E37: Decolonising Piano Education… the radical new Trinity Piano Syllabus- and unpacking the many cans of unleashed worms

The most radical and indispensable piano syllabus ever! This will either be incredibly exciting for piano teachers & students- or highly controversial. Either way, it’s a must-own. In this episode I discuss some of the many controversial issues that this new syllabus raises, and give you a detailed verdict on these new books. Part two will review the individual grades. Show Notes: First impressions I sight-read through every single piece in every grade, and did the same with current syllabuses from ABRSM, RSL, RSL Classical, and LCM to get a thorough feel for how the new Trinity syllabus compares with the competition [3:28] A look at recent trends in education such as decolonisation of music education, and commercial & ideological pressures on University music departments to move towards being 'pop schools' The decline of classical music in education... Diversity in classical music IMO this wider context is essential to understand what is happening in this new Trinity syllabus [25:10] Very diverse selection of music from many genres Diversity is great, but I have strong concerns that the new syllabus allows for focusing on narrow styles. such as minimalist film music or pop music in exams, with absolutely no classical music The cheaper standard editions miss out a lot of the classical music, emphasising commercial accessible music. Discussion about cultural relativism Should we formally study rock/pop music? Such an overwhelming amount of non-classical music in this syllabus- why not just make a rock/pop exam that can be taken on piano? You can't compare difficulty levels of playing rock/pop & classical- therefore I feel new syllabus is meaningless as a qualification Trinity do specify that you should play a balanced programme, but there's no penalisation for playing just pop music for example, so this is a meaningless directive The importance of a balanced musical 'diet' Less representation of non-white classical composers- a troublesome backward direction for Trinity Positive discrimination for women and non-white composers [42:03] The problem of including so much pop/rock/jazz in an exam that doesn't allow for improvisation or flexibility from the written notes The difficulty of arranging pop/rock music into written sheet music, especially at lower grades On the whole, Trinity have not done a great job with their pop arrangements (but there are some exceptions). ABRSM's arrangements although still flawed are generally more successful. Nice that most pop arrangements are in the same key as the original so can play along Excellent selection of jazz that sounds authentically like 'real' jazz rather than what exam boards such as ABRMS have focused on in the past which I call 'pedagogical jazz'- which sound like they've been written just for piano exams Maybe strange that Trinity feature improvisation for their aural tests and instead of sight-reading, but then don't allow for any improvisation in styles of music where it's desperately needed [53:47] Fantastic fresh finds of obscure music, especially in classical music, and especially with women composers Fresh, enjoyable diverse music for all tastes Inclusion of so much game music, film music, etc will appeal to a lot of my teenage and adult students This syllabus is therefore so valuable to help music teachers make money! I can see this syllabus will be particularly useful to find and keep adult students who will be motivated by the goal of taking an exam, with music they will find very rewarding I find a lot of value in giving rock/pop/jazz with challenging rhythms to all my classical students who almost all have rhythm as their weakest musical element But I also find value in making sure that students primarily interested in classical are exposed to learning pieces in a diverse range of styles IMO all piano teachers should own the entire series of ex...