I realized the other day that the NUMBER ONE DISTRACTING QUESTION kids ask (you know, when they really don't want to go over the phrase for the 5th time) is "What does the pedal on the left do?" It's really pretty funny, especially because I know I've told everyone, at one point or another, what it does.
Is this familiar to anyone else?
I should make up some answer like "It makes the piano, and the pianist, but not the piano teacher, drop through a hole in the floor".

And I bet all the boys would say "Cool, let's try it."

Reading this post made me realise why my students don't ask me questions as a distracting device.....

My two responses to this in the past have been either
"And how this is relevant to the piece we are looking at?"
or
"Well, let's not just talk about it, I'll get a new piece for you to learn where you can find out for yourself"

Mind you, this is not the approach I would take with a student under the age of say 9, where students under this age mostly ask questions because they actually want to know the answer, not because they don't want to do what you are currently working on.....

Kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for

I get asked "What is the middle pedal for?"

My stock reply, at least initially, and said quite deadpan is, "Oh, that is just for people with three legs."

Ron

Oh right, that's the other one. What is the middle pedal for, too. I like your response!

Sometimes I get "Your earrings look like.........olive slices, or forks" One girl keeps saying 'How do you make your eyes look like that?" Um. Like what exactly?

Ha-ha! I used to ask my teacher about the left pedal a lot as a kid! The reason I asked repeatedly is that I didn't understand the explanation and it sounded weird at home when I tried using it myself. Thanks for the good memory!