Our goal as piano teachers is to infuse enough skill and passion into our piano students that they will (hopefully) continue to play the piano throughout their life; finding pleasure, solace, and… maybe even a little cash along the way. But are we as piano teachers actually preparing them for these end-goals?
It’s likely that 99% of your piano students will not continue on to make a full-fledged career out of performing. So how will all of these years they spent in piano lessons benefit them throughout their lives? They need real skills that enable them to use their piano playing abilities in the most applicable ways.
Enter the 3 skills you should be teaching…
Skill #1: Accompanying
How many of you teach your piano students to accompany? This is the most common piano-related job they will find out there in the “real world” and in reality, most piano students are not trained to accompany at all…ever! For those of you who are instrumentalists or vocalists as well, you know that a skilled accompanist is not simply someone who can play the piano well. Accompanying is truly a skill that needs to be taught and practiced… and it’s a real-world application of everything they’ve invested in during their years of piano lessons. Your studio recitals are the perfect place for your students to practice accompanying. Start with piano duets and branch out from there.
Skill #2: Improvisation
Do you cringe when someone at a party shouts out a request to you… “Hey! You play the piano! Lemme hear some Billy Joel!” How silly do we feel when we request sheet music or politely decline to say “Sorry…I don’t know that one.” Haven’t we been playing this instrument for decades? Teaching your piano students to improvise and to play by ear is a skill that will enhance their long-term enjoyment of the piano and will make them truly versatile musicians. What’s the point of learning to play if we can’t hop up on that piano and play a version of Piano Man to liven up a party? Improvisation naturally leads to composing (another skill that can keep your piano students at the piano for years and years).
Skill #3: Teaching
We used our skills to teach… and so can many of our students! Why then do we not teach our piano students to teach? We all know that piano teaching is truly an art form. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the next generation of piano teachers were ones who had been taught how to correctly teach right from the beginning? Why leave them to graduate and then flounder their way through their first 3 years as budding piano teachers? Begin with mentoring in your studio (find out more here).
The “Why” Behind Piano Lessons
I make a point of asking “why” questions regularly when looking at how I structure my piano program: Why is this particular student taking lessons? Why should this particular student continue to attend lessons? Why would this student ever touch the piano again after they leave high school? The answers to these questions are what direct my approach. Let these 3 skills direct some of your teaching this year and watch your students’ motivation soar!
Bev Conway says
This is the most thought provoking article I’ve read. My piano teachers taught me how to accompany by putting me on a piano bench accompanying groups LONG BEFORE I was “perfect” and I made tons of mistakes and had to learn to accept those mistakes. My teachers also taught me how to teach but not one of them taught me to improvise, much to my regret. So this has become a high priority in my teaching. Thanks for the guidance!
Alice Peterson says
What do you do in your studio to teach them to accompany, other than dropping them in to situations where they need to do so? My first step is playing duets a lot at lessons, as they have to pay attention to another musician, but not all of them have other musicians in their homes/lives to work with on a regular basis, so I’d like hints for more lesson activities to teach accompanying skills.
Andrea says
Hi Alice – I start out with really simple things like the national anthem. They learn to accompany me in the lesson and then I have them play it at the start of our recitals while people sing – it’s great practice. I’m lucky at my studio that we have other instruments there, but partnering with the local violin or singing teacher in your community and having their students come into your student’s lesson occasionally or vice versa is a great start. Playing popular and well-known tunes at your local extended care facility is also a good place as the residents will often sing along, Christmas carol sing-a-longs at your recital etc. etc. Every small experience adds up to some great practice.
Chrissa Brown says
An excellent post. I especially agreed the improvising skill – definitely a must!
Daniel Ales says
I am a college student at SFA and I am taking a pedagogy class and an accompanying class. I did not realize how many jobs and accompanist could get. The piano is truly one of the worlds only solo instrument. Every other one needs to play with onaother instrument to get the full effect.
Jan says
I don’t play by ear and haven’t the first clue about how to teach that. For those of us who had traditional lessons, how do you suggest we begin? Do you make assignments to play by ear at home?
Andrea says
Hi Jan – We just happened to have a blog post written for this morning on this topic exactly! Check it out if you haven’t already and hopefully it answers some questions for you! https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2012/10/28/how-to-teach-piano-students-to-play-by-ear/
Bradley Sowash says
Thank you for speaking the truth. I spend a lot of time rehabilitating recovering classical musicians who cannot play without their music. I invite all teacher to attend Pedagogy Saturday at the Music Teachers National Association conference in March where I and distinguished colleagues will be teaching teachers how to teach “off page.”
Rebecca Brown says
I have accompanied choirs and soloists since I was 12 years old. I attended a small high school in a rural town in Missouri. Our school was blessed with 4 high school students who could play well enough to accompany the choir and any soloist who went to contest. So, they rotated those assignments through the four of us. Therefore, I had never seen a “professional” accompanist come in to play for us. I accompanied soloists and choirs during college, as it was a required part of my piano degree plan. I managed to go through all of these years, plus about 10 years beyond college graduation before I learned that schools actually PAY accompanists to come play for them! The local choir director called me up and asked if I could play for their upcoming concerts…..and then asked what I charge. I about fell over! I couldn’t believe none of my piano teachers had never told me this! All of those years wasted! This was the missing link in my career as a piano teacher…..it got me back to performing regularly. And I quickly became the “go to” accompanist who could handle the hard solos that others can’t do.
I think it’s absolutely critical to make sure our students know how to make use of their skill outside the practice room. I always tell them, “God never gives us a gift without eventually asking us to share it with someone else in some way.” So, I make sure they know what opportunities are out there for pianists, and how to find them. Pianists do a LOT more than just perform classical music on big stages.
Duets are the easiest place to start in teaching them to accompany. But, often, the student is the leader on these duets. It’s important to eventually turn the tables and give them the second part. In Texas, the public schools seem hesitant to use student accompanists. The music programs are very competitive here. So, since we do have multiple instruments at our studio, I will encourage the more advanced piano students to accompany when the music is easy enough. But I make this part of their lessons. We invite the soloist to attend several of the piano lessons, and I use that time to coach the accompanist…..effective page-turning strategies, effective ways to cover mistakes, how to quickly find your spot when the soloists has a memory error, etc. I can do this more effectively if we are working with a soloist besides myself. If I try to sing with them, I am going to be inclined to stop and instruct them, rather than continuing to sing.
Leon says
The skills required for true improvisation ( not the same as extemporization) are like little memorized cliches linked together so smoothly that they flow like oil. Eye, ear, hand and mind react so swiftly that it appears to the less intuitive person as being a mysterious gift, or ” magic” . IT IS NOT! It is born out of desire, necessity, and ego ( or self-pride?) a great among improvisers once said: ” No one can teach improvisation, BUT YOU CAN LEARN HOW, IF YOU REALLY WANT!”