I love travelling…. But I hate flying. It’s not a hatred that is comes from fear, but rather a hatred that comes from sitting for eight hours in a seat that reclines a full half inch, and trying to keep my head from snapping forward as I beg for sleep. Now, if that’s not bad enough, Andrea and I also face the fear that one of our very young children will completely lose it… forcing us to endear the frowns and glares of fellow passengers trying to catch a wink.
But, of course, our two little angels never completely lose it; we have the pleasure of walking off the plane with our heads held high, while sweet old ladies remark on the perfection that is our two little girls.
But What The Little Old ladies Don’t Realize…
…is that (while our two little girls really are sent from heaven!) Andrea and I prepare for each and every flight like we’re going into battle. From flight selection to pre-flight naps, from carefully planned snacks to a boatload of art supplies and electronics, we completely earn every compliment Alexa and Halle receive (and if you’ve ever seen the exhaustion on our faces after a long haul… you’ll understand).
Piano Teaching Success Is Like Flying With Kids
When we work with brand new piano teachers who are nervous about their first students, we teach them to prepare as seriously as we do when we’re set for take-off. But it is not just new teachers that can benefit from excessive planning; all piano teachers must be ready to adapt to everything and anything that may (and probably will) come their way.
It is not enough to simply plan several activities to fill a 30 minute piano lesson. Instead, plan 60, or even 90 minutes, of piano teaching awesomeness. And as you plan, be prepared to react to the following scenarios:
1. What will you do if your planned activities finish 7 minutes early?
2. What will you do if your piano student is too wiggly to sit at the piano?
3. What will you do if your piano student is exceptionally shy?
4. What will you do if your planned activities are too difficult/ too easy?
5. What will you do if your piano suddenly breaks and you have 15 minutes remaining?
6. What will you do if your piano student arrives with two broken arms, no books, and a new pair of prescription glasses with the wrong prescription…
Obviously there are plenty of piano teaching scenarios you must be ready for! Prepare heavily in advance, and you can teach with the liberation of knowing that you are ready for everything and anything that the piano teaching world can throw at you.
Preparation makes piano teaching easy. What else makes piano teaching easy?… Our teacher’s guide, Piano Hands Shouldn’t Flip Burgers. Check it out!
Half of me is hoping to be able to take on the challenge of teaching scenario #6….. What would I do? 😉 Thanks for being thought provoking but making me smile, too.
I’ve been thinking that I need to re-read this book. Thanks for pushing me into doing it this evening! 🙂
Great advice! My pastor always says, “Preparation time is never wasted time.” 😉 I hate that feeling of having time to just “kill”. It really frees you up when you stay on top of your lesson planning. 🙂
I recently had a student arrive at her lesson with a broken arm (secondary arm). Four weeks later, her sister arrived at a lesson with a broken dominant wrist and NO books. Less than a year later, one of the same students sat quietly on the bench while I explained the next topic, and with a suddenly pale expression, pulled out a very loose tooth that had come dislodged. I got her what she needed to clean out her mouth and feel proud of losing a tooth, and then we played music games. Definitely a different sort of lesson that day.
I’ve had a young student announce to me, “I don’t like piano anymore”, only to later in the same lesson announce with crocodile tears, “I don’t want to leave!”
Sometimes, we just can’t help what happens – but I LOVE your examples of scenarios for which we can be prepared, but at least posing the questions in our minds. What would I do if…?
We plan, adjust, invent, encourage, change, adapt, and plan again.
#1 = We always have music games (often more challenging than the concepts in the books) sitting next to the piano, ready for the spare minutes at the end of a lesson… I like to pull those out too, if the lesson tends to be too theory heavy, and the student’s attention starts waning.
#2 = I’m reminded of my childhood whenever this happens – and I teach several squiggly students… depending on their age (and getting parent permission or giving information first), I give the student 5 coins (pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, etc – again, depending on age). If I need to remind that student to sit still, I get to take a coin away, but (and this adjusts on any given day), if they play through a piece with acceptable attention & NO stopping, I have to give them one of my coins (I usually have a couple extra). It tends to end up that they’ll go away with 2 or 3 in the beginning, but within a few weeks, they go away with several more than we started with. And in no time, they don’t even worry about the coins. One student in particular was diagnosed as severely ADHD and plays an average of 12-15 pages each week. She told me this past month, “All I want to do all day is play piano, Miss Kristin.”
Oh goodness! 🙂 I just realized you got me thinking, and I know your examples must be from personal experience. I have an answer for each, but it would be fun to see/read what other teachers do. For every success story, there will always be a student who doesn’t respond like the others – and a different approach is essential. Maybe it’s what you do with your students?
Sincerely,
~Kristin