The Need for Speed is one of 16 pieces for elementary string ensemble included in Richard Young's Comprehensive String Pedagogy & Curriculum. On a scale of "Easy", "More Challenging" to "Difficult (but Still Appropriate for Elementary Students)", The Need for Speed is rated "More Challenging". A portion of the proceeds of sales for all CSPC music goes to support free music education at The People's Music School.

It is hard for youth orchestra conductors and teachers to find Elementary repertoire that children are really excited to play, but which is within their reach. Alas, the fast pieces that thrill them the most tend to be too difficult for them! The most common solution is to have them play fast pieces slowly, then gradually work up the tempo. But another option is to give them material that provides a technical foundation for those particular pieces without slowing down the tempo. The Need for Speed does exactly that.
The Need for Speed and The Speed of Sound are "cousins." In fact, they can be played simultaneously by kids who are at different stages of development. They are identical except for the rhythmic embellishment of the melodic fragments in the violins and violas. (The cello, bass, and piano parts are the same.) In The Need for Speed, these fragments are quarter notes that are passed from one instrument to another. In The Speed of Sound, they are sixteenths. Though The Need for Speed is easier, it is just as much fun. This is because the tempo is the same, the driving rhythmic pulsations are the same, and the breathless expression is the same as The Speed of Sound. There is also built-in motivation. In order to "graduate" to The Speed of Sound, the children understand that they must first master this preparatory version. Their “ultimate graduation” will occur when they are able to play an even more adventurous version of this piece, Warp Speed, found in the section entitled String Quartets for Intermediate Ensembles.
-Richard Young

Full program notes are included with the score. There are fingerings and bowings in all the string parts of every one of CSPC's pieces. These "cooked-in" technical solutions target the particular levels of the students. They are not just pragmatic but "musical."