7 Responses for "Student Only Recital"

1. Leigh June 24th, 2009 at 7:42 am 1

   Every year we have a Halloween recital/party. I go all-out with the decorations. The students come dressed in costumes, and play their Halloween songs for each other. After the formal presentation, while they’re stuffing their faces with cookies and candy, most of them want to play again…..and again and again! It’s worth having to wipe down the piano keys afterward to see them enjoying making music!

2. Suzan Pleva June 24th, 2009 at 3:00 pm 2

   What a smart, and interesting idea! If you have a couple of months, maybe you could have them all practice a small simple duet piece. You could have half of them practice one part, and the other half practice the other. After the recital, you could have them each draw names out of a hat and have twosomes of student’s play the duet together. I am not sure how well this would actually work, but it seems like a great idea! LOL!

3. Amy June 24th, 2009 at 4:21 pm 3

   My childhood piano teacher always did a student-only Christmas recital in her home studio. We drew numbers before the recital to determine the order in which students would play. It was a more relaxed environment than the formal recital each spring. I’ve not yet done a student-only recital for my kids but hope to in the future.

4. Becky June 24th, 2009 at 10:53 pm 4

   I’ve done a Christmas Party/Student-Only Recital for the past four years. I start with a craft for students to do while waiting for others to arrive, then we decorate Christmas cookies. After that, we have our recital and perform Christmas songs for each other. Before they play, I go around and have each student tell their name, grade, how long they’ve been playing and then something fun (what they want for Christmas, their favorite song they’ve ever played, etc). I just let the students volunteer whenever they are ready to play. They are always very excited to share their songs and it does my heart good to hear, “Miss Becky, can I play another song?” After that, we usually play bingo or another game and I give small presents before they leave.

5. Leigh June 27th, 2009 at 1:02 pm 5

   In the past I’ve held Christmas recitals (for students only) in students’ homes. I’d ask for 3 or 4 volunteer host families, so each recital had 8 – 10 performers. The host provided the drinks, and each student brought a plate of goodies. After each one played, he or she would pick a name out of a stocking to see who would play next. (We do the same thing for the Halloween party, but with a pumpkin)We had refreshments and I gave each student a small present. The homes were always decorated for the holidays, and the students usually dressed up nicely. At one of the parties one year, there was only one boy among all those girls. Oops! He was so uncomfortable, he ended up in the family room watching the game on tv with the hostess’s husband!

   Susan, I LOVE your duet idea for Halloween. The younger students could even learn a simple ostinato part, and the older ones something to go with it – along the lines of Piano Adventures’ “Pumpkin Boogie”, which is very similar to a duet my dad and I would play when I was young.

6. Heidi June 27th, 2009 at 4:30 pm 6

   Great idea! A student only recital! I think I’ll have to try it this year.
   Here is a great game for getting students to remember others names. It also helps break the ice!
   Get all students to sit in a circle. Starting on one end, they recite each others names in order. Peter is first, he says “Peter”. They Mary says, “Peter, Mary”. Natasha says, “Peter, Mary, Natasha”. And so on. The last player says the whole list, then play continues back around the circle so that everyone gets a turn saying all those names!

7. Faye June 30th, 2009 at 7:54 am 7

   I do two “piano performance” classes a year in my studio. Students only – no parents allowed (there isn’t room for them anyway!). We discuss recital etiquette and practice bowing. I have students draw numbers to determine the order of performance. Many times pieces are still not polished, but it is ok. The idea is to perform in a friendly atmosphere. When everyone is done, we talk about how we can improve our performances while I hand out cookies (always their favorite part). I also usually have 10 to 15 minutes left to play a game. We usually do a “To Tell the Truth” type of game (an idea I got from a workshop). I make up 10 questions about a composer and I make up 3 sets of answers for each question. One set of answers is correct, one set is slightly wrong, and then I try to make the third set as funny/silly as possible. I have 3 of my students read off the answers as I, the moderator, read the questions. Then the rest of the class has to decide which student is the composer (the correct set of answers). This game usually goes over very well.