If you have a piano studio full of teenagers I would bet dollars to dimes that you are one heck of a teacher! Young piano students can be difficult to manage but easy to please. On the flip side, teenage piano students are easy to manage (they’re not generally bounding around your studio) but can be difficult to please.
If you find yourself struggling to connect with your teenage piano students I have a few rectangles that might offer some help.
Rectangle Number 1 – Young Piano Students
The rectangle above represents a typical piano lesson with young piano students. A big chunk of the lesson is devoted to learning repertoire (and everything that goes along with that… technique, theory…) while smaller chunks are devoted to things like composing, sight reading, and learning to chord and improvise.
There’s nothing wrong with this rectangle… it works perfectly well for young piano students.
Rectangle Number 2 – Teenage Piano Students
The rectangle above represents a typical piano lesson with teenage piano students. But wait! Isn’t Rectangle Number 1 the same as Rectangle Number 2?! Well, yes. And therein lies the problem.
As our young piano students mature, their lesson structure needs to grow with them. A lesson structure heavily weighted towards the mastery of new repertoire leaves no room for personal expression. And when teenagers have no room for personal expression they’ll have no room for your piano studio. Which is why we need to look at Rectangle number 3.
Rectangle Number 3 – A Teenager’s Perfect Piano World
The rectangle above is a teenage piano lesson utopia. Learning new repertoire has not been abandoned, it has simply made room for a previously-smaller chunk to gain more prominence depending on what interests each individual teen student.
As young piano students grow up, their rectangles need to change to reflect their personality, passion, and interests. If you can find that balance, a studio bursting at the seams with teenagers is not too far-fetched!
Barbara Glenister says
Great reminder. I’d like to know where to get lead sheets and improv/composing/chording for teens. Barbara
Brittany Lesch says
Thanks for the visual! Definitely a good thing to remember – I found some great lead sheets at wikifonia.org and chord/lyric sheets via ultimate-guitar.com
Also, did you see that Finale 2011 or newer has the “Alphanotes” font to help beginning students learn note names? (letter embedded in the note head) so helpful!!
Jennifer Creekmore says
First let me say I love all your posts. I have purchased Psssst…Your piano teacher thinks this is theory and The Curious Case of…
I plan on implementing a lot of those ideas in the coming weeks at my studio. I am curious at what point in their piano study do you start composing with your teens? I have two teen girl students (13, 15) who are still learning the basics but I can tell they are itching for some self expression and want to learn about chords. Are they to old to use The Curious Case of…? I think the lessons are so well thought out and offer a nice step into easy composing etc. Thanks for any thoughts on this. I want to keep my teens interested.
Betty Patnude says
I’m glad to see your approach to teenagers because they really do best when they are an interactive part of the piano lessons – talking about what interests them and giving us more insights through conversation about how music affects them in their daily lives. Of my teen students, two have started lessons because they want to know music theory for their choral participation at high school. One gal, a junior, started a year and a half ago and has plans to study vocal/choral in college, the other is new my studio and to high school and wants to excel in sight reading and understanding music theory. When you know teen students are serious in their goals and they foresee the outcome of their study today in their futures, the link that connects you has much more power. Mine lessons for them are method instruction, sightreading, rhythms, music theory concepts as needed for their lessons and other theory concepts that plant the seeds for later development. And analysis of the music is primary at each lesson using the theory learned to date. Their involvement is perhaps more energetic and personal because they see the “big picture” for themselves.
Susan says
I have 22 students and 12 of them are teenagers. I reckon that’s a pretty good ratio, so I must do something right. You’ll rarely get a teenager to get enthusiastic about a classical piece, but present them with Avici- You Make Me, or the Jim Jones Review (YouTube them, and you’ll see!) In between exams, and you’ve hooked them. Quite a few of mine I’ve been teaching for near on 8 years. Not the same tune obviously!
Tim Topham says
Great post Andrea and Trevor!
I really love what you’re saying about teaching teenagers as it’s also an interest of mine, as you know. I agree that lesson style and format has to change dramatically if teachers are to retain ‘normal’ teenagers (ie. the ones that surf, play video games, hang out with mates on weekends, etc.) and that creative activities and playing music that they want to (I love your Avicii comment, Susan) is VITAL!
Keep up the great posts.
Jane Lumkin says
Great ideas. I have about 10 teens and needed to hear that it is ok not to work on repertoire all the time. Now I need help with chording and composition