There is only one reason: patience.
I have taught children with incredibly deep talent, and those with almost none. I have gotten all of them to play the piano and enjoy it. The only common thread is that I was patient enough, especially with the children who are not so obviously gifted or inclined toward the piano.
Yet it is just these children who may benefit the most from an experience with the piano, for they may get no other opportunity to experience making music at the piano.
Much of the credit goes to the parents, who allow me months and years to win the victory of the piano. It takes time and repeated, patient, humorous effort to get an “ungifted” child to play.
Let’s examine that term, “ungifted,” a term I don’t like but it is descriptive enough.
There’s never a single reason that makes a child reluctant to throw themselves into studying the piano.
Here are common “objections:”
- “It’s too hard.”
- “I don’t like the teacher.”
- “It’s boring.”
- “I just don’t want to.”
In addition to the reasons the child states, there are those they may not be able to articulate:
- They may be too immature to understand the process
- They may be naturally timid
- There may be social reasons, such as sports and other interests
- They may be taking lessons only to please the parents
Here’s a hypothetical case, names changed to protect the innocent.
Sam was about eight when we started. He liked sports and thought piano was slightly weird. But he showed up.
We went through all the motions, and he tried, but he couldn’t seem to put any of it together, except tiny bits.
I laughed and accepted this, and acted as if this was the normal pace, half-snail, as it were. We went through months of good-natured fooling around with the piano. He could play bits of two songs, with no fingering other than the crazy system he devised. Any attempt to show fingering options were met with “It’s too hard that way.”
I let him finger it his way, calling it the “Patented Sam Fingering Method.”
He grasped chords, and could play a few. Mostly, Sam was affable but not really interested.
But I kept hammering gently away, week after week, not caring if he practiced. I gave no assignments other than the songs we might think of to play during the lesson. For kids like Sam, lessons ARE practicing. So be it. Be patient and see how it turns out.
After a year, he had memorized the right hand of several pieces, but could only play with two hands if it was part of a game. I played left hand for him, and was his cheerleader.
During the second year, I imagine Sam was thinking, “This isn’t so bad. John is always nice to me, and never gets mad, and always tries to show me new songs. Piano is okay after all, I guess. Actually, it’s kind of fun.”
At the end of the second year, Sam grasped fingering. He thought it was cool. “Now I see that’s how you go fast!”
We applied it to the songs he already knew, and some of it worked!
Now we started to add a few chords to the left hand in these familiar songs, and he could play with both hands. His self esteem at the piano shot up.
I said, “See, I told you to be patient and not get mad at yourself for mistakes. Just keep playing and trying. I don’t expect it to be perfect.”
In his third year, he decided he wanted to learn HARRY POTTER, and so we put the song together slowly, one hand at a time.
He became obsessed with the song, and if I tried to shift gears to anything else, he immediately wanted to work more on HARRY POTTER.
After a few months, he found other songs that he wanted to play.
At the end of three years, Sam was his own boss at the piano. Confident, he would sit down and play a tune for anyone that wanted to hear.
As his Mom said, “We went over to the neighbor’s house, and their daughter played a song, but you could tell she hated it. She even said so, saying her Mom forced her to take piano. Then Sam played. He played like, eight songs. All the kids gathered around the piano and watched. You could tell Sam enjoyed playing and showing off, even if it wasn’t note-perfect.”
For Sam, my patience turned what might have been a sour piano experience into a hobby that he was truly interested in.
Is that not a better result than being made to feel a failure against the unreasonable standards of dogmatic teachers?
In conclusion, a child with a lot of natural talent may need only a gentle nudge in the right direction.
But a normal, American child in 2009 may require a lot of carefully designed “looseness” to the form of the lessons to get interested at all, and discover the hidden talent within themselves.
I have found this approach ALWAYS works if given enough time.
Lower the bar to fit the height of the child. You can always raise it later.
By John AschenbrennerCopyright 2009 Walden Pond Press All Rights Reserved
See also DON'T CALL IT PRACTICE, CALL IT PLAY
See also THE PIANO WHISPERER
See also THE TRANSPARENT PIANO LESSON STRATEGY
See also WHAT KIDS LIKE ABOUT PIANO LESSONS
See also BRAINS, CHILDREN AND PIANO
See also WHAT TO EXPECT FROM PIANO LESSONS
See also ARE KIDS PIANO RECITALS HARMFUL?
See also LATE BLOOMERS AT CHILDHOOD PIANO
