I had a 14 year old pupil ask me 'what do the little elephants under the bass notes mean?'

Baffled, I asked her to point to what she was talking about. This turned out to be the pedal marking 'Ped' which was in the lovely curly italics, this apparantly made it look like little elephants to her!

Unfortunelty, that's all I see now when I look at it!

Students says:
"Treble/Bass Clef is like a game of tag. If you're not on Bass you're in Treble!(sounds like trouble)"

Same student told me that her mom cleaned her ears so she was going to do very well at her ear-training that lesson.

She's a funny one!

Today, I was teaching a 10yr old girl:

"When I'm 36, I'm going to invent something!" she says.

"Oh yeah? What's that, then?"

"A piano stool with a built in toilet!" she says, proudly.

"O...kay - why's that, then?" I ask.

"So that when you're practising the piano, you don't have to get up and go to the loo!" she explains.

A few minutes later..

"I wish I had a time machine."

"Why?"

"So I can travel into the future, to when I've invented my piano stool."

"Do you need the toilet, or something?"

"Er...yes!"

Too funny!

Here's my studio funny for the week:

5 year old boy at his lesson today, learning a Christmas carol, played it, looked up at the ceiling and said, "wow I can't believe I did that. It must have been God!"

Hilarious!!!!

and maybe it was!

"Why didn't you give me any theory last week?"

. I just came across this thread and having the time of my life reading all of these funny stories! I nearly lost it when I read the explanation of what an accidental is. I'm an adult student, and I guess I'm going to need to brush up on my music theory again!

Thanks for sharing these wonderful stories. I'll be back for more enjoyment here!

ME: Did you practice what I told you to?
Student: Yes I did, But I did not count!

Nearly died of laughing!

These are so funny! I look forward to checking in to this thread.

My latest was last week, on Wednesday early evening:

Student arrived to her lesson and said, "My mom may be a few minutes late picking me up, she is sitting in a bar".

I was once teaching my student melodic seconds. When I asked "does this second move up or down?", he thought about it very carefully and after a moment, loudly announced "Yes." I thought my husband and son sitting in the nearby dining room and overhearing my lesson were going to fall off their chairs. So funny.

I have a few stories backwords: Recently I started teaching a student in my home. There isn't a piano studio anywhere in the home, so the grand piano is sitting in my living room more or less.

So when my student, and her father, is here my kids are roaming the house. You need to remember that my wife (and their mother of course) is not here in Greece at the moment, so there's a lady coming in to help, and she's keeping the kids more or less...

More or less is pretty accurate though, since the kids do decide to offer their insight on my students playing, walking on her back and some times going on like "Dad, will you be done soon?". Thankfully student and father are both VERY understanding and think that this is funny...

We were getting along famously ... and introducing Haydn ...
my 6-year old wanted to know why he wanted to hide.

Haydn - funny!

Nikolas, I have a similar situation. Sort of relies on everyone being reasonable and understanding.

Me: so if we make a mistake, what do we do?

Student says nothing.

Me: We just keep on going, play the very next note.

Student: We were doing a Highland dance show, and my friend's skirt fell down, and she had to just keep dancing. She was wearing tights, so it was OK. Her tights were purple with spots, and you could *just* see her pants through them.

Good lesson! The show must go on!

absolutely!

I was teaching, "We wish you a Merry Christmas" to a seven year old boy today. I asked him what the words "good tidings" meant. He eagerly answered, "I know it. It means cleaning, like clothes."

So Tide has another happy customer in his mother.

OK, I had to look that one up. I get it now.

lol.... The confusion of international communications!
I had to think about what you had to look up.
I bet you've got Tide where you are too, but it has a different name.

First I thought it was So Tide. Anyway, the meaning is clear 'We bring fresh laundry to you and your kin.'

Incidentally, my friend, with young children, commented that this was her kids' favourite song. Why? Because they got to ask for figgy pudding without saying "please" (which, as we all know, is very rude), and they also got to say 'we won't go!' without getting into trouble.

Or he has seen advertisements on TV. My son used to give me advice at that age, suggesting a product he'd seen on TV. He was the helpful problem solver sharing his expertise gained from commercials: "You should put Febreze on that." etc. LOL!

Autistic student's 4th lesson-

I turn to a new page. She sees the note "E" being introduced at the bottom of the page. She asks, "Is E fun?!"

My reply, "Of course! Even more fun than C, D and B! Are you excited to learn about E?"

Student, "Yes!" as she nods her head vigorously.

I love working with her!

My son always thought they looked like sheep. And that's all I see now ...

Just wait till she gets to F!

Not a music story; I was administering a language test to a 4.5 year old:

Me: A person who works on a farm is called a farmer.
What do you call a person who teaches?

Kid: A superhero!

1.After noticing that my student was drawing crooked barlines I tell her "Please use the ruler" Student then asks me "How many inches?"

2. I had young boy who pronouced treble clef as tremble clef!

3. Another young boy who told me (face lighting up) that now he understands why a whole note is called that. It is because it has a hole in it!

4.Violin student who thought the book I was recommending was called "Awful Strings"
(All For Strings)

5.Another young boy just last week pronounced the Schaum piano method as the "Scum piano method"

My eyes are starting to twitch!I think I need therapy!

I often hear about the tripple clef.

Not a piano student, but I had a little girl (probably 6 or 7) taking guitar lessons years ago. She still hadn't mastered getting a nice sustained sound yet, but none the less was making decent progress.
One day after playing through some song (I don't remember what) she proclaimed that it sounded like Bach.
I was quite shocked at this!
"It sounds like Bach?" I asked. "Yes it really does!" she replied.
"Hmmm what makes you say that? What is it that makes it sound like Bach?"
"Just the sound.....like a chicken...bock bock bock"