Tresors Du Temps Teacher Edition

Using Tresors Du Temps Teacher Edition in a real studio

I first ran into Tresors Du Temps Teacher Edition back when I was trying to standardize my beginner curriculum across two locations. Most methods have the student book and the teacher score, but this one does something different with its layout that catches people out. The teacher edition isn't just a bigger copy of the student pages. It includes fingering suggestions, performance notes, error flags, and alternate voicings printed at the bottom or in the margins. That matters because you can't teach from it blindly. You have to actually read through every page before your student sits down with the student book. The Teacher Edition is organized by level, typically starting at Level 1 and going through about Level 6 or 7 depending on your region's version. Each level contains the full repertoire pieces, technical exercises, and sight-singing components laid out so the teacher can see everything at once. The score uses a two-page spread format for many pieces, which is unusual. You're not flipping back and forth. It's designed to sit on the music rack face-up. Here's the part nobody mentions: the teacher edition includes the vocal parts. Even if your students aren't doing solfège, those vocal lines are there to reinforce rhythm and pitch internally. I stopped ignoring them around 2019 after realizing my students' time sense was drifting during ensemble work. Having them hum the bass line while you play the treble made the compound meter clicks immediately. Before that, I was spending twenty minutes per lesson drilling 6/8 and 12/8 feel separately. Now it's five minutes because they hear it in context.

You'll also find teaching notes embedded in the lower margin of most pages. Some of them are pedantic. Others saved me from making the same mistake I kept making with my younger students around Level 3, where hand independence falls apart because nobody warned you that the left hand is being asked to do too much too soon. The edition quietly suggests dropping an octave or simplifying the accompaniment pattern until the right hand solidifies its part. I wish I'd seen that note earlier. There's no digital companion in most regions. You're working with paper. If you need PDFs or click tracks, you're on your own. I ended up scanning the pages I use most frequently into Noteflight just so I could transposed a few pieces when a student needed a different key for vocal range reasons. Takes about ten minutes per piece. Not ideal but workable.

How I set it up week to week

My routine is simple enough that I won't overcomplicate it. I pull the current level, open to the week's piece, and mark up the teacher score with pencil before class. Things like which fingerings I want the student to use instead of what's printed, where I'm going to add a rhythm exercise, and which measure needs special attention. The printed fingering is usually correct for standard technique, but it doesn't account for hand size or prior bad habits a student might carry from another method. I schedule one new piece per lesson from the repertoire section, plus the accompanying technical exercise. The method pairs them deliberately, so the exercise targets the specific difficulty in the piece. Ignoring that link is the fastest way to waste a semester. Students will play the piece fine in lesson but regress the next week because the underlying motor skill wasn't reinforced through the exercise. That happens regardless of the method you're using. For assessment, I use the end-of-level review pieces rather than inventing my own. The method authors designed those to cover the full scope of that level's requirements. I've tried creating custom tests and they always miss something the built-in review catches. Probably because the review pieces were field-tested across hundreds of classrooms before publication.

One edge case I ran into regularly: the metronome markings in the teacher edition are sometimes too conservative for advanced beginners who've already finished a faster method earlier. I had a student who jumped from Faber Level 2 into Tresors Du Temps Level 2 and the tempo markings felt like they were dragging. I raised the metronome by eight beats per minute across the board for that student and it resolved the issue within three lessons. The edition doesn't warn you about this scenario, but it's worth noting if you're mixing method backgrounds in your studio.

What this method doesn't handle well

It's not a comprehensive theory program. You'll need to supplement with something else if your students need formal theory instruction. The method touches on notation and rhythm but doesn't go deep into harmonic analysis or composition. I use a separate theory workbook alongside it and that's been necessary since day one. The repertoire selection skews classical and folk arrangements. If your students are coming from a contemporary or pop background, the initial adjustment period can be rough. I've seen students quit within the first six weeks because the material didn't match what they expected to play. There's no avoiding that friction. You either acknowledge it upfront and manage expectations, or you lose the student. Another limitation: the teacher edition doesn't include audio references for most pieces. In regions where the publisher distributes accompanying CDs or digital audio, great. Where they don't, you're relying on your own playing to model each piece. That's fine if you're comfortable sight-reading at the level of the method. If you're not, you'll spend more time preparing than you should.

I've also noticed that the later levels assume a certain continuity of instruction. A student who switches to this method at Level 4 without having gone through Levels 1 through 3 will struggle more than the method's designers probably anticipated. The progression is deliberate and cumulative. There are no quick-placement shortcuts that actually work long-term. I turned away one parent last year who wanted to place her child three levels ahead. The assessment I gave them showed the gaps clearly, and the child went back to their previous method to fill them in first. That was the right call even though it cost me a tuition payment. If you're looking for a method that works independently without any teacher preparation, this isn't it. The teacher edition gives you the tools, but you have to use them. The difference between a smooth semester and a frustrating one with Tresors Du Temps Teacher Edition usually comes down to whether the teacher actually engages with the marginal notes and alternative suggestions before the first class. Most don't. The ones who do tend to keep students longer.