I know there is tons and tons of piano music out there but I wondered if you could also tell me what repertoire you considered was essential to have under your belt, as a piano teacher, before starting your teaching career. Thanks

What do you like to play, stylistically? Master that, then branch outwards.

Tackle all the great composers, not every single bit of their work, just pick say sonatas to begin with, and just a couple, master those, then move onto something different.

Try lots of different styles, including musical theatre, popular, and frankly music you completely dislike, even if it has already been listed!

Be prepared to teach as many styles as you can demonstrate, you need to be flexibe when you start. When you are established then concentrate on what you prefer.

Mind you, if you have already well and truly done the above, and gone much further, to a high level, then what are you waiting for?

I've also not done a lot of what might be considered 'essemtial repertoire'.
My current piano teacher was a little surprised about some of the things I'd not done.
I like to play things that 'everyone else' isn't playing.
There's so much piano music that I don't think we all need to play the same things as long as we've had a reasonably varied diet. Also there can come a point where you realise/decide that you don't REALLY have to play the things you don't get on with. This doesn't mean not giving things a fair trial first.

I'm in this camp too.

Add me!

Once you get going it becomes more evident what might be useful that you aren't already au fait with. Once your pupils get past about Grade 4 I'd say that you'd need to be able to demonstrate the styles of Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Chopin - but not necessarily with something difficult, or even with whole works. Jazzy stuff, Ragtime and modern atonal stuff too. But teaching is one of the best ways of learning about style and how to produce the desired effect, as it makes you think so much more intently than when being taught. I hope I never think I know it all, because it's the first sign that somebody doesn't! So don't hold back - go for it and respond to what comes your way. I was trying to show a Grade 6 what to do with a Beethoven piece recently and tried to play something with my LH that should have been RH (because of where I was sitting) and got the style as I wanted it to be but with lots of wrong notes, but she immediately knew what point I was trying to make and was able to reproduce with the right notes. There is no harm in pupils knowing your limitations; they'll have so much more respect for you if you're honest. Sometimes I scratch my head over ornaments in Grade 8 pieces and just say "Leave it with me, I'm really not totally sure, but I will be next time I see you."

Oh aye, and I can't help feeling that the above posters think I'm suggesting there is an ultimate repetoire list! Quite frankly there isn't which is why I didn't give any specifics, rather a suggested pathway to contemplated so to you lot and immediately goes off to play something obscure and vaguely satisfying. whoops wrong instrument, let's try again.

There is far too much piano music out there for there to be any agreement about what is essential repertoire. There is enough piano music to occupy even the fastest of learners for many lifetimes. You could easily devote your life to just one composer, or one short period.

However almost all good pianists would agree that if you can learn to play a good selection of Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues then you'll have the equipment to tackle almost anything that has been composed for the piano in the getting-on-for-300-years since they were written. And to lead up to them there is little better than his little notebook for Anna Magdalena, and a selection of his 2 and 3 part inventions.

cos I feel like it.

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I think the 'essential' repertoire will develop with the students that you have. In my early days of teaching I took on a young lad who had a yen to play all of Bach's 48, so my knowledge of fugue improved dramatically until I eventually persuaded him to have a go at some Prokofiev. However most students will be guided by you so as long as you are continually exploring new repertoire and know what sort of thing to offer students of various grades you will be fine.

With regards to 'essential repertoire' however it is important to have a good understanding of standard forms and styles like fugue and sonata form etc you don't need to have played everything, just be able to approach it and know what to look for if a student wants to play it.

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