11 Responses for "How To Motivate….?"

1. Keren Neeman January 31st, 2009 at 2:40 pm 1

   I have a few of those as well…. usually, i think, this reaction comes from fear. So I have found the following ways to deal with this fear useful:
   - play for him, and show him your favorite places in the piece, remember to say how easy and fun it is.
   - give him small goals. play the first 4 notes until they are perfect, and then next notes, and so on
   -motivate him, by showing interest in him. Say that you remembered him a few times during the week and that you thought he would like this piece, and so on.

   Well, my baby woke up… have to go.

   Keren Neeman
   http://www.escazumusic.com

2. Amy Chaplin January 31st, 2009 at 4:46 pm 2

   That’s a hard one. If he’s creative, maybe don’t try and force, but try to give him an open book to be creative. What else does he enjoy doing? What motivates him? Reward can go a long way for a 10 year old boy. Does he like to sing? Have him sing some favorite songs and teach him to play chords while he sings. It depends on how “talented” he is. You might have to go out of your comfort zone of step one, step two of learning the piano to get him interested. Maybe you might have to do a reverse on the traditional teaching. Maybe the “reading” of the music totally bores him. In the end, if all else fails just remember, we can’t force people to love things we think they should love.

3. Atara February 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm 3

   Unfortunately, just because a student is gifted or ahead does not mean they are morally mature. You are dealing with an immature child, morally and/or emotionally. Think of it that way and you may get some ideas from within.

4. Stengel99 February 2nd, 2009 at 9:25 pm 4

   Have you considered the idea of not teaching him any new concepts for a while? I know it seems counter productive, or like you’re forcing yourself to not really teach, but what if you just found some fun material for him to work with at his current ability level? Or maybe give him something that classroom reading teachers call “high interest material” which would motivate him to master a new skill.
   Keep us posted on what works!

5. Miss Krissy February 3rd, 2009 at 1:25 am 5

   This is an area that I have been experimenting with and pondering on a lot and I find that a lot of it has to do with making sure that while you have an expectation, you take off the pressure. I try to do this through games to kind of “trick” them into learning. Takes the focus off the end result, keeping the process fun. They are used to instant gratification! Also, sometimes, I’ll just reverse the process and have them start writing some of their own stuff. The popular tunes are also really helpful. Or to even really throw them start teaching them what they can do with chords. And not taking anything personally!

6. Metronomes- A Required Item at Home? » Piano Teacher’s Retreat February 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 am 6

   [...] you all for such awesome suggestions and motivations for my current issue.  I’m excited to try your ideas, and will let you know what [...]

7. mary lou February 8th, 2009 at 6:36 pm 7

   If he needs to work on something more difficult, try giving him a “popular piece” that he knows. That will motivate him to stick with it. 80% of the time he should be in pieces that he can learn in a week or two. Once in awhile he gets a more difficult piece.

8. mary lou February 8th, 2009 at 6:37 pm 8

   The object/goal is to keep him interested in music.

9. Sebastian Mitchell February 13th, 2009 at 9:38 am 9

   Why not just let him quit if he wants to? If he doesn’t enjoy it then there’s no point in forcing him to play. That will only yield mediocre results. Determination to succeed and natural talent are two seperate things; consider that most millionaires are of average intelligence, whilst there are more poor geniuses with ultra-high IQs than you could count.

   Sebastian Mitchell
   PianoAccelerator.com

10. Laura February 20th, 2009 at 10:25 am 10

    I’m discovering this post kind of late, but wanted to throw out some thoughts. I’ve had similar students who were actually highly talented and intelligent, but balked at a challenge. Often, gifted children have things come so easily to them in school, that they begin to expect that they should be able to do everything quickly and easily or else they assume that they’re no good at it, or they’ll never be able to learn it. They’ve never had the experience of having to work at something, so they don’t have any faith in the practicing process. This is a great article that addresses this issue: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/

    Here are some ideas that might help:
    1. Explain to the child what’s going on. Learning to recognize this trait in himself will give him a sense of control. Explain to him that just because he’s not able to sight-read the new piece doesn’t mean it’s too hard for him or that he won’t be able to learn it.

    2. Praise his efforts more than you praise his talent. And praise his willingness to take on a challege whenever you have even the slightest opportunity to do so. If you tell him that you are proud of his being a hard worker, you’ll get more hard work. If you’re proud of how he can take on a challenge, he’ll do that more. But, if you praise him for being “smart and talented,” then you’ve set a bar he feels he has to reach every time, first shot out of the box. Then, when he encounters something he feels he can’t do right off the bat, he feels that he is no longer smart and talented. (The article I linked to above really explains this well.”

    3. Teach him how to break a challenge down into small bits. If the challenge is a new piece, use small sticky notes to mark off one or two measures – less if necessary. Say, “Your only job right now is to work on this measure.” Then, he gets to feel successful about something very quickly. Gifted kids seldom experience the need to reduce a job to small steps, so they don’t know how.

    4. If the challenge is a new technique, be sure you introduce the technique before he encounters it in a piece. This may take some advance planning, but it’s worth it.

    Hope this is helpful!

11. How to Motivate…Continued » Piano Teacher’s Retreat February 26th, 2009 at 1:28 am 11

    [...] incredibly gifted but incredibly unmotivated student is making progress, thanks to your suggestions!  Some suggested I stop trying to teach concepts, [...]