YOU HAVE A PIANO PROFICIENCY... I HAVE A PIANO PROFICIENCY... WE ALL HAVE A PIANO PROFICIENCY... COULDN'T WE ALL AGREE?

PANEL DISCUSSION - Guillermo Martinez - Texas Christian University

Vicki Conway - University of Texas at Tyler

Karen McBee - Panola College

Shirley Watterston - Stephen F. Austin State University

Equipping music majors with functional keyboard skills is a critical part of the core music theory curriculum. Since no two piano proficiency exams are alike at transfer institutions, it becomes a special challenge for the community college instructor to prepare students. Community college instructors are not alone in dealing with this challenge. Professors at transfer institutions receive students into their programs who lack one or more areas of competency due to the lack of similarities in keyboard skills programs.

Perhaps it is too much to hope for that there will be a standardized piano proficiency exam, but dialogue could pave the way for common ground in functional keyboard skills. To that end, a panel of community college and university faculty proposes to discuss these issues. Panel members will discuss the different emphases in piano proficiencies, pointing out the areas of greatest discrepancies. We will consider the weakest areas of the transfer students and how deficient students are incorporated into the transfer institution's piano curriculum. Presenters will share successful approaches to preparing students and reveal if their programs have been adapted to meet the growing number of community college transfer students.