If Music Be the Food of Love (a response to The 4-Piece Challenge)

Warning: Do not read this blog post if you are hungry. Gratuitous food pics ahead!

Outside of piano teaching, people know me as a total foodie.  I’m married to a wonderful home chef and baker, and we love sharing food with others. 

I recently read an article in “American Music Teacher” called “The 4-Piece Challenge” which encourages the teaching of a small number of pieces each year. The article finds this analogous to the Slow Food Movement. The belief espoused being fewer pieces equals a slower working pace. A slower pace equals deeper learning.

This article was written to contrast with Elissa Milne’s “Repertoire-rich Challenge”, sometimes called “The 40 Piece Challenge” I am a strong proponent of this approach and have written about in “Clavier Companion.”

You can learn more about it here:

Rich-Repertoire

Some tenents of the “Repertoire-rich Approach” are:

-Students who learn a wide variety of pieces are less likely to get bored

-A good number of pieces to aim for in a year is around 40 (one per lesson). Some students with busy schedules might do better aiming for 30. Others will hit the 100 mark.

-Leveling is mixed and the amount of time needed to learn a piece is varied:

1. quick study pieces (around 1 week)
2. just-right pieces (2-3 weeks) 
3. stretch pieces (3+ weeks)

-Each new learning experience counts as a “piece”. Students benefit from interacting with a score in a variety of ways including:

1. transposing
2. improvising on the musical material
3. re-harmonizing
4. adding a melodic descant
5. creating a duet part
6. composing variations
7. changing the modality/tonality
8. changing the meter

-Not every piece needs to be learnt from a score. Rote pieces, original compositions, pieces learnt by ear, and arrangements all work to deepen a student’s musical knowledge and understanding

-Students who learn more repertoire tend to be better readers

-Students who have played multiple pieces in a style, for instance Mazurkas, will have a deeper understanding of that style.

-Not every piece needs to be perfected to recital quality (although many will), but all should be able to be played with flow and expression

The advice in AMT was rather than learning a wide variety of pieces yearly, it is better to focus on four pieces, with maybe a few supplements. Essentially what many exam systems require.

Food analogies are always a little dangerous. We bring so much emotional baggage to the discussion. Does playing more mean we are overeating? Does playing pop music mean we are eating fast food? Are students who want to only play a few pieces picky eaters?

Nonetheless, since the article raised the analogy I’d like to play with it a bit. 

Slow Food

I would consider my relationship with food to be largely in line with the slow food movement. If you are not familiar with the term “slow food” it emphasizes sustainability, fair compensation for food producers, and locally made products. It encourages respect for food, not just consumption.

“Slow Food” is primarily how we eat in my family. We favor buying locally grown organic produce and cage free/free range meats, dairy, and eggs. We don’t eat fast food. Most of what we consume (from condiments, to broth, to jams, to dressings) is homemade.

What bothered me about the analogy to slow food is that slow food doesn’t mean lack of variety. Since covid quarantine began in March I’ve begun documenting what we’ve eaten, as virtually everything has been prepared at home.

I think what comes through in these photos is that while there are themes based on the ingredients available (several different ways of making pasta and risotto for instance) we have in no way limited the variety of foods we eat. 

Slow food doesn’t mean boring food. Slow food doesn’t mean preparing only four dishes a year. 

The 40 Piece Challenge has more in common with the slow food movement than the AMT article would have you believe.

When taking a “Repertoire-rich” approach some pieces will take a long time to learn and perfect, others can be learnt quickly. Sometimes we’ll find a theme: Tangos, Sonatinas, BIPOC composers. Other times we’ll learn something the students knows and loves: Movie themes, pop tunes, popular classics. What is important is the variety and quality of the music.

Some meats and fish take a couple days to marinate.

Bread takes time to rise.

A cake made for a special occasion can take days to put together.

Other dishes like cold tofu can make for a healthy and delicious meal with minimal prep time. 

I have many students who would be happy to live on instant mac and cheese. I believe as music teachers our job is to offer nourishment that includes both comfort foods and new flavors. I want students to engage in ways that can show off their current abilities and help them hone new skills. I want them to enjoy sweet and salty, spicy and bitter, fermented and umami. I want them to have the confidence to cook classic dishes, as well as put their own spin on them.

Most of all I want them to learn love and respect for what they prepare and consume, and to want them to share that love with others.