Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum What to do with this lovely student of mine!

I teach an adorable, but challenging, 10 year old. I've taught her for 3 years. She LOVES piano in an unwavering way and is very musical, but is very free spirited and works in a very unstructured and undisciplined manner.

If she is passionate about a piece she is learning she will throw herself into it 150% and nail it faster than i thought possible. I gave her Star Wars (AMEB piano for leisure grade 2) recently and she nailed it in 2 weeks. But if she doesn't like something she's learning it's an uphill battle and a lot of time is wasted with her procrastinating or complaining or at best, dragging herself through it whilst putting in the minimum of effort. Also her sight reading is atrocious and she has no desire whatsoever (apart from pleasing me) to improve it.

What would you do with a student like this? Am I doing the right thing in making her learn pieces she doesn't want to learn for the sake of technique and turning her into a well rounded musician, or should I feed her endless amounts of pieces she is enthusiastic about and see how far it takes her?

She sounds like a young lady who is mature beyond her years.

I am retired and that is exactly MY attitude. LOL ...

You could discuss the issue with her. At ten your student would probably enjoy being brought into the decision-making process.

Hahaha

I should probably also add, I'm trying to decide whether to enroll her in "piano for leisure" (less serious syllabus, with lots of popular and jazz tunes), or the more serious "piano" syllabus.

She says she doesn't like classical music, but what she means is that she doesn't like slow, gentle, graceful music. She loved learning Kabelevskys "Clowns", "March" by Shostakovich, "Folk Dance" by Bartok, "Arabesque" by Burgmuller, and is very excited that we've just started "Sonatina Op.36 No.1" by Clementi.

Have you spent some quality time talking to her and to her parents? At that age, and with those traits you describe, you might be well advised to run with her preferences and only gently work in the more serious stuff that is needed to improve her technique. To use authority to push her onto your straight and narrow track might be a recipe for destroying her. But this is why open lines of communication with the family, and building the trust of the student, seem so important.

She would probably enjoy it. I don't know if I would though

I haven't really talked to her and her parents (well, mum...dad lives on the other side of the world) about it. Her mum doesn't have much knowledge of music or what is required to become a musician. She is very supportive in an encouraging way - organising musical soiree's at her house so her daughter can perform and buying her a decent digital piano to practice on, but she doesn't take any part in the practice side of things. I think she is just happy that her daughter WANTS to jump on the piano every day without any reminding and doesn't want to squash that, which is fair enough. I think her mum would say to go the leisure path.

Just give her what she likes to play and keep her playing the piano for as long as possible.

Focus less on exam syllabi and more on learning/playing a wide variety of music, agreed upon by both of you?

She loves doing exams/performing, so she wouldn't want that. So far she's only done P Plate 1 and P Plate 3 (mini exams run by the examination board in australia), both times giving the examiners much more than they bargained for, showing them other pieces she's learning after doing the exam pieces and pretty much having to be kicked out the door! And she keeps begging me to let her start working towards her next exam, but I can't decide which syllabus to use, nor which level to go for. I think she's around grade 1 to 2 level. Any Australians who can give an opinion on that one by looking at the pieces I listed higher? They're all pieces she's learnt fairly recently.

as far as sight reading.. i have no problem writing key names (in pencil) in on the score.. especially in the outer reaches. It is difficult to play the high and very low E's and A's and F's.

sight reading makes it so much easier.

In my experience, this is the only thing that will work.

Beth, you sound like a good one to win her over by discussing the purpose of the 'serious' pieces, while letting her maintain her momentum and enthusiasm with things she already knows she loves to play. After all, a foundation of technique is what sets us free for our whole life. And she may be surprised to find that she likes things which she does not know about at present; she is setting forth on such a wide sea, a ten-year-old would have no way of knowing.

As for the complaining. You might tell her that weightlifters say that it does them no good to make faces while they work out--- in fact, it only drains their energy.

It might work better with a boy student.

You might allow her to "surprise you" while you are playing a piece you know she would love, but which is j u s t out of her reach. You stop, mid-bar, when you "see" her arrive. Then forbid her from attempting it, saying you know she wouldn't care to work it up, even this easy section (which you briefly play over, and let fall away). Nothing fires a ten-year-old up with a burning desire, like being forbidden to do something.

It sounds like you're doing pretty well, to me.

This

I would say piano for leisure if she insists on exams. Although the pieces wont be a problem for straight,piano as the choices outside the books are vast i dont famcy your chances with more rigorous supporting tests. And get her some performing opportunities as she wont need exams if she has other goals and you can encourage a balanced program eg for old peoples home, school, festivals etc. How are scales, arps, sight reading, theory and aurals? Is she keen on any of that? Just keep her keen. Much more rewarding for both of you. Make sure she listens to a wide range of composers and she may develop an appreciation of other stuff eventually. Set her listening homework and ask her what she thought of various pieces and you may be pleasantly surprised what she likes.

I know more than one piano student (including myself and my sister) who were essentially forced by inflexible teachers to play music we did not want to play. In the 50s most teachers had a pretty rigid approach in my experience.

We all quit because of it. I took it up again a few years later without a teacher and have been playing ever since without the horror of mandatory recitals too. My sister has since taken piano back up now that she is an adult, without a teacher and is enjoying it. The lessons were not a waste of time because she did not have to start from scratch as an adult but it's too bad.

I would suggest using care to make sure she is enjoying making music - it's supposed to be fun. It would be somewhat different if her goal is to become a concert pianist but if she is doing it for enjoyment, give her lots of slack and maybe slip in a more serious piece now and then.

Sure, you're the expert, but the student is your customer and we need to keep our customers satisfied.

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts.

I took your advice and had a talk to the student and she surprised me with her maturity. We have decided that we are going to work towards grade 2 piano for leisure, but I explained the importance of classical pieces for developing her technique and she said "I don't want to stop doing classical pieces. Can't we do half and half?"

I'm really glad I had a talk with her and let her take responsibility for her own learning.

The horror??? You mean playing in front of others is a horror? Do you do other activities in front of others, and find those a horror as well?

I don't understand the concept of a syllabus or of having to choose between "piano for leisure" or something more "serious." We don't have anything like that here. Not sure whether to feel sorry for your students or to be glad that there is an official structure because your country considers music education important.

I'm glad your student wants to do "half and half," which sounds very sensible, and I hope she'll continue enjoying her lessons. There is SO much piano repertoire of all kinds, surely she can find plenty to do that she likes and that still increases her ability. I hope, too, that since she learns very fast when she wants to, that she will eventually at least read through lots of standard repertoire and get familiar with it, since there is so much richness there. She'll mature and probably develop broader tastes anyway.

(At this point in my life, it's great being middle-aged and long, long past my music degree, and working on absolutely anything I feel like working on with my teacher!)

I don't see that anyone should be surprised that a given student finds mandatory recitals a "horror," and many people do find public speaking and other sorts of public appearances quite stressful as well. There is no reason to berate a person for feeling that way.

Elene

Actually I don't do anything else in front of the public so I don't know how I would have felt about it.

My teacher made a huge deal out of her annual recitals. I found it incredibly stressful and scary to spend months building up to her very formal recital environment. Memorizing pieces that were at the limit of my ability at the time was extremely difficult (I still have difficulty memorizing and don't even try any more).

I used to spend weeks in near terror worrying about 'messing up' at the recital. For several months out of the year, piano playing was no fun because of the absolute requirement that I subject myself to these things. I didn't know why then and I still don't.

I now play occasionally in front of people but I play using music and I play what I want to and it has eventually become a pleasant experience.

Maybe it was her unrelenting emphasis but it sure freaked me (and others) out. It still makes me cringe when I think about them 50 years later.

A bad experience.