I once watched a tight-rope walker by the name of Nick Wallenda walk on a wire across Nigara falls. Now, I’m not afraid of heights, but watching that gave me heart palpitations.
… probably because, subconsciously, it reminded me of how I used to feel teaching teen students 😉
Finding Balance Prevents A Fall
I’m sure you’ve all experienced this moment: a teen student is on your bench, excited to show you something she learned by ear, off of Youtube, or from a friend. You watch… and you listen… Oh my goodness that fingering?! Is this entire piece marked “forte”? I’ve never heard it played this quickly?! Where on earth did she find this arrangement? Wasn’t that B flat missing?… these thoughts run through your mind and your first instinct is to jump in and fix everything that is “wrong” with her technique, rhythm… you name it.
But tight rope walkers rarely jump…
Finding a balance in teaching good technique vs. killing motivation is key when teaching teen piano students. When the balance is there, it’s smooth sailing. When it’s not… they can fall. And when teens “fall”, their motivation takes a nosedive as does their practice time, cooperation in lessons and overall attitude toward piano lessons.
So, how do you keep those teens walking the tightrope of piano happiness?
Fixing Teen Piano Student Technique
We have a responsibility to our students to teach them to play correctly – and so letting it all slide is not really a great option. We also have a responsibility to instil a love of music… so discouraging self-exploration on the piano is completely counter-productive. So what’s a piano teacher to do?!
1. Create Opportunities For Self-Reflection – Teens are budding adults, and so learning how to reflect on one’s self is an important skill to learn. Before passing on your own “fixes”, videotape your student playing her newly-learned treasure and ask her to provide feedback on criteria you find important (correct fingering, even tempo, correct rhythm etc.) Having a little check list to guide feedback is helpful – get your student to rate herself on a scale of 1-5 (1 being needs more work, 5 being “nailed-it”).
Once you have her ratings, then weed out the criteria that received less than a “3” and ask your student which of those she would like to focus on. Then…. you can hop in and fix away. This self-reflection is often all that is needed to have your teens genuinely wanting your feedback to improve.
2. Hop On Board With Their Enthusiasm – If you can tell this newest musical addition to her learned repertoire is a hard and fast favorite, then get enthusiastic too and schedule some sort of goal for the piece. Should this be an upcoming performance? A video recording? An addition to a CD project or your studio’s Youtube channel? Providing a reason for your teen to want to improve the piece is key in keeping motivation high and pride in tact. If she can sense your willingness to be on board with what she finds exciting then she is likely to happily accept direction and guidance to improve in preparation for a goal.
3. Use These “Treasured Pieces” as Cues – Use whatever your teen brings into her lesson as a great big billboard sign of a hint as to what she wants to be playing. If you can then provide repertoire that matches her taste (and can use that repertoire to teach the technical skills you need to be teaching her) then you’re a giant step ahead of piano teachers who find themselves in the unenviable position of guessing at repertoire choices for teens.
We have our finger on the pulse of the music that motivates piano students… and we share that awesomeness with PianoBookClub members. Sign up today and receive a new book of awesome musical repertoire every single month!
4. Ask for Critique of Others – Pretend that your teen student will one day be an adjudicator and give her the skills to evaluate the performance of another player. Find some youtube videos of other teens playing music and use those same criteria from #1 above to “rate” the performance. What does she see or hear that she really likes and wants to emulate? What needs work? And (this one is huge) how would she suggest the fixes be done? Handing over the reins to your teens in this way creates great feelings of ownership over their own learning and pride in striving for and achieving excellence.
5. Know When To Let it Go – While a certain performance may be like “nails on a chalkboard” to a piano teacher… to a teen it may be a soul-filling experience to play. We don’t all connect with music in the same way. Not every single piece needs to be perfect… or even “good”. While we certainly have a responsibility to provide quality lessons… sometimes it’s okay for our teens to just… play. Music can be healing, uplifting and exactly what a teen may need at an emotional time in her life.
So, pick and choose your moments – if you can tell this is simply a “soul-food piece” (as I like to call it) then let that which is not perfect slide (as long as it’s not causing physical strain) and do a happy dance that your teen will be at the piano frequently that week. Even if technique isn’t being drastically improved – her connection to music is. After all, without a connection, technique is not all that useful anyway.
Hop on that tightrope and find your balance… teaching teens is one heck of a challenge, but the rewards received from doing so effectively feel every bit as good as does reaching the other side of Niagara.
belle says
I have a 3rd grade boy that has been murdering Fur Elise. I have employed some of these suggestions (watching professional videos, not teens, and even a computer version where each note hits like a video game. He actually listened!! Learning to listen to self is a hard skill. So, yes, grin and bear it, and find that sweet spot between learning and inspiring.
Milla says
My students often bring hideous arrangements from some free blog-spot site. I just teach them to isolate the melody and use it as a lead sheet. After all today’s songs are not jazz of 20th – 40th, they’re easy to harmonize.
Beth Yantz says
Again, you guys nailed it. I will stop just nodding (with gritted teeth hidden behind a smile) and commending them for their obvious hard effort, or going on a search go a better version they can play “for real”. I like the reminder about self-critique. They can be very perceptive (and brutally honest) when invited to, and it’s going to be even less threatening when they critique others who do the exact same thing, which will increase the benefit when they do self-reflection. Great post! Keep the excellent music coming, too. My students like them all. One pre-teen is so excited to do “Shave and a Clap Back” from your “How to give your audience the giggles” book, that she was inspired to learn the “new” notes and practice the hand position transitions, on her own! Score!
Heidi says
Self critique is an excellent suggestion! It is an easy option to video your kids with ease of thechnogy these days. Thank you!
CHRIS says
You described one of my students to a “T”, except that my “teen” just turned 8. He has been playing since he was 3 or 4, just came to me a year or so ago. Very bright, darling, wants to play difficult literature, etc. It’s been a fun but tough year, we both persevered, and he just did very well in a local piano competition! Thanks for the tips.
Susan says
I had a 17 year old that pulled a Zelda piece off the internet that was so poorly arranged. She struggled to play it for me. I knew she wanted to learn the song so badly that she endured the pain of the piece. Instead of discouraging her longing, I asked her how what could SHE do to keep the integrity of the melody, but work with the piece to arrange it to fit under her hands. There were so many leaps and awkwardness that made no sense. So we used the piece as a started point and she reworked the fingering… also moving some of the left hand into the right hand under my watchful eye. It took two full lessons to complete the task. She played it like a dream at the spring recital and it was beautiful. I asked her watch did she learn from this experience? She said “I am going to be more careful choosing Internet pieces, now I know I can make changes that will give me smoother transitions! It was one of the best lessons and I continue to challenge teens that bring me poorly arranged music. Some are willing to do the work, and some just ask me to find a better piece for them. It’s always a win-win. Thank you for this wonderful site for input.
Karen says
I have an 8th grade boy who started a couple of months ago. He was learning to play piano off you-tube–big, fast, LOUD, flashy pieces and now wants to learn to READ music. He brings in the new songs he is learning off you-tube and last time even one he composed. So….I will have him notate his composition to help in that note-reading process! I know it is frustrating at times to have the “simple” songs, but I keep telling him it is learning a new language and to “speak it” and to “read it” are both important!
Chuck says
Great post!
lynn kiesewetter says
“yes” to all the above. and then there’s the $5 online purchase of 8 pages of some “easy piano” pop song that the mom proudly went ahead and bought……… for her 1st year student. oy vey…….. i try to explain it’s not like buying him a jacket a size too big that he’ll grow into. but the truth is, with most pop songs, the enthusiasm is short lived for a particular tune, and by the time they’re ready for it, it isn’t appealing. still, we’ve had lots of right hand only 1 pages attempted.
sorry- off topic, but seemed connected to my pre-coffee brain………….
Rachel S says
This is so practical and balanced, thank you!
Lori Dahlman says
Thank you so much for this! Talking out loud to myself right now saying yes!!! I have a few students that will really appreciate some of these ideas.
Andrea says
Glad to hear it Lori! Thanks for reading 🙂
Kayla says
This is helpful! I’ve never thought of using YouTube analysis with my students, but I like the idea. I think I’ll start incorporating that.
After my students (of any age) play through a piece or a practiced section, I always ask them 1) “What did you do well (or better than before, or more easily) – or maybe “What was a positive surprise this time through?” . . . then 2) “What could have been better, and how?”
At first they say they don’t know, then they start parroting things I’ve mentioned before, then they start noticing things for themselves. They almost always want to start with the negative, but I call them on it, we laugh about it, and I guide them back to finding the positives first.
I consider these questions a major part of their lesson. It helps them focus, and it brings faster improvement and more satisfaction/pride when they can direct their progress during home practice.