Choosing the Right Piece for Your Next Performance

A recital may still be weeks away, but preparation starts long before you walk onto the stage.

One of the first steps is choosing what to play or sing.

With our Halloween Recitals coming up in October, now is a great time for students to start talking with their teachers about performance music. Choosing a piece early gives you time to learn it, polish it, and become comfortable performing it.

But how do you choose the right piece?

Start With Music You Enjoy

You will spend a lot of time with your recital piece.

You’ll hear it during lessons. You’ll practice difficult sections. You may play the same few measures over and over. As the recital approaches, you’ll probably perform it many times from beginning to end.

It helps to choose something you actually enjoy!

A piece you love can make practicing more rewarding. You may also feel more connected to the music when you perform it.

Tell your teacher what you enjoy listening to and playing. Even if a particular song isn’t quite right for the recital, it can help your teacher understand what kind of music excites you.

Choose Something That Challenges You—But Not Too Much

Recital music can be a wonderful opportunity to stretch your skills.

Maybe the piece introduces a new rhythm, technique, range, chord pattern, or musical style. Learning something new gives you a goal to work toward during the weeks before the performance.

However, your recital piece doesn’t have to be the hardest music you can possibly play.

Performance adds its own challenge. You want enough time to move beyond simply learning the notes. Ideally, you’ll also have time to work on dynamics, expression, phrasing, tempo, and other musical details.

The goal isn’t just to learn the piece.

It’s to become comfortable enough with it that you can make music with it.

Think About the Time You Have

Five or six weeks can sound like a long time—until you count the actual lessons.

If you take one lesson each week, there may only be a handful of opportunities to work on your recital music with your teacher.

That doesn’t mean you need to choose something easy. It means you and your teacher should consider how much you can reasonably prepare in the time available.

A shorter piece with plenty of personality can make a terrific performance. So can a familiar piece that gives you the chance to concentrate on musical expression.

Longer and harder aren’t automatically better.

Consider Your Practice Time

Your teacher can help you choose a piece based on your current skills, but there is another important part of the equation: practice.

How much time will you realistically have between now and the recital?

School, work, sports, clubs, family activities, and other commitments all compete for time. A piece that works well for one student might not work for another student with a very different schedule.

Be realistic about your practice time. That helps you and your teacher choose a goal that is challenging and achievable.

Pick Something You Want to Share

A recital is different from an ordinary lesson.

You have an audience!

Think about what you would enjoy sharing with other people. Maybe you want to perform something beautiful. Maybe you’d rather make the audience laugh, clap along, or recognize a favorite song.

And because this is our Halloween Recital, you might even want something spooky, mysterious, dramatic, or just plain fun.

Your music doesn’t have to match the season, though. A piece you are excited to perform is always a good choice.

Remember That Your Teacher Is Your Best Resource

You don’t have to choose your recital music alone.

Your teacher knows what you’ve been working on, which skills you’re ready to tackle, and how quickly you typically learn new material. They can help you find the balance between something you enjoy and something you can confidently prepare.

They may even suggest a piece you’ve never heard before.

Talk about your ideas together. Bring in songs you’re interested in. Ask for suggestions. Your final choice might come from you, your teacher, or a little collaboration between the two of you.

Give Yourself Time to Grow Into the Piece

When you first choose recital music, it probably won’t sound performance-ready.

That’s okay.

The first week might be about notes and rhythms. Later, you can work on tempo and technique. Eventually, you can add expression and polish. As the recital gets closer, you’ll practice performing the entire piece.

That’s one reason choosing your music early matters.

You aren’t just giving yourself time to learn a piece. You’re giving yourself time to grow comfortable with it.

Then, when recital day arrives, you’ll be ready to share all that work with your audience.

Our Halloween Recitals are coming up October 23–25! If you’re interested in performing, now is the perfect time to talk with your teacher about what you might like to prepare. Recital sign-ups open Monday, October 12.

What Our Students Discovered About Rock Opera

Rock opera was our Music Tech & Learning Lab theme in August! Throughout the month, students explored a genre that combines rock music with storytelling, theatrical elements, and plenty of creative freedom.

As they listened and learned about the history of rock opera, our students noticed everything from electric guitars and dramatic vocals to unusual instruments, different languages, and songs that tell stories. They also discovered something important: rock opera can be difficult to define because no two examples have to sound alike.

Here are some of their observations from the month.

Rock Opera Tells a Story

Storytelling was one of the biggest ideas our students noticed.

Maddox A. observed that rock opera “tells a story” and that the story “can be about anything.” He also preferred the songs with more words.

Graham G. made a connection to another form of musical storytelling. He described rock opera as “like a musical without being a play.”

Ellie M. had a similar observation. She said it “sounds like a play, but it’s a song.” Later in the month, she noticed “a lot of storytelling” in the music she heard.

Beatrice V. discovered that songs could explore past struggles. She also described the genre as free-spirited and creative, noting how different two songs within the same genre could sound.

Guitars, Drums, Piano…and More

Unsurprisingly, our students heard plenty of rock instruments.

Haley N. noticed “a lot of guitar and drums,” along with a strong beat created by piano and drums. Sydney T. also heard plenty of guitar and repetitive beats.

Blue D. noticed lots of piano and drums, with much of the music focused on singing. Elise A. heard lots of guitar, while Sebastian H. described the sound as “opera with electric guitar, piano, and drums.”

Other students picked out instruments they didn’t necessarily expect.

Shubham K. heard violin. Beatrice V. noticed string instruments, and Bryn M. heard drums and guitar more prominently than she was accustomed to hearing them.

Charlie M. was especially intrigued by one guitar sound. It sounded different from the rock or country guitar he had heard before. In fact, he thought it sounded almost like a flute!

Big Voices and Big Sounds

Rock opera isn’t necessarily opera in the traditional sense, something several students picked up on quickly.

Freya W. described the style as combining the heavy guitars and drums of rock with “big voices like theater or opera.” She also noticed that the lyrics were easy to understand.

Hunter H. thought the singing sounded more like rock than opera. He also noticed plenty of variety in both languages and subject matter.

Bryn M. heard lots of high singing voices, while Ellie M. noticed multiple voices singing together. She described some of the sounds as electric, “boomy,” and lively.

Iris C. especially liked being able to understand the words clearly.

One Genre, Many Different Sounds

Perhaps the most interesting discovery was just how much variety students found within rock opera.

Freya W. noticed that songs could be “big, epic, angry or rushed,” while Hunter H. said all the songs sounded different.

Students also heard music in different languages. Beatrice V. and Hunter H. both noticed this variety.

Bryn M. compared the music to what she plays during her piano lessons. The rock opera examples used many more instruments, but she could still recognize some familiar beats.

Aleksander S. learned that rock opera developed during the late 1960s and 1970s. He noted how artists used rock music and instruments to explore emotional themes, big questions, and stories through individual songs or collections of songs.

During his history work, he connected those ideas with examples including Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen’s A Night at the Opera, The Who’s Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, and “Welcome to the Black Parade.”

Music Can Create a Mood

Our students also paid attention to how the music made them feel.

Elise A. thought some of the music sounded sad. Sebastian H. noticed that most of the songs he heard were sad, although one was happy.

Mila J. connected Romanticism and love songs with some of the music she explored. Sebastian H. also considered the influence rock opera has had on later music.

Not every student loved the genre—and that’s part of exploring music, too!

Hayden C. decided rock opera wasn’t his type of music. Some songs took too long to introduce the vocals for his taste, and he sometimes found the number of instruments overwhelming. However, he did enjoy the way instruments were arranged in several songs.

Listening critically isn’t about deciding that every kind of music is your favorite. It’s about figuring out what you’re hearing, what you like, what you don’t, and why.

Music You Can See

The visual side of the music caught students’ attention, too.

Some examples featured dancing, while others used pictures or slideshows rather than traditional music videos. Iris C. enjoyed seeing how pictures and videos worked with the music.

Charlie M. had the opposite reaction to a few examples. He thought some of the videos didn’t seem to match their songs.

These observations led students beyond simply listening for instruments and rhythms. They were also considering how visuals can support—or sometimes distract from—the story a piece of music is trying to tell.

Breaking the Rules

Rock opera gave our students a chance to explore what happens when musicians combine genres, experiment with storytelling, and stretch the boundaries of what a song can be.

They heard familiar instruments used in unfamiliar ways. They compared rock opera with musicals, opera, rock, and the music they study in their own lessons. Some loved what they heard. Others didn’t. Most importantly, they listened closely enough to explain why.

Beatrice V. may have summed up the month’s discoveries best when she described rock opera as “free spirited” and said, “you can do what you want.”

For a genre built around big stories, big sounds, and creative experimentation, that’s a pretty fitting conclusion.

Same Song, New Sound: Remixes & Rearrangements

Have you ever heard a familiar song and needed a few seconds to recognize it?

Maybe the beat was completely different. Perhaps a pop song suddenly sounded like jazz. A fast song became a ballad. An acoustic guitar replaced electronic instruments. Yet somewhere underneath all those changes was a song you already knew.

Welcome to the world of remixes and rearrangements.

Both give musicians opportunities to take existing music and explore it in new ways. However, a remix and a rearrangement aren’t quite the same thing.

What Is a Rearrangement?

An arrangement determines how a piece of music will be performed.

Musicians make choices about instruments, tempo, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, and musical style. They decide who plays which parts and how those parts fit together.

A rearrangement takes an existing piece and makes some of those choices again.

Imagine taking a song originally recorded by a full rock band and performing it with only piano and voice. That’s a rearrangement.

But musicians can go much further.

A pop song could become a bluegrass tune. A rock anthem could become a quiet string arrangement. A classical melody could be played by electric guitars. The notes, chords, rhythms, or structure may change along the way.

The original song remains recognizable, but its musical surroundings have changed.

Put a Pop Song in a Time Machine

For some fantastic examples, look at Postmodern Jukebox.

Pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee founded Postmodern Jukebox with the idea of reimagining modern popular songs in musical styles from the past. The project has transformed contemporary pop, rock, and R&B songs using styles such as jazz, swing, doo-wop, ragtime, and Motown.

The results can sound as though someone sent a song backward through time.

Radiohead’s “Creep,” for example, became a vintage-style arrangement featuring Haley Reinhart. The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” received a New Orleans dirge treatment. Britney Spears’ “Oops!… I Did It Again” became a vintage Marilyn Monroe-style number.

The lyrics and recognizable identity of each song remain. However, changing the musical style creates an entirely different listening experience.

That’s one of the fascinating things about rearranging music. It can reveal possibilities that were hiding inside a song all along.

So, What Is a Remix?

A remix usually starts with a recording rather than simply starting with the composition.

A producer or artist can take recorded elements of a song and manipulate them. Vocals might be isolated, sections repeated, beats replaced, effects added, or different parts removed. New sounds and instruments can also be introduced.

Sometimes the change is subtle.

Other times, the remix sounds dramatically different from the original.

A dance remix might take a slower pop song and add a strong electronic beat. Another remix might repeat one vocal phrase and build an entirely new track around it. Producers can even change the structure of the song.

Technology becomes part of the creative process.

Remix or Rearrangement?

The line between the two can sometimes get blurry. Both involve taking existing music and making new creative choices.

One useful way to think about the difference is this:

A rearrangement changes how musicians perform the song. A remix changes how recorded elements of the song are assembled and produced.

Imagine you have a pop song.

Give the music to a jazz band and ask them to create their own version. That’s a rearrangement.

Give the original recording to a producer who pulls apart its recorded tracks, adds a new beat, repeats the chorus, and changes the sound. That’s a remix.

Of course, musicians love breaking rules. A new version can contain elements of both.

The important part is what happens when someone asks, “What else could this song become?”

The Building Blocks of a Song

Remixes and rearrangements also show us something important about how music works.

A song isn’t just one thing.

It contains melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, instrumentation, dynamics, structure, texture, and much more. Change one element, and you may hear the song differently. Change several, and you can transform it.

Imagine playing a happy melody very slowly.

Now move a song from major to minor.

Guitars could be replaced with strings, while a straight rhythm might become a swing rhythm.

Even changing something from loud and energetic to soft and gentle can create a very different feeling.

Each choice changes the listener’s experience, even when the original musical idea is still there.

Try Rearranging Something Yourself

You don’t need a recording studio to experiment with these ideas.

Choose a song you already know well. Then change one thing.

Start by experimenting with the tempo or rhythm. Play the melody on another instrument, or create a new accompaniment. You could also explore different dynamics. If you know chords, try changing the harmony.

Then change something else.

What happens to the mood? Does the song suddenly remind you of another genre? Which parts can you change before the song becomes difficult to recognize?

There isn’t necessarily one correct answer.

That’s the fun of it.

Music Is Meant to Be Explored

Learning a piece doesn’t always have to mean reproducing it exactly as someone else performed it.

Once musicians understand how music is put together, they can start asking their own questions.

What if we played it faster?

Could the piano take this part instead?

How would a different beat change the song?

And what might happen if this pop song suddenly sounded like it came from the 1940s?

Remixes and rearrangements remind us that music can be flexible. A familiar song can become the starting point for another musician’s creativity.

Sometimes hearing an old favorite in a completely new way can even help us notice something about the original that we never heard before.

The beginning of a new school year changes the rhythm of family life.

Summer’s flexible days give way to alarm clocks, school buses, homework, practices, lessons, and earlier bedtimes. Suddenly, everyone needs to be somewhere at a particular time.

That transition can feel hectic. However, it also provides a great opportunity to establish new routines.

As you build your family’s school-year schedule, remember to make room for more than schoolwork. After-school activities and enrichment matter, too. Music lessons can become a regular part of that weekly rhythm.

Start With the Things That Happen Every Week

A good routine begins with the activities you can count on.

School happens at roughly the same time each day. Music lessons usually happen on the same day each week. Sports practices, clubs, and other activities often follow predictable schedules, too.

Put those commitments on the calendar first.

Once you know where those pieces belong, you can plan homework, meals, downtime, and other activities around them.

For music students, a consistent weekly lesson provides an especially useful anchor. Students know when they will see their teacher each week. They can then develop a practice routine that leads naturally toward the next lesson.

Schedule Practice Before the Week Gets Busy

“Practice when you have time” sounds reasonable.

Unfortunately, that extra time has a habit of disappearing.

Instead, look for small, predictable spaces in the week. A student might practice after their afternoon snack. Another might play before dinner or immediately after homework.

The best time depends on the student and the family schedule.

Consistency matters more than finding one perfect practice time. Even short practice sessions can help students reinforce what they learned during their lesson.

Putting practice on the schedule also changes how everyone thinks about it. Practice becomes part of the routine instead of something students must squeeze into leftover time.

Remember That Kids Need Downtime, Too

A healthy routine should not fill every available minute.

Children and teens need time to relax, play, socialize, read, create, or simply do nothing for a while. Therefore, building a schedule also means deciding where not to schedule something.

That balance can make enrichment activities more enjoyable.

Music offers something different from the academic school day. Students can create, experiment, perform, and work toward goals that matter to them.

For some students, sitting at the piano or picking up a guitar can even become part of their downtime.

Make the Routine Easy to Follow

A routine works best when everyone knows what to expect.

Younger students may benefit from a visual schedule posted somewhere at home. Older students can use a calendar, planner, or phone reminder.

Try including practice alongside the rest of the day’s activities.

For example:

School → Snack → Homework → Music Practice → Free Time → Dinner

The exact order is not important. What matters is creating a pattern that works for your family.

After a few weeks, students may no longer need reminders for every step. The routine simply becomes part of their day.

Adjust When Something Isn’t Working

September’s first schedule does not have to become December’s schedule.

Perhaps practicing immediately after school sounded perfect, but your student needs a break first. Maybe evenings became too crowded once another activity started.

Change the routine.

A useful schedule should support your family rather than control it. Look at what is working, identify what isn’t, and adjust accordingly.

The same principle applies to enrichment activities. Interests change as children grow. Trying different activities can help students discover what they genuinely enjoy.

Give Enrichment a Place in the School Year

School teaches children an enormous amount, but learning does not stop when the final bell rings.

Sports develop physical skills and teamwork. Clubs encourage social connections and new interests. Art, theater, dance, and music give students additional ways to create and communicate.

Music education also gives students something they can continue developing for years.

That growth happens gradually. One lesson leads to another. One practice session builds on the last. Eventually, skills that once seemed difficult become familiar.

Making room for music in the weekly schedule gives that growth somewhere to happen.

Find Your Family’s New Rhythm

The first weeks of school are an adjustment for everyone.

You do not need to create the perfect schedule on the first try. Start with the commitments that matter, leave room for rest, and establish routines that make everyday life easier.

Most importantly, remember that a child’s schedule can include things they want to learn, not only things they have to do.

Whether that means music lessons, sports, art, theater, or another interest, enrichment deserves a place in the school-year routine.

And when music becomes part of that routine, finding time to learn and practice can become much easier.

Check out this fun 3-month writing event at my favorite online community, Writing.com. It’s designed to get you writing that novel, memoir, musical, nonfiction manuscript, screenplay, or other long-form written work you’ve been thinking about or were planning for NaNoWriMo. Maybe it’s your year to pull it off! (Don’t worry, the event is free!)

The Season kicks off September 1st with the first event, the September Fun Run. Choose your word count target, 5k or 10k and write! Flash fiction and blogging prompts are provided (but not required) to get your daily writing habit going. A whole community of writers will be cheering you on and writing along. Nothing is quite so motivating as writing alongside your peer authors.

Then starting October 1st, start prepping that NaNoWriMo novel or nonfiction manuscript with character development, plotting, outlining, reader profiling, research, case studies, brainstorming, and a myriad of other exercises. By the time you reach November, your entire book or script will be organized and ready to be written.

Finally, November 1st kicks off the Marathon! It’s the new generation of NaNoWriMo, and it encourages committed, focused writing on any type or genre of long-form writing.

All the while, we’ll be cheering you on and awarding fabulous prizes. And at the end, you’ll have that manuscript you’ve been dreaming about finally authoring.

What do you have to lose?

Register here: Writing Season 2026 at Writing.com

Musically,
Michelle