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I have a 13 year old student who is incredibly lazy. Half the time he fakes being sick to avoid his lesson, and his sister, who is 4 years younger than him, is about a year away from overtaking him at piano, even though she has been learning for half the time he has.

His mum assures me he spends 30 minutes at the piano, 5 times a week, although she suspects he just plays through his pieces half heartedly without putting any real effort in.

Every week his pieces come back the same, with terrible fingering, notes wrong etc. It's driving me nuts. His mum has suggested increasing to 2 lessons a week, but I think what he really needs is to do something with that 30 minutes! So I have said I will make up a checklist of things he should do at each practice session so we can see what is and isn't being done. I hate the idea of doing this, but feel it is necessary.

He is preparing for grade 2 ameb, although he has a lot of issues for a student at that level. His sight reading is terrible.

I'm just curious if any of you have done this, how it went, and what sort of things you would put on a checklist like this that could apply to every practice session? I don't want to be writing up a new one every week so it will have to be general, but thorough at the same time.

I make out checklists for every student in every lesson. Then I have my students go through the steps I want them to use at home, to show me that they understand how to practice.

Practice is useless unless it is done right. But you can't just tell peopl that. You have to show them how to do it, then make sure it is understood. Then you have to wait for students to experience the feeling of smart practice.

Some people will just not listen, and so they can't be helped. But most will...

Hello,

I am not a piano teacher, but felt compelled to respond to this. If this child is lazy, does not seem to be making progress and not interested in the lessons, why are you even bothering? From what you say, it would seem that he has a very pushy mother who is anxious to have him do well at the piano, regardless of what the child wants (you mention she wants to increase the lessons). How on earth is that going to work if the kid is not interested? It will only irritate him further and then you might find that he does not even do the 30 minutes 'practice' per day out of frustration. I think you ought to put the child first, and ask him what HE wants and whether he wants to continue with this.

As for the sight reading.. I am not sure what you mean by this. My sight reading is not brilliant but at least I get through the Grade exams and am doing Grade 4 so based on my poor sight reading ability, it is possible to pass exams.

As for the fingering, yes you should do all the correct fingering when you do scales and arpeggios, and of course on your pieces, but I am doing one of my Grade 4 pieces and found the suggested fingering a bit difficult and so I play the piece and slightly alter it. It works for me and I still play the piece to the required standard in the correct speed with the correct dynamics.

My cousin lives in Sydney. She is a music teacher. She has a daughter aged 6 and enrolled the child in piano lessons. The child hates it and screams the house down when she is told to practice. When I was over for a visit (I live in the UK) the child said to me she would prefer not to do it, so I said you need to tell mummy and she said but mummy makes me. Some parents like the idea of their children achieving things for their own gratification, not for the sake of the child. I would never force a child to do anything they did not want to do.

I would gently suggest a change in terminology.

"This child is not progressing" is a concrete observation.

"This child has inefficient practice habits" would be as well, though this hasn't actually been verified. (but it seems likely)

"This child is incredibly lazy" is simply an emotional value judgement and has really no utility. Using these words tends to get in the way of solving the problems.

Similarly, "this child misses a lot of lessons" is very different from "this child fakes being sick a lot."

It would be easy enough to find out what his practice habits are - simply have him record a session, and take a few minutes at the next lesson to review a portion of it. Any digital camera can do a short video; probably a cell phone would be good enough.

+1, Especially the part about showing. Not only show them during the lesson, you actually have to say "this is exactly how I want you to practice at home every time you practice, every day." Even my adult students have a hard time doing this, but when they do, it works.

I once had a teen student who was not really practicing and he turned to me and said, "Is this really going to be ready by the recital?" My response was , "Yes, if you do what I say. If not, it won't be." He was ready. Once they get hooked on to not just sitting on the bench for a set amount of time, but actually going there to accomplish something, and see how they progress when they practice smartly then they are more inspired to practice and learn.

I must admit, I was just like this. I thought the things I did in my lesson were lesson things, and that what I did at home 'practicing' (or what I thought was practicing) was what I did on my own time. But really, what are lessons but mostly guided practice sessions? Anyways, so I think it's important that we actually show our students what to do, and then tell them that we expect them to practice at home in this manner.

I did laugh at the comment "I would never force a child to do anything they did not want to do". Trust me, there are a million things you will force your child to do. Try buckling a 2 year old into a car seat, making a 4 year old take their medicine, or grounding a teen. And the other things that aren't about safety - cleaning their room, doing homework (or the alternative I have given my kids - skip the homework and write a letter to your teacher about what you did instead). That aside, you all know I'm not a teacher, just a parent.

A teen who misses half his lessons and practices halfheartedly has lost interest or gained an interest elsewhere. So then it becomes an issue of wills (and if the student is missing half his lessons and moms knows he is pretending to be ill is a HUGE part of the problem and btw, she is losing this battle. She needs to buck up and take him to the doctor who can determine if it is a fake illness, anxiety (because he isn't prepared he genuinely feels ill), or depression.

As for piano, I'd make sure his work isn't too difficult (work where he is vs where he should be), I'd stop any comparisons to his sibling and help him decide what he wants out of piano. I had the fortune to attend a concert this weekend and boys/young men were with a music school that does only rock and they have jam sessions and perform as a band. It's fresh, exciting, and has a lot of kids interested in music(they teach vocals, keyboard, drums and guitar). Maybe something like that would revitalize a lesson he has lost interest in (playing in a band, using a keyboard instead of piano).

Of course a lesson of how to practice might be great as long as it didn't feel remedial or insulting. I'd call it an exam of sorts - a "what skills do you have and what needs to be worked on" test. If he is in the US, he is very familiar with testing. A simple report on where he excels and needs improvement can help guide his future lessons.

ok but kids have to take medicine, kids have to buckle their car seat strap, kids have to do their homework from school, but kids DO NOT have to take piano lessons if they do not want to. Piano lessons are not compulsory. They are an extra cirricular activity. I fail to see how forcing a child to practice more or play better when they do not want to do so is going to work. It will only make matters worse.

I cannot swim. I have no interest in learning. My parents tried to get me to learn. I hated it so they said ok if you really do not like it then you don't have to do it.

I like playing the piano so I am prepared to put the work in to progress. It is vey simple really.

My children are in their late twenties. There is not only this one way of parenting. I did not laugh at the comment.

Parenting involves making your kids do things they don't want to do. Things like medicine and safety should come before the wants/desires of a child. I'm not talking about yelling at them, holding them down - you can discuss it, be creative, give choices (do you want the liquid medicine or the pill).

Again, different parents have different ways of parenting. Mine did not involve "making kids do what they don't want to do." That did not mean they ran hog wild. They knew why something was necessary when it came to things like seat belts or medicine, and even at a very young age they agreed to do these things. I agree that for some parents it involves "making your kids do things they don't want to do." But not for all parents.

And it does not extend to music lessons in any case. Again, I agree with the writer.

"In any case" sounds like music lessons might never fit the mandatory category.

What if a parent felt that music study was just as valid as math study, and insisted the child do homework for each equally?

Sounds like this situation is unlikely to change. The only decision you have to make is whether or not you continue to teach this student. Parents can force their kids to learn instruments against their will but they can't force a teacher to teach them.

----I will never make kids do anything that they don't want to do.

----Parents are guardians and are responsible for children's wellbeing, education, and growth. This includes making the right decisions for the kids when they can't.

----Music study is optional.

----Music study is required.

All of these, I think, are different beliefs, and therefore, are subjective. Each parent will need to choose the belief for himself/herself, and be willing to accept the consequences. Each belief does have consequences.

I don't think it's a problem for parents to make decisions for kids and force kids to do things that they don't want to do at important moments. It's like schools teachers will not allow a student to not do homework just because the kid doesn't want to. Or a sports coach will let kids sit in the shade just because a kid doesn't want to practice.

And in lots of schools (public and private), musical instrument study is mandatory, and practice is mandatory.

I'm not sure we know that.



Seems a bit premature to me.
That's the only decision?



You have assumed we know what the problem is. That may not be true at all. This child may be sincerely interested in piano and have some kind of learning disability getting in the way; he may be more frustrated than the teacher. A different teaching strategy may be the answer.

At this point the evidence may not warrant making such definitive statements. That's one of the reasons I recommend talking about it using more emotionally neutral language. Language can make it difficult to see the situation clearly.

Keystring - if parenting was so easy for you, perhaps you can enlighten us all as to your techniques.

No, they really don't have to do these things, but they do them because parents present them as must comply activities (for obviously very good reasons). Often, these signals are not obvious, but the kids pick up on them anyway. By presenting music lessons as optional, "Let's try it and see if you like it," parents communicate that the activity is optional and up to the child to decide. Perhaps this explains why so many musicians come from homes where music is important and considered an integral element of living.

If my parents had made me do music lessons and forced me to practice then I would have become very resentful. I am not a parent but if I had a child and said to my child... would you like to learn an instrument and the child said no, then I would say ok then that is fine. If the child showed an interest and said ok I would like to try it then that would be fine. If after trying it, they found that they did not like it, that is also fine with me.

The child will not suffer in life as a result of not learning to play an instrument. I did not learn an instrument as a child. But I did always like listening to music and then as an adult, decided I could no longer listen but try to learn to play as well.

Plenty of kids and adults lead very nice lives without being able to play a musical instrument.

It would seem that you support what I stated. In your family, music lessons are optional. What if you'd been raised in a family where expectations were different? You'd never consider that you had an option, you'd be chomping at the bit to start lessons so you could play along with the rest of your family.


Sure they will, but they would never realize the joy, exhilaration and sense of achievement and many other aspects of the creative arts without first learning an instrument.

It would be nice to find out how much is this student personally involved in learning piano on the scale of 1 to 10? If he is absolutely uninterested than I guess not much can be done. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

On another hand I am very interested in the topic of improving the efficiency of the students' practice.

I am currently experimenting with iScore tool which is offered for free by RCM. This is web-based practice and communication tool which was created by RCM, Queens and Concordia Universities. It helps students to properly set their practice goals and monitor the progress.

The student can actually record a short fragment he is practicing on, share it with the teacher through iScore and speedily receive teacher's feedback.

I am also testing the idea of using a practice log. The students are required to log the date and time, the name of the piece, the bar numbers of the fragment they are working on, the duration of practice and - the most important - what goal they are trying to achieve and what is the end result of their practice session.

If there is a really difficult place for the student to master, sometimes I ask the student to record this place after achieving the required result and share it with me using Google Drive or email attachment for the feedback.

It would be very interesting to hear from the other teachers what techniques they use to monitor and improve the quality of their students' practice.

The keyword here is never.

Whatever the parenting style is, be it "do it or else", or analyze the pros and cons of not taking medicine to a 3 year old until he takes is, I just don't get it how can you NEVER force a child to do ANYTHING he did not want to do.

The same goes to never force a child to stop doing something he wanted to do, but let's not go there.

I laughed because I thought it were a joke.

We can discuss what and when and how, but never?