WIth some young and rather rambunctious students, I’m constantly trying to find ways to help them calm down and focus. Last week, one student came in to lessons very hyper and silly. After a few minutes of ignoring his silliness and trying to just teach the lesson, I realized the silliness was going to have to be addressed.
Not wanting to make him feel like he was being chastised, I said, “Ok. We have to get rid of the sillies. Where are they?” He looked around rather confused. “Are they in your hands?” He began to get into the game and told me that’s exactly where they were. “Ok. Put them on your head.” He placed “the sillies” on his head. “But we don’t want the sillies to stay on your head, do we? Hmmm…put them under the bench.” He giggled and did so. “Ok. But if they stay under the bench, we might have problems. Let’s see….let’s throw them out the door!” He made a big show of winding up and threw his “sillies” out the door. ”Ok. Now they are outside my house and they can’t bother us!”
Amazingly, it worked! He didn’t act overly silly for the rest of the lesson. I still had to pull him back into focus a few times, but the silliness was gone!
One thing my teacher had me do often in high school was to practice a piece backwards. Instead of starting at the beginning of a piece for a practice session, you start at the last line or section of a piece and work your way forward, adding a line or a section as you go. It forces you to pay special attention to the end of a piece, which often gets overlooked. You also give the overpracticed beginning a break so it doesn’t become too sloppy.
Once my students’ pieces are decent (but not quite ready), I have them practice with this technique. Their pieces come back much more polished!
An incredibly hyper-active student’s parent sat in on lessons today. Whenever the student started acting up (which was a lot), the parent would interject by telling the student to “focus,” which I thought was a pretty big and vague command for a 6 year old. Of course, “focus” was what I wanted, but for some reason the student couldn’t or wouldn’t “focus.” After a while, I realized that the student was having trouble focusing whenever we began a new song and looked for the hand position. I then understood that the student was unsure of some basic things and was acting out and getting distracted because the task at hand was too hard.
I’m no behavioral psychologist, but this experience made me think of the way I teach all of my students. When the students keep coming back with the same problems, is it because I never really understood the real problem in the first place? Am I being too vague in my explanation? Am I expecting my students to grasp a concept before they are able?
I am sure I am guilty of all those problems, but I’m grateful for this moment of introspection when I may be able to improve my teaching just a little bit.
What experiences have made you wake up a little bit?
I have a very energetic student who unknowingly continues to give me great teaching tips. I was trying to get her to count while she played, and she just was not interested. I knew she could do it, but she was just having trouble focusing. All of a sudden, she started counting in a funny voice. I quickly seized on this fabulous opportunity and copied her funny voice. Later in the lesson when her attention was (yet again) straying, I used the funny voice. She was back with me in no time! I feel ridiculous, but it works with other students from time to time as well!
I love my teenage students. They share the happenings of their lives with me. They understand my humor. They are easy to talk to and easy to explain concepts to. But they are so tired! They don’t like to exert extra energy in figuring things out or fixing wrong things. Is this a teenage thing or just a my-studio-thing? How do you energize teenagers?
My husband enacted his oh-so-scientific method of picking the giveaway winner (he pulled a number out of a hat). So the lucky winner of the giveaway is…
Natalie Wickham who said,
Count me in! Thanks, Rebecca!
Email me at pianoteacherblog (at) yahoo (dot) com and we’ll arrange to ship your set of fabulous books to you asap!
Thanks so much to everyone who participated! I loved reading your comments! I always love your participation!
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Do you have any of those wonderful little students who, instead of playing a piece when you tell them to, squirm around on the bench, tell you silly stories, stand up and sit down, etc etc etc? I have tried everything to get those kids to focus and actually play the piece, but the thing that has been working the best lately is simply to just count them into their song.
I say, “K, you’re going to play it now. One, Two, Ready Go!” This always gets them to settle down and move their hands up to the piano. It still may take a minute to get going on the piece, but at least they are no longer distracted!
Don’t forget to leave a comment here to be entered to win a set of children’s piano books!
Let’s do something fun today. Choose YOUR favorite composer to play, not your students’ favorites. I realize this list is not all inclusive in any way, shape, or form. But pick your favorite from the list and if you would like to leave a comment telling why that composer is your favorite, please do! Or if you just want to tell me I’m a dummy for leaving So-and-so off the list, do that too! This should be fun to see different opinions! I’ll tell you my favorite: Chopin by a long shot!
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When a student learns a new note, I like to talk about what the note looks like- if it’s a line or space, where it sit on the staff, etc. I think if the student can explain this to me, then it will be easier to remember that note.
I had one particularly antsy little student I was trying to do this with, and she was just not understanding what I wanted her to tell me. Knowing that she likes to pretend, I said, “Pretend I’m blind and I have no idea what this note looks like. Now I’m going to close my eyes and see if I can picture it while you describe it to me.”
It worked! Then, she wanted to close her eyes and have me describe the note. She told me she could see it perfectly!
Thanks for visiting my site! I post often about my achievements, failures, and the hilarious things that go on during piano lessons. Please take a minute to share your wisdom or your own funny stories!
