Week.  It’s a good one today. Find the nearest glass and raise it with me now!

Studio Teacher Friends from all over the world: Phew. I’m just so happy to announce the 2025 Recital Guide.  Not only because I’ve been working so hard on it, but because I *know* there are many of you out there who want to teach music your students get excited about. Life is too short and the piano rep is too big to play boring music, friends.  So from the itty-bitty Pre-Readers to the Late Intermediate Big Shots, I’ve got your back. And – because I don’t want to make this all about me – let’s toast to YOU for ALL THE THOUGHTS you carry around in your brain about your students, their music, and their experience in your studio.  High fives to all of us who genuinely want to create the best musical environment for our students.  We’re doing good work, friends.  Cheers to us.  Here, here!

OKAY: Teacher Friend of the Week time!  This week’s TFOTW is Sarah Roth.  Sarah Roth!  Oh, I love this teacher.  First of all, Sarah is a violin teacher.  She’s been part of the SuperFriends Community, she’s a consult client, and she never ceases to inspire me with her ideas.  I’m naming her Teacher Friend of the Week this week because of a conversation we had last year.  Sarah mentioned wanting to build in sort of a pre-recital routine like I’ve mentioned in previous podcasts.  Many years, my students and I will improvise together in the 30 minutes leading up to the recital start time.  It gets them used to the piano, it breaks the ice, and it allows those who love improvising to show off for the audience. This pre-show, of sorts, has become something many families look forward to. Well, Sarah Roth – being a violin teacher – couldn’t quite run the same kind of improv activities I do. But she came up with something I JUST LOVE. Sarah decided to meet with her students early before the recital and play through certain selections from Suzuki Book 1.  If you know anything about Suzuki Teaching, those students would all know those pieces from Book 1.  So, Sarah decided to host a pre-show warm up session where they all played through those pieces together.  I am still obsessed with this idea.  It would be sentimental and sweet for the parents in attendance, it’s a great way to REALLY check intonation and make sure you are REALLY warmed up, and it’s an easy on-ramp to performance because most of Sarah’s students can play those pieces in their sleep.

Anyway – that’s a long story, I know – but I HAD to share Sarah’s brilliance with you today.  Sarah Roth!  Congratulations on being Teacher Friend of the Week!

AND THAT’S A WRAP on Episode 208. Onward and upward toward Recital Preparations, Spring Break Relaxation, or whatever else you have planned for your week!