Curriculum

Our piano curriculum has been developed as a stand-alone tool to support your piano students’ learning and development. It gives you, the piano teacher, a basic outline of the skills and knowledge your students will need to acquire to progress to from beginner to approximately grade 5 standard.

Stages
The piano curriculum has eight progressive stages (A-H) from beginner to approximately grade 5 standard. These stages allow piano students to build up theoretical knowledge and technical skills over time, and at their own pace. There is no need to complete one stage before going on to the next, and it is quite probable that a single student may span several stages at once.

Don’t forget to present your students with a certificate when they complete a stage!

Modules
We have also broken learning down into different subject areas, which we have called Modules (numbered 1-15). These are the individual aspects of piano technique and musical knowledge. For example, Module 1 is Notes and the Stave, Module 8 is Intervals, and Module 15 is Forms and Structures.

Units
Units are created where the Stages and Modules intersect, and they are identified by an alphanumeric code. For example Unit A1 is Stage A, Module 1 – notes and the stave for complete beginners. Not all of the Stages have every Unit in so you will find some of the checklists do not run in numerical order.

Elements
The Elements are the specific items of learning within each Unit, as identified on our checklists. You (or your students) may wish to add or remove extra items here to fit with your priorities as a music education professional.

Our curriculum enables piano teachers to design their own schemes of work, and offer a comprehensive music education to their students. When used in conjunction with our checklists, this also speeds up the lesson planning process and helps to maximise student progress, as teachers can easily see areas of strength and for development.

Version 2 of this curriculum (download above) was published in May 2018.