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As teachers, specifically private music teachers, we get a very unique and special opportunity. We get to develop relationships with the same students for years, sometimes lots of years.

We often meet them as wiggly little kindergartners who can barely sit still on the bench. And somewhere along the way, they transform into moody middle schoolers with often very opinionated ideas about what music means to them. And eventually, hopefully, we get to experience them as they are on the verge of becoming young adults, getting ready to head out into the world and carrying that gift of music with them.

And let’s not forget our adult students who are maybe returning to the piano in their retirement years, or who maybe just need to find a little breathing room at the keyboard in the midst of work and family and everything else.

The changes we witness to are quite dramatic. Some of them take place over years, and other changes seem to happen almost overnight.

Today, I’ve chosen two pieces that try to musically depict the excitement and the uncertainty of our constantly changing experiences. First, a late intermediate piece by Wendy Stevens called "Longing for Change." And then an intermediate work by Ryan Chesser, "Winds of Change."

Two pieces that I found to be a breath of fresh air. Coming up next on the Piano Pedagogy Playlist.

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Greetings and welcome! I hope your day is going well. My name is Luke Bartolomeo. I’m a pianist, a teacher, and also a developer of music education apps for children, including Flash Note Derby.

Each Monday on this podcast, I play through some of my current favorites from the piano teacher’s repertoire, written by living composers.

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Wendy Stevens is the composer and teacher behind ComposeCreate.com. If you haven’t yet explored this huge site, it’s full of her own compositions as well as others at all different levels. And there’s also a substantial collection of resources for teachers.

The piece I’m playing today is her "Longing for Change." It’s a late intermediate piece that I think would be a lovely choice for a teenager or even adult student who enjoys expressively lyrical writing, with just enough contemporary sophistication added to the mix.

Musically, the sense of waiting in this piece comes through a tonal ambiguity that delays giving us a satisfying resolution until the very end, where the time signature also changes from a somewhat restless 3/4 to a more stoic and slower 4/4.

From a teaching perspective, there’s a lot to explore here. For instance, there are choices to be made about pedaling — and not just about how to use the pedal to prevent differing harmonies from overlapping and clashing, but also how to use the pedal to allow harmonies to overlap and clash a little bit. Students at this level should be encouraged to experiment like that.

And there’s room to discuss rubato. How much is too much? Is there such a thing as "too much"? What if we were to take a more no-nonsense approach and add only subtle dashes of hesitation and pushing ahead here and there?

Again, for students on the cusp of advanced-level repertoire, these are the kinds of choices that make exploring music — especially contemporary music — exciting and rewarding.

Here is my today’s interpretation of "Longing for Change" by Wendy Stevens. If I recorded it again tomorrow, I can’t guarantee it would be exactly the same. And for me, that’s the way I like it.

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I’d like to share one more piece today. It’s also from an independent publisher that’s become quite a powerhouse in the piano teaching world, Piano Pronto.

If you’re familiar with their method books, you may also know about their Composers Community, which brings together music by living composers from around the world.

Ryan Chesser is one of those composers. He has a background in church music and has been writing for piano and other instruments for many years. He also enjoys working in the world of electronic music.

"Winds of Change" is the title of this piece from his collection of 12 solos by the same name. Like our first piece, it is also in a contemporary-slash-lyrical style, but at a slightly easier early intermediate to intermediate level.

There’s not quite as much of a defined melody in this piece. Instead, we have melodic fragments that repeat and then transform. And again, we move through a variety of keys without any strong sense of resolution.

And this time, that feeling of never quite arriving extends to the very final notes of the piece.

The ending arises a little bit out of nowhere, and this presents another interesting choice for the performer. Do you let it feel abrupt and allow the audience to feel a bit caught off guard? Or do you shape the final phrase to prepare the listener and make the ending feel a little bit more settled?

I’ll often ask my students if they’ve ever watched a movie where they were anxiously anticipating the next scene, and instead the credits started to roll. How does that make you feel?

That feeling of not being prepared for the ending is usually something we try to avoid in music. But sometimes it’s actually the composer’s desired effect.

And maybe there’s something fitting about that in a piece called "Winds of Change." After all, change doesn’t always wait until we’re ready for it.

This is "Winds of Change" by Ryan Chesser.

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Today I played for you "Longing for Change" by Wendy Stevens and "Winds of Change" by Ryan Chesser. Two pieces that explore both the feeling of waiting for something new and the experience of finding our way when that change finally does arrive.

As always, links to purchasing today’s featured pieces are in the episode description and also on the website pianopedagogyplaylist.com.

And just like that, we have to close the lid on this episode of the Piano Pedagogy Playlist. This week, I invite you to notice and appreciate that squirrely little kid in your studio who has become a teenager and taken ownership of their musical journey.

Or that adult who didn’t play for years and has found their way back to the piano. And in yourself, too — notice the changes, the things you’ve learned, the ideas you’ve let go of, and the ways your students have helped you grow right alongside them.

I’ll be back next Monday with some more of what’s good in the contemporary piano teacher’s repertoire. Until then, keep nurturing the music and have a great week.