Imagine this: Your students enter your classroom. They make their way to their keyboards and take out their piano book. They put their headphones on and spend the period practicing the piece you’ve assigned them that day. Then, at the end of class, they turn their keyboards off and leave the room. You’ll see them again tomorrow when they will do the same thing. On the positive side of things, this sounds like an efficient and potentially productive lesson for your students. However, it also brings to mind a question: How long does it take for a routine to turn into a rut?

The National Core Arts Standards are organized around four modalities: Creating, Performing, Responding, and Connecting. While we tend to focus on performance in our ensemble courses, that is only one of the four modalities. Electives like Piano Lab, which often have less performance requirements can be a great place to explore the other three modalities, including creating!

Do you remember your first day of High School? I can’t say that I remember mine in great detail, but I remember the overall feeling of excitement and build-up, with a bit of anxiety thrown in. I do remember going to buy my school supplies the week before and picking out the perfect agenda where I would write down all of my assignments throughout the school year. These trips to buy school supplies were always my favorite part of any new school year!

As professional musicians and music teachers, when we think about music education, performance opportunities and preparation are often at the forefront of our minds. We are accustomed to school concerts given by the choirs, bands, and orchestras we direct, as well as recitals common in private studio settings. However, when it comes to our Piano Lab classes, it can often be a mixed bag. Some teachers approach it as a non-performance elective designed for students who don’t want to participate in performances. Others approach performance as a requirement when learning a new instrument. So in this article, let’s look at the very legitimate reasons teachers do and don’t include performance requirements, ways to support novice musicians in their first performances, and several models for formal performance in Piano Lab.