3 Responses for "What to Do…"

1. Mike Saville June 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 am 1

   I’ve had a couple of pupils like this. Despite using one of my numerous motivation methods the pupil still doesn’t engage. What I found worked in a couple of cases was to let them set the agenda. They took responsibility for telling me what they wanted to learn – which music and when.

   This worked in a number of ways. As they had chosen the pieces there was no excuse for not liking the music. Also I was able to show them that in order to play the music they had chosen they needed to learn some techniques.

   Another idea might be to team him up with a ‘practice partner’ another pupil of about the same ability. This can help stimulate a bit of healthy competition.

   It might also be worth checking that the childs practice environment is right. Do they have an uniterrupted space in which to practice? All too often well meaning parents can actually hinder if they listen/interrupt too often. Is practice turning into a battle? Perhaps encourage the child to focus more during the practice they do – in this way they might actually practice less.

   Also make sure the focus is on goals and not time. Does it really matter if the child practices for 20 minutes a day if they achieve what you set for them?

   You may have already tried all of these, in which case I hope they help someone else. It can be difficult to see a way through the practising maze with some pupils but I do believe we can find a way for them all to enjoy and want to practice.

2. Cristina June 2nd, 2009 at 5:39 am 2

   I would maybe try reducing the number of songs he works on in a week, maybe even to just one song, and practicing and drilling the song in his lesson to the point that he doesn’t need to practice things he can’t do yet at home, but rather just needs to play through the stuff he already (more or less) mastered in his lesson. Since you say he likes playing the finished product, maybe he’d practice more if he feels like he’s just playing and not practicing.

3. Mindy June 3rd, 2009 at 9:41 pm 3

   I have gone through this with two students this past year and learned some very good lessons from the situations.
   1. Make a record of all the repertoire the student has studied with you as best you can from beginning to present. I usually date it according to the school year (’08-09, etc.) I include anything learned outside of method books. When I did this, I found that the student I was frustrated with still had been accomplishing something.
   2. Have a good non-lesson heart to heart with the student. Let them totally vent their side of the story. Wow! If you can handle it, you might learn some really great things that will help you tailor your teaching to the student.
   3. Make very specific goals for the student even if it means listing out every detail. For example, all scales will be played one octave, hands together, correct fingering, at a tempo of … quarter notes per minute. Do this for every single item. Then make a chart for yourself and the student so that you can record the progress made.
   4. Another student would become completely overwhelmed once home as to how to practice. I ended up spending LOTS of time writing down what and how to practice for every thing for each day of practice. The student just simply couldn’t break it down into small enough bits to even start. This did take a lot of time each lesson, but after a while he learned how to go about it and I didn’t have to do it as detailed.
   5. Abandon what you are doing if necessary. I completely scrapped the regular way I taught (through method books) and found something else that would cater to the student. It was harder than where his abilities were, but because he was interested in it, the extra time it took to teach it to him (writing in fingering, note names, etc.) was so worth it. He far excelled what I initially anticipated because he was so interested.
   6. Keep your expectations absolutely clear. Witht the first student I still wanted to work with her, but I was not going to bend over backwards (partially because I already was) to make it work. I wrote out very specifically what I expected students of her level to accomplish in order to remain in my studio. The student ended up leaving (on good mutual terms) but I felt that I handled in it a way that was professional and caring and didn’t feel like I was being taken advantage of either.
   You are a great teacher and if this student would end up leaving you and trying another teacher, they will more than likely find the same expectations from the other teacher. If the student is successful, yeah! Music is being played!