Imagine a school year that moves like an Ally McBeal daydream: small, precise gestures (the wrist!), dramatic crescendos (but tasteful), and a teacher who consults a recipe book while you taste the music. This prospectus maps that year for a 15-year-old using Faber Piano Adventures Level 3A–3B, Hanon‑Faber: The New Virtuoso Pianist, and the Scale & Chord books — all guided by the Faber Teacher Atlas.
Course focus (big picture): develop healthy, efficient technique; internalise scales, arpeggios and chord progressions; grow musicianship in performance, composition and listening. Aligned to ACARA v9 strands: Performing, Creating (Composing), and Listening and Responding.
- Technical pathway: Daily Hanon‑Faber warm-ups for gesture, relaxation and endurance; progressive Scale & Chord Book routines for dexterity, speed and harmonic fluency.
- Repertoire and study: Faber 3A–3B lesson/repertoire pieces linked each week to technical and theory pages using the Teacher Atlas.
- Musicianship: sight‑reading habits, aural training, rhythmic independence, phrasing and expressive devices (dynamics, articulation, rubato).
- Creative work: short improvisations and composition tasks using scale and chord patterns; practical transposition and reharmonisation exercises.
How the materials interact: Hanon‑Faber teaches you how to move — efficient gestures and healthy alignment. The Scale & Chord books tell you what patterns to master — scales, arpeggios, triads and progressions you can recognise and apply. The Atlas is the weekly menu: which dish (piece) pairs with which technique and which theory garnish (rhythm reading, form analysis). Your teacher uses it like a chef, so lessons are cumulative, not random.
Assessment and outcomes: ongoing formative feedback (weekly lessons), a mid‑year recital and an end‑of‑year performance or exam. Success looks like secure posture and relaxed playing, accurate scales and chords across keys, confident sight‑reading at grade‑appropriate tempo, clear expressive choices, and evidence of creative use of harmonic patterns.
Practice guide (practical): 20–40 minutes/day focused across warm‑ups, repertoire, theory tasks and creative exercises. (Short blocks, focused goals — like a well‑edited episode.)
By year’s end you will be more than a note‑player: you will be a thoughtful performer, a nimble technician and a budding creator — and yes, stage‑ready, too.