Maybe one of the best things I learned from Randall Faber at a recent conference was how different age groups approach learning.

• Under Seven age group:   Their mentality is “I can DO IT.”  They are more excited about the doing than anything else.  They don’t care so much about progressing or achieving goals.  They just want to have fun.  Activities at the piano and away from the piano are great motivators.  Because they are motivated, they achieve success more readily.
• Seven to Thirteen Year Olds:   “I CAN do it.”  They are motivated by their ability.  Stickers are great motivators.  Acknowledging and reinforcing their competence helps foster great self esteem and motivation in this age group. 
• Adolescents:   “I can do it.”  They are proud of themselves.  Treat them as competent and capable, and they will achieve better success.

I think I approach each of my students with the “I CAN do it” mentality- focusing on and praising ability.  This works well, because most of my students fit in the seven-thirteen age range. 

But I do have a few students under seven and one over thirteen.   I have been so glad to have this insight.  It has opened my eyes, and I am approaching my younger and older students much better, keeping their age appropriate mentality in mind as I teach.

The latest in my attempts to keep my toddler happy during lessons:

This is the landing on our stairs.  I set up a reading nook and showed it to her before lessons by reading stories with her there.  The first day of lessons, this worked like magic.  She was enthralled with her new spot, and didn’t leave it once.  After a few days, she was bored of the same ol’ toys I was putting there. 

So now, I divide toys up into 4 baskets (I teach 4 days a week).  Each basket has a couple books, a stuffed animal, a few small toys, and a big interactive toy (like a puzzle or filing folders with pictures).  I put the basket on the landing with some library books.  This works much better since she sees these toys only once a week.

Sometimes it’s good to look at things from a different angle- like your students!

The week before a recital, I have my students ”practice recital” during lessons.  I sit on the couch as an audience member, make noise as distractions, clap when they finish, etc.  They take a bow at the end and go back to their seat (my chair set far away from the piano.)

I noticed yesterday while I was doing this that one of my students bounces when she plays!  I never noticed the bouncing from my position in my chair at the right side of the piano.  But sitting behind her helped me to see.  It was an eye opener for me because I realized that she counts with her body while she plays.  As a result, her songs always sound a bit choppy and unfinished. 

Now I know how to help her create a more smooth and flowing sound- just from watching her from a different angle!

It makes me think I should get up and move around more often!  What else will I discover?

I know this isn’t original.  I’m pretty sure I read this in a forum somewhere.  So I am totally stealing somebody else’s idea.  But it’s been SO effective in my studio lately that I MUST share it here!

When introducing eighth notes, tell your student to say “apple” instead of “1 and.”  Quarter notes will also now become “pear.”  This is much easier for a child to do.  Instead of counting “1 and 2, 3 and 4,” they say “apple pear, apple pear.”  Surprisingly, this does not seem to confuse them in the slightest.  And they actually get the rhythms right!  Even successful “1 and” counters tend to get choppy rhythms.  But “apple pear” counters don’t have that problem!

Plus, it’s fun for their families to hear them saying such sill things while they play the piano!

Do you do this already?  Do you have any other silly words you use?

Actions often speak louder than words.  At the advice of a reader, I’ve been video taping some of my students during lessons, then playing the recording back.  It has been a tremendous help for some of my students to SEE what I’ve been talking and drilling about for so long. 

The student who plays with flat fingers?  Now, she SEES the flat fingers and understands what she needs to work on.  The student who plays much too quickly, causing the piece to come out sloppy?  Now he SEES his fingers flying across the keys without control and HEARS the missed (and extra!) notes.  The student who plays much too slow and with no feeling?  Now she yawns as her piece is played back to her.  She knows what to do to make her piece more interesting.

Do you use video recording to assist you during lessons?  What successes have you found?

As my students become more advanced, I am noticing that each one seems to naturally fall into three categories when it comes to “feeling” the music.

1. The Technical Giants- These students play every crescendo, diminuendo, and ritardando.  They hold every fermata and they use the pedal correctly.  Each accent, staccato, and slur is delivered appropriately.  They are able to do this because they pay attention.  They are actually reading their music and looking for directions.  However, the music is not necessarily “in” them.  They play correctly, but there is a certain amount of feeling lacking because they are so technical.
2. The Feelers- These students play beautifully.  They often don’t notice dynamic markings.  Even so, they typically end up playing them correctly anyway, because they naturally know how a piece should sound.  However, because they don’t pay close attention to reading, they may get wrong notes and wrong rhythms.
3. The Note Champions- These students play every single note and rhythm correctly.  Often, they are so good at the notes, that they speed through every song.  However, they don’t seem to care about dynamics and articulation.  They even get frustrated when asked to notice and pay attention to such things.

Do you have students that fall into these categories?  Do you have other categories when it comes to students “feeling” the music?

I have been trying to help each student feel and understand the music better, and here are 6 suggestions that have been working in my studio.

1. Listen to recordings of instrumental music during lesson time.  Provide a wide variety of music for your student to hear.  If your student will go for it, discuss the music.  (Many of my students get antsy when we start to discuss anything).  Give incentives if your student listens to classical music at home.  Even if your student won’t discuss the music with you, at least she is getting an exposure to the “feeling” of music.
2. Talk about the background of a piece.  I had a “Note Champion” learning “Moonlight Sonata,” by Beethoven.  Every note was, of course, correct, but she pounded the keys, never slowed down, and didn’t change her dynamics at all.  I told her why Beethoven wrote the piece:  He had been in love with a girl and wanted to marry her.  Her father wouldn’t allow the marriage, and she had to marry somebody else instead.  Beethoven was so overcome with grief, and to cope, he composed.  “Moonlight Sonata” is the result of his depression and grief.  My “Note Champion” thought that was a cool story, and that allowed me to talk to her about the “feeling” of the piece.  I asked her how she thought it should sound, and then we went through the piece together, finding areas for crescendos, diminuendos, and ritardandos.  She played with much more feeling after that.
3. Encourage your students to compose.  Some of my students who refuse to pay attention to dynamic markings will play a piece they wrote with a surprising amount of feeling.  You can print free blank sheet music at www.blanksheetmusic.net
4. If there are lyrics in a piece, have the student read them out loud before playing the piece.  Ask your student to describe the feeling.  Then, ask him to read the lyrics with that feeling.  If the lyrics are about a galloping horse, ask him to read the lyrics fast and choppy.  If they are about a flowing river, ask him to try and connect his words to make them sound smooth.
5. Pay attention to what kind of music excites your student.  Then, search for that kind of music so you can adapt it into lessons.  The more they play what they like, the happier they will be with the piano.  And the more willing they will be to try and improve.
6. Expand your own abilities so you understand what it takes to do something unnatural.  For example, I am a terrible jazz pianist.  I am able to “feel” a classical or romantic piece, but when it comes to jazz, my playing just falls apart.  So I am playing some easy jazz, trying to get the “feel” of that type of music.  It gives me much more empathy for my struggling students!

Do you have more tips for helping your students develop “feeling” while they play?

I read a lot of parenting books, parenting tips, and parenting magazines.  Consequently, I have a lot of theories floating around in my head that I sometimes try to use with my piano students.  One of my favorites is the concept of positive talk. 

Positive talk is about avoiding negatives when you discipline.  For example, with a toddler, instead of saying, “Don’t hit,” you say something like, “Be soft.”  When you say, “Don’t hit,” the toddler doesn’t understand why she can’t hit.  In fact, she doesn’t even know what to do instead.  Saying “Be soft” helps her to learn an appropriate action in place of hitting.  And it’s done in a positive way.  Instead of saying, “Don’t walk down the stairs,” you say something like, “Remember, we crawl when we go down the stairs.” 

I’ve used both types of talk with my toddler.  Inevitably, if I say to her, “Don’t walk down the stairs,” she is going to take a giant step on those stairs.  She’s not being naughty.  She just thinks the idea of walking on the stairs is a great idea.  She didn’t register the “Don’t” part.  She just heard the “walk down the stairs” part.  I, in fact, GAVE her the idea to walk down the stairs by telling her not to.  Conversely, if I say, “Remember to crawl down the stairs,” she hears the good idea of crawling down the stairs and does it!

So, in piano lessons, I try very hard to avoid negative directions.  Instead of saying, “Don’t play soft where it says Forte,” I say, “Remember to play loud where it says Forte.”  Saying, “Don’t play soft where it says Forte” tells my student what NOT to do, but my student may not understand what TO do in it’s place.

I have one student who constantly looks at me WHILE playing.  I think he just wants assurance that he’s doing things right.  However, he makes many unnecessary mistakes simply because he isn’t looking at his music.  I used to say, “Don’t look at me while you play.”  But that just reinforced the negative behavior.  Even though I was saying “Don’t,” I was actually giving him the idea to continue to look at me, since I was using those words.  Now I say, “Keep your eyes on the music.”  He’s not perfect about it every time, but he’s getting better.

Instead of, “Don’t drop your wrist” or “Don’t play with flat fingers,” say, “Remember to keep your wrist up” or “Think about curved fingers.”

Instead of, “Don’t slouch,” say, “Sit up nice and straight.”

Instead of, “Don’t play too fast,” say, “Keep it slow” or “Think slow while you play.”

Can you think of negative behaviors you may actually be reinforcing with your language?

This is Part 2 in a 2 part guest post from Laura Lowe.  You can read Part 1 here.

How To Help The GTOF (Gifted and Terrified of Failure) Piano Student

1. Praise effort more than praising an innate ability like talent or intelligence.  This is SO important. When you praise hard work and the courage to meet a challenge, then you get more of those things.  But, when you praise a child for being “smart” or “talented,” things he cannot personally control, this is what he actually hears: “My image of you is that of someone who gets everything right all the time. So don’t disappoint me.”  When faced with a challenge, he’d rather not try than to try and discover that he doesn’t measure up. It’s too risky.  For a great explanation of this, read “How Not To Praise Your Kids,”  an article from The New York Magazine about Dr. Carol Dweck’s research on the psychology of praise.  The insights there have changed the way I talk to my students and my daughter, and they have informed my understanding of my own fear of failure.

So, how does this translate in a piano lesson? It’s better to say “I like the way you embrace a new technique and keep working at it until you get it,” than to say “You’re such a talented piano player.”And it’s better to say, “I really appreciate how you’ve practiced hard to make your rhythm accurate” than to say “You’re really good with rhythm.”

2. Make practicing safe. The GTOF child is painfully embarrassed to be vulnerable in front of you. Show them your own “in progress” pieces in all their rough glory. Demonstrate the practice techniques you are using to overcome your weak places. Give him permission to sound bad sometimes. For instance, I might introduce a new piece and ask him to play the first line, concentrating on one single element and giving him permission to get everything else completely wrong.  For instance, I might ask him to aim for accurate rhythm, even if he hits every note wrong. I’ll then make a very comical display of playing with absurdly wrong notes (fistfuls of them all over the piano!), but accurate rhythm.  This usually gets a laugh and dispels some of the anxiety of being imperfect in front of me. (It might improve his rhythm, too!) You can even turn it into a fun game. “How horrible can you make the notes while still keeping the rhythm accurate?”

3. Teach the student how to learn something, not just know something. The GTOF student expects to be able to do something on the first try. When she can’t do something the first time, one of my young students wants to change to a different piece of music. With her, I might introduce a new piece by asking her to be the teacher and devise a plan for practicing it. This changes the focus from “Can you play this piece?” to “Can you show me how to practice this piece?” If you ask her to “find the troublesome spots so your student will know where he has to spot practice,” then making a mistake becomes a success! And since gifted students love to have autonomy in the learning process, this approach is highly motivating.

With a GTOF student, it’s very helpful to give her a realistic expectation about how much she will learn in a single practice session – 2 lines, one page, or whatever is realistic.  This gives her permission not to have to learn it all at once. Her own measure of success was to play the whole piece today, and she may well be trying to digest the whole thing in one bite when she practices.

4. Help him exercise control in a healthy way. The GTOF student takes control of the lesson by refusing to try. It’s important to shift his focus from trying to control me or the assignments to controlling himself and his own fears. When I assign a new piece or introduce a new technique, I might preempt the fear by saying, “When I was your age, I was sometimes afraid to try something new if I was worried I wouldn’t be able to catch on right away. But, I learned that most of the time I could get it if I gave it my best effort.” This makes you his ally. I’ll also reassure him that I don’t expect him to get it all at once. “I know this is brand new, and you will probably make lots of mistakes at first. We’re going to break it down and take one thing at a time.”

5. Don’t push too far too fast. This seems counterintuitive because we usually worry about making sure the gifted student isn’t bored by material that’s too simple. But remember, the GTOF child may be more sensitive about failing to achieve a goal you set for him than another student might. You need to earn his trust by not throwing him into the deep end of the pool before he’s ready. One way to do this is to be sure to introduce a new technique before he encounters it in his literature. It’s much easier to take on a new, scary-looking piece of music when you know that you have all the tools in your toolbox that you need to play it.

6. Seize on mistakes as a tool for learning. In a lesson, I like to say, “I’m so glad you made that mistake! It gives me a chance to talk about…” I also like to say (jokingly), “Thank goodness! Finally you made a mistake and I can teach you something! You know, if you got everything right the first time, I’d have no job to do, and I really LIKE to teach…” The GTOF student may not have much experience with learning from mistakes because he makes so few in school. He doesn’t go back and study the questions he missed on the test because he didn’t miss any! You have to teach these kids how to celebrate the value of a mistake.

You should also give the GTOF student realistic expectations about mistakes in performance. Before a performance, I like to say, “I’m proud of your hard work no matter how the performance turns out. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve already passed the test, and the performance is just the icing on the cake. Chances are that you will have an unlucky mistake or two.  I’m expecting that possibility, and you should be, too. Because we both know you are well-prepared, we know that those mistakes are just a bit of bad luck, and they’ll be opportunities for us to learn something new.” In other words, it’s all good.

If you’re interested in reading more about gifted children, you’ll find tons of articles and links at Hoagies’ Gifted Education page.  

Laura Lowe has a B.A. in English and secondary education, and a B. Mus. and M. Mus. in organ performance. She has been an independent piano instructor for 16 years and teaches her own gifted 6-year-old daughter.  She writes at lowepianostudio.blogspot.com.

Laura Lowe, of www.lowepianostudio.blogspot.com is doing a guest post here at Piano Teacher’s Retreat about gifted students who balk at challenges and how to help them. 

First, an introduction: Laura Lowe has a B.A. in English and secondary education, and a B. Mus. and M. Mus. in organ performance. She has been an independent piano instructor for 16 years and teaches her own gifted 6-year-old daughter. She writes at www.lowepianostudio.blogspot.com.

Part 1 in a 2 part series:

Recently, Rebecca posted a question about how to handle a student who was highly capable but refused to try when faced with a challenge. My guess was that the child was highly intelligent, and her response  confirmed that. Her student is what I call a GTOF student – Gifted and Terrified of Failure – the kid who shuts down when the going gets tough. My heart went out to both the child and Rebecca because I’ve been both the teacher and the student in this situation! And, I have a 6-year-old daughter who fits this profile perfectly, too. We commonly think of a gifted child as one who is eager to embrace a challenge, but gifted children are not all alike. Many end up underachieving out of a fear of failure that seems inexplicable to others, given the child’s potential. If you have an inkling of what’s going on in their minds, you can help them tremendously.

Things To Know About GTOF Students

1) They’ve been told for their entire lives how “smart” or “talented” they are, and this is their very identity. The need to work at something means that their natural gifts don’t measure up to the challenge, and this makes them feel like a failure from the start.

2) A gifted child’s definition of “unsuccessful” may be what the rest of us consider average achievement.  Gifted children often don’t compare themselves to their level-appropriate peers, but to their teachers or other highly accomplished figures. They have an unrealistic, inflated expectation of what they are supposed to achieve. 

3) The ease and speed with which they usually pick things up in school and elsewhere means they may not have learned how to patiently have faith in the practicing process. Faced with a challenge that will require many repetitions over a long stretch of time, they don’t feel confident that their effort is going to produce results.

For a student like this, it can be a great relief to discover that you know how he feels, and that you aren’t going to belittle his fears with comments like, “Why should YOU of all people be afraid to try! You’re so smart! You know you’ll get this!” His fears are very real to him, no matter how unrealistic they seem to be to others. You need to show him that you understand, and you can do this without lowering your expectations. In most cases, a well-placed comment or two and a slightly different strategy for presenting something new will do the trick.

Stay tuned for 6 excellent tips for helping these kinds of students!

I had a “slap the forehead” moment this past week when I visited my nephews and peeked at their assignment books for piano.  Their piano teacher numbers each practice assignment!  Brilliant!  I always simply list each item, often bulleting each assignment.  Many times, my students come back to lessons having missed a practice assignment.

Now, instead of this,

•  warm up- C Major scale.  Watch the fingering!
•  Lesson Book pg. 3.  Remember to play staccato!
•  Technique Book pg 2.

an assignment page will look something like this:

1. warm up- C Major scale.  Watch the fingering!
2. Lesson Book pg. 3.  Remember to play staccato!
3. Technique Book pg. 2.

Now, they know exactly how many pieces and warm ups they should be practicing. 

How do you list student’s asssignments?