I wanted to share a story about one of my middle school piano students who was struggling to read music.
I’ve taught her for over five years, and about a year ago, I noticed she was starting to feel really stuck. She could read a small range of notes around middle C, but anytime we moved outside of that range, she’d get mixed up quickly.
I was running out of ideas. We had already worked through so much beginner-friendly repertoire, and most of it was starting to sound too childish for her.
I had taught her a handful of rote, pattern-based pieces that she absolutely loved. They sounded full and mature, and she felt successful playing them. But, pieces like that are surprisingly hard to come by.
As I was planning this year’s garden-themed recital, I found myself feeling stuck trying to come up with the right repertoire for her.
That’s when I thought of trying something a little different. Last year, I had connected with Brock Chart, a pedagogical piano composer who runs a service called Melodies Monthly. One of the unique things about his subscription is that teachers can actually submit requests for the kind of pieces they need, and each month he composes new music based on those ideas. Each month you get 4 new pieces of teaching repertoire to add to your music library.
If you haven’t checked out Brock’s music, you definitely should. He has a real gift for writing music that’s appealing and engaging for both kids and teens. His style is incredibly versatile—jazz, pop, rock, classical, and more—and he writes for both solo and ensemble settings.
I decided to submit a request for this particular student. I asked for something pattern-based that would feel approachable for her reading level, but still sound mature. I also requested that it be loosely inspired by Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude, since she tends to connect with that kind of sound—and because it would fit beautifully into my garden-themed recital.
A few weeks later, the newest round of Melodies Monthly dropped, and it included Prelude to a Storm, which was exactly what I had requested. I showed it to my student right away, and she fell in love with it.
Up until that point, we had to spend a lot of lesson time working through music bit-by-bit together. It would often take us weeks to get through a piece. But when I introduced Prelude to a Storm, she came back the very next week with the entire piece learned.
That piece ended up being a turning point for her. It helped her unlock something in her reading, and since then, she’s been confidently learning mid-intermediate repertoire with much greater independence. Over the past few months, she’s learned nearly every piece I’ve given her in just a couple of weeks.
She performed Prelude to a Storm beautifully at our spring recital, and it was such a special moment to see her confidence shine. Another student who heard her performance even asked to learn the piece as well.
This experience reminded me just how important it is to have access to high-quality, pedagogical music as a teacher. Composers like Brock Chart are making our jobs so much easier by creating music that is both engaging and educationally thoughtful.
It also reinforced something I’ve seen time and time again: sometimes students appear to plateau right before something finally clicks. The middle school years can be especially tricky, but they’re often right on the edge of a big breakthrough.
If you’re a piano teacher who has ever wished for “just the right piece” for a student, Melodies Monthly is definitely worth exploring. I’m not affiliated with the service—I’ve just genuinely enjoyed using it and have seen firsthand the impact it can have.
You can learn more about Brock’s work and the My-Melodies Monthly subscription here:
