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 Elton Joel RW2   2'25
With apologies to them both. A rock piano solo without lyrics.

Score PC | Mac

Recording (mp3, 1.9MB)

 Elegy RW2   2'25
Many, many parts to weave and balance - needs ensemble skills, even though it's for solo piano.

Score PC | Mac

Recording (mp3, 1.6MB)

 Grumpy Trolls RW2   2'25
A contest piece with bite. Storms and stamps all over the piano before the jump-up-and-bow finish.

Score PC | Mac

Recording (mp3, 1.2MB)

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 Snowflakes RW2   2'25
A delicate picture piece - how many shades of quiet can you play?

Score PC | Mac

Recording (mp3, 0.9MB)

 MicroWaltz RW2   2'25
Less than a minute long. For early intermediate students.

Score PC | Mac

Recording (mp3, 0.8MB)

 Processional RW2   2'25
A concert opener that quickly breaks out of its initial stately reserve.

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Recording (mp3, 2.6MB)

Running a competition          back to magazine homepage

by Philip Johnston

 

Introduction | Hyping the lead-up | Limiting the time | Creating prize categories
Choosing great rewards | Certificates | The "Doubler" factor
Creating leaderboards | Team based competitions | Strategic timing
Interstudio competitions | Creating a Hall of Fame | Turning it into a fundraiser

 

Creating leaderboards

Once your competition is underway, you can really pour fuel on the fire by making the leaderboards prominent, and keeping the updated regularly.

One easy method is to have a whiteboard in your studio dedicated to just this purpose. The prize categories would be headings, and underneath each would be the name of the student who is currently in the lead for that prize, together with their stats.

If there is an overall champion prize too, then it's sometimes worth listing the current Top 10. As long as you update this once a week, whenever students come to their lesson, they will see fresh information—helping them perceive the leaderboard as being fluid. This will give hope to those not yet on the board, and serve as a reminder to those who are that they need to keep working to defend their position.

Newsletters

Even if you don't normally have a studio newsletter, it's worth creating a weekly bulletin just for the duration of the competition. It will allow you to include detailed stats, and a top 10 for a range of leaderboards—it will normally be the first thing students ask to see when they arrive at the lesson.

If you have a digital camera, it's worth including a headshot of the current leader each week, together with any other students who are improving fast. The aim is to ensure that as many students as possible are mentioned—seeing your own name in print like this is hugely motivating, which is exactly why computer games still have high score tables.

Online updates

If you have your own Studio Website through our musicteaching.com service, keeping your students updated is even easier still. Their own webpage will have leaderboards built in, and these leaderboards are updated automatically whenever a student enters their practice times for the day.

You can also send updates and results as a "Send to all students" message, or by publishing them in your online newsletter. (If you haven't seen one of these studio websites yet, you really should check it out—we've put in lots for you and your students to play with)