What's the most memorable excuse you've ever heard from a student to explain their lack of practise?

I heard this one yesterday:
"I couldn't practise because the cat was asleep on the piano stool and he looked so comfortable I couldn't move him"
So I asked if the cat was on the piano stool EVERY day?
"He's very tired this week and he needs some rest"

I've heard so many different excuses but it was difficult not to smile when I heard this coming from a cute 6 year old

Mm, I have to say that although I've heard some creative excuses, none of them really were memorable because in the end, I didn't care what the excuse was. :p

LOL! Whenever there's an excuse I *always* ask if they were busy or whatever every day. Of course not, and then I say even 10 minutes is better than no minutes!

Here's a common one!

One of my piano students said her teacher at school was giving her too much homework, so I asked what her teachers name was and which school. I calmly told the student that I would be calling her school teacher and give her teacher heck for giving so much homework and have a good long talk with that school teacher! My piano student quickly recanted, and the next week she was practicing.

Call their bluff, I always say!

Several years ago I had a boy who was completely disinterested in the piano...his parents were pushing him into the lessons.

Every week he had a new excuse for not practicing. The last excuse was "I could not practice, because my dad moved the fireplace in front of the piano".

I have never been able to figure that one out.

LOL...perhaps his playing was so bad that his dad sealed up the piano in the wall. Either that or he burned up the piano!

One of my students came in last week and said "I was kind of spacing off last week". LOL, only because this student is usually a model student.

"the piano was covered with dust from sheetrock"

LOL...I haven't had any students with excuses yet. Haven't been teaching long enough I guess. It sounds like these excuses are part of what makes teaching fun though.

Here's a fun excuse! But unfortunately when it was all said and done, didn't turn out that fun for me!

One of my 11 year old students came to her lesson each week with her music ripped up and destroyed with a black marker! She said her younger sister was doing it!

Thinking this was a lame excuse, and because she was a good student, thought I better call the mom at home. Turned out that the younger sister was jealous of the older one's playing, and was actually ripping and destroying her music with a black marker!

Because I was teaching both sisters, the mom decided to discipline the younger one by taking her out of piano!

Sibling rivalry! What's a teacher to do!

Wow, interesting thing about the sisters! I'm a student and I usually don't make excuses when I find that I can't practice because I either can't think of one, or I don't think it's worth it because either way, I didn't practice. =D My younger brother has a couple of good ones up his sleeve though, haha.

Last week I heard:
"I couldn't practice because my parents are putting new doors in our house and the old ones were propped against the entry of the piano room and I couldn't get in..."

...and that lasted all week??

I once got a call from a parent a few minutes before a lesson telling me that her daughters couldn't come to piano lessons because they had "unexpected visitors from China".

Diane, we must think alike!

When students start offering me excuses for lack of practice, I tell them to save it for mom & dad - they're the ones paying for the lessons, and oh, by the way, I'll make a note of it on your practice sheet.

Another favorite is: Just do it, don't make excuses! Sort of rhymes.

I had one little boy who said he didn't practice all week because his family ate dinner.

I remember my high-school band director had a big sign at the front of the band room: "RESULTS, NOT EXCUSES".

It's so much easier to make up an excuse than it is to just sit down and practice, it seems to me!

Lalakeys: I like that! Whenever a student gives me excuses, it means they feel bad. That's a good thing, because then I tell them that if they don't want to feel bad, there's only one way to fix it