Here are a list of questions that were asked at a ARCT Advanced Pedagogy Certificate Exam for the Viva Voce portion in Spring 2011. My friend who had recently completed the exam was kind enough to send them to me from memory, from her actual exam. Of course you'll have to remember that the flow of the questions also depends on the candidate's responses. Don't be afraid to elaborate and demonstrate what you really know.
1) What is satisfying in teaching students in the high level?
2) How do you fit everything in 1 hour lesson?
3) Is there anything that absolutely must be in a lesson?
4) Name a difficult rhythm that you would see in the higher level, how would you teach it?
5) How do you teach rubato?
6) What types of studies (etudes) do you use, other than the ones by RCM?
7) Play grade 9 romantic 19th century (chopin prelude in Db):
8) How do you teach cantabile?
9) How do you teach balance?
10) How many preludes did chopin write?
11) What book would you use to teach cantabile line?
12) Play grade 7 baroque (Telemann bouree):
13) What is a bouree?
14) What’s the form of the piece? What’s the benefit of telling students the form of the piece?
15) How do you teach evenness?
16) Play grade 8 twenty-first century (mysterious summer night):
17) Why would students like this piece?
18) What’s the composer? What other piece did she compose?
19) How would you teach bar 15? How would you ask the student to practice this bar?
20) Would you write in pedal markings for the students?
21) Play grade 10 baroque (Bach fugue):
22) How to you teach balance in a fugue?
23) How do you show the different lines?
24) How do you teach a student who plays everything correct but not musically?
25) What book do you use to help analyze fugues?
26) Play grade 9 twentieth century (golliwogg’s cakewalk):
27) What period is this piece written?
28) Who’s the composer?
29) What’s a cake-walk?
30) How do you introduce impressionistic music?
31) Is it important to learn multiple pieces from the same style/composer? (ie. play more than one impressionistic pieces from Debussy?)
I am a new Suzuki Piano Teacher with many years of experience teaching classical piano at the beginners and intermediate levels to children of all ages. I am creating this blog to capture some of my rough notes from teacher training, pedagogy books, workshops and experiences from my own studio. The earlier entries are taken from the lesson notes for the pre-Twinkle level class I had taught outside the formal Suzuki method. Your comments and feedback are most helpful. Enjoy!
I'm a fellow piano teacher currently preparing for my RCM Elementary Viva Voce exam. Is there any possibility that you'd know how I could get my hands on a similar list of questions, but for the Elementary level? I've been having some trouble figuring out how to prepare. Any help/info would be greatly appreciated!
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