The Question I'm Asking my Students

Last week was our first week of the school year session here in the studio. And it was great to see so many students back and ready to jump right into their music. I found myself asking variations of this question several times throughout the week. "If there was one song you could learn this year, what would it be?" Or "Do you have a favorite song that you think would be fun to try and learn on the piano?" And depending on the student and their goals, I got a lot of fun answers. Some asked to start learning music to play for their church, some asked for a favorite theme from a movie or video game, some chose music by popular artists, and of course I had at least one ask to learn the Wellerman (thanks TikTok for bringing that one back on trend! Fortunately, I've always loved a good sea shanty). 

These conversations with students about music they love and want to learn is one of the things that gets me really energized as a teacher. Because connecting my students with music they're excited to learn is a huge part of helping piano students transition into lifelong musicians. If we have music we love to play, it will create intrinsic motivation to practice more. And more practice means we progress quicker, and naturally enjoy learning music more, so we get to play even more music we love. It also opens the door to exploring new genres, theory and technical tools, and often once students are feeling confident, they actually start to request classical pieces too. When piano kids are engaged in their own music learning journey, we get this really awesome feedback loop of progress and motivation.

By the end of the week of asking this question, I had a list of at least half a dozen new pieces to either find or arrange. So Friday evening after lessons I sat down to get started and arranged this sweet little waltz called "Married Life" from Pixar's Up for one of my intermediate students. The sheet music is published here for anyone reading who is interested in grabbing a copy. For students in the studio, remember that your tuition is all-inclusive, so you just need to ask!

Purchase Sheet Music Here

So, just as a fun thought experiment to wrap up this post, what's your bucket list song? If you could learn just one song on any instrument, what would it be?