The other day I was reminded, as I often am, that teaching piano is not much different than teaching skating, ballet, or juggling; skill sets and learning environments may change, but kids don’t.
So what led to this piano teaching revelation?…
On Monday, I spent the morning at the arena, teaching my daughter to skate.
My daughter is the “apple of my eye”. She is beautiful, determined, funny, and caring. She is also headstrong; never afraid to tell me how she’s feeling.
So it came as no surprise during our morning skate, that I was being somewhat berated by my little angel. She was clearly getting frustared with my process. You see, I would pick her up, place her at center ice, let her get her balance, and instruct her to skate towards me. And then, as she would skate towards me I would slowly glide backwards so she would be forced to keep skating.
“DAD, STOP MOVING!!!” she yelled in visible frustration.
And then it hit me! I kept moving her goal.
No wonder she was frustrated. The closer she got, the farther I moved away. She was never getting the satisfaction of reaching me (her goal) and relishing in her achievement.
Celebrate Achieved Piano Lesson Goals
When teaching piano to kids, learn from my skating mistakes. Set goals with your piano students and let those goals be achieved. And when they are achieved… celebrate!
Check out the video below
Here is Alexa learning to skate and inspiring this piano teaching post all at the same time.
Learn From My Mistakes
If I’m being honest, at our piano studio, we’ve been making mistakes for years. But with each mistake comes a correction. And with each correction our piano studio gets better and better. Click below to discover how you can learn from our mistakes and build a better piano studio.
I realized that a couple of weeks ago. I have some students that I never seem to allow to reach the goal – it was a wake-up call. I remembered that in the past I was cautioned by a mother that I would lose her child if I didn’t stop having such high expectations that could never be achieved. Oh, she didn’t say that in so many words, but the message got through. I find that this year I have at least five students who have great talent, but who just need to do this or that to be better. I keep raising the bar, even though they are “so close.” It brought back memories of the generation I grew up in – that we were “never good enough” for all kinds of things (perhaps spiritual is where many identified it as being most verbalized). I am striving to keep my goals attainable, and recognizing when students do meet them! We want to bring a smile to the face, not more frustration!
Hi Ame,
Thank you for the comment! It can be hard to remember that even your “star” students need to reach attainable goals to continue to feel as though they are successful. Sounds like you’re doing a great job of recognizing that. Cheers!
Great insight and real food for thought. I am definitely going to keep this in mind this next week. I sure don’t want to frustrate my students. Thank you!
Hi Leslie,
You’re welcome! Perhaps it would easier if our piano students flew off the handle and yelled at us as quickly as our daughter does! LOL. it was a great (and needed) reminder
I took lessons from “the piano teacher’s piano teacher” for several years. I got burned out because no matter what I did, it was never perfect. There was always something else to tweak. Playing the piano stopped being a “love” and became “work.”
It’s always a fine line between playing something perfectly, enjoyment of the music, and what more can a student learn from a piece of music. Unless it needs to be performance ready, learn what can be learned, enjoy it and be ready to move onto something new.
Hi Julie,
Love, love, love everything about your last paragraph. Thanks for commenting!
I agree with that last paragraph, as well. You can only push so far for perfection before you’re in danger of crossing the line and making the student hate learning. There have been many times when I have used a significant portion of a lesson just making sure that the one important technical section of a song is grasped, and then announced, “You’ve learned what you needed to learn from this piece. So, let’s just move on.” Or something similar to that.
This is a wonderful, valuable reminder. I think we can all find ourselves in the arena of perfectionism; I try to be sensitive to my students and to respond quickly if I see a student “shutting down”. Often the reason is the very point you’ve made: why try at all if the bar keeps moving higher?
Thank you for this perspective.
Over the years, it has been a challenge to keep the great traits of my past teachers, and improve on the ones where I myself felt that I wasn’t hitting the mark no matter how hard I tried. It takes patience with one’s self as well. Lately, I try to catch myself raising my voice, or noting the tone of my voice. They all affect children. Let’s all be compassionate and sensitive to our little ones. 
Thanks for the great post! As a teacher I find myself having to constantly balance my long term goals for my students with their own short term goals. This is especially true with my more advanced students and students who catch on quickly. Now thanks to your post I have a visual reminder (your daughter trying to skate to you and you moving away) to help me remember to allow them to reach the goal and experience the joy that comes with doing so!
I have a seven year old learning Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu. This is good advice to help him reach the end. It is easy to forget that even the mini virtuoso’s need to be guided carefully and that I cannot assume that just because they are brilliant that they can look after themselves. Thanks.
Hi Richard,
This is very true and it’s great that you mentioned this – that all students…not just the ones who struggle… need achievable goals to keep them motivated. Thanks for the comment!