Golden Goals

From teacher, to student, to teacher, to student.  Have you ever thought about your former piano teacher’s pedagogical lineage?  If you are a teacher, then you had a teacher, who also had a teacher, who had a teacher, and so on.  My most recent piano teacher is a fourth generation student of Beethoven!  I had another teacher during my undergrad years who could trace her teacher’s lineage back to Liszt!  Its amazing what legacies can be passed down through generations of teachers.  Whether your lineage is famous or not, there are certain ways that you teach because you had a teacher who taught you the same way.  Recognizing how to transfer this information can be a powerful teaching technique.

While thinking about content, keep the mindset that you’re not just training a student, but you may be training a future teacher!  In related posts I will share some content that I’ve gathered through the years not only as a student, but as a teacher.  I hope you can find new ways to enhance your lessons as I pass the content on to you.

Defining your goals

Any potential student who comes to interview with me learns that one of my primary goals as a teacher is to ensure that the student is becoming a well-rounded, independent musician.  Well-rounded meaning the student is developing the foundational aspects of technique, note-reading, theory, performance and aural learning.  And independent meaning the student not only does what I am teaching them, but is also able to discern when she is not doing these things.  The most refined aspect of independence is when the student is able to effectively fix whatever they have recognized as insufficient.

This is an example of a well-thought out goal.  It is very important for teachers to have goals in mind when preparing for a lesson, giving the lesson, and problem solving outside the lesson.  If you don’t have any clearly defined goals for your students it is important that you create one or some now!  Most teachers probably have an idea of what they want for their students.  But to be able to implement this in every aspect of the lesson is really the crux of the matter.   Once you have a carefully constructed goal, your lessons will have a stronger purpose.  Altogether this will make you a better teacher.

Using the goal to facilitate the lesson

If I run into an obstacle with a student, it is usually because the student is in conflict with my goals for them.  This transforms my goal into a standard or expectation for the student.  Lets say a beginning student comes to the lesson and plays a 2-line piece that I had asked them to practice throughout the week.  If it lacks proper rhythm or note accuracy then they have fallen short of my goal for them.  There are a number of possible reasons why the student has returned with an insufficient performance.  But a teacher’s responsibility is to first credit the problem to himself.  In doing so I ask myself questions like this: Did I properly set the piece up so the student could adequately obtain success? If not, what could I have done better? (I will further develop those questions later).

The next step is to set up a plan that will help the student be more successful in future assignments of similar nature.  Now is the time to return to the initial goal.  What is the key ingredient that was missing?  If it has to do with note-reading and rhythm, then in most cases the student probably wasn’t counting.  Usually if this is the case, I will return to the piece with the student and ask them to tap and count.  So many times I have experienced that the student is very unsuccessful in this task!  Can you imagine trying to play something that you can’t even accurately spell out by tapping and counting?  Inability to perform a rhythm stems from a lack of understanding.  The student must first understand, and then demonstrate that understanding through performance.  Give your student a few chances to nail down the proper rhythm through tapping.

What about the notes?  Many times note and rhythm problems are connected.  If there’s no consistency of meter while the student is playing, then what is measuring note placement?  If notes are improperly played within the measure (values are being ignored), then there’s a greater chance that the student will skip, miss, or ignore notes.  In the end this creates the student’s own rendition of the particular study piece.  In which case I sometimes jokingly say: “That sounded very nice, but unfortunately its not right.”  If your student is having note-reading issues you should try a simple test.  As you point to the notes, can they accurately name them?  Or, if you use the interval approach–which I highly recommend– can the student correctly identify interval relationships (ex: up a 2nd, down a 3rd, down a 2nd)?  If you answered YES to these questions, then the problem lies in the relationship between meter and note placement. If you answered NO, then you also have a very clear answer: the student needs more review naming and recognizing notes and/or intervals.  This doesn’t come from pure flashcard drills, but from A LOT of reading exercises.  Load your student up with a good handful of short pieces for them to read throughout the week.  This may require a supplemental book of sight-reading or additional method book.

Goal accompanied by the right tools

Earlier in this post I mentioned assigning the blame of a student’s failure on yourself.  Of course there could have been many things contributing to the student’s lack of preparedness, but most of the time it comes down to the teacher.  Think about the questions I posed earlier:

• Did I properly set the piece up so the student could adequately obtain success?
• If not, what could I have done better?

Here are some ideas that will help you continue to set your student up for success.  Using good practice habits in the lesson will transfer to good practice habits at home.

• Always do in the lesson what you intend for the student to do at home.  If you are teaching your student a new piece then go through it using a systematic approach.  Step by step example: study patterns and interval relationships, find correct hand position, tap and count, prepare hands in position, ghost play (just touch fingers to keys without making sound), play and COUNT 5-8 X.
• Be consistent with your expectations. Sometimes I have to ask a student to count every time we play through a piece.  But eventually they become so accustomed to my asking that they begin to do it on their own. (Imagine that!!!)
• Follow through.  If you asked a student specifically to accomplish something at home, follow up in the next lesson.  Students will catch on and learn that they won’t be able to get away with being unprepared.
• Ask the student if they understand your goal for them on each piece, and for their entire lesson assignment.
• If the performances of the previous week’s assignments are greatly lacking, ask the student to outline a typical day of practice.  When I’ve done this in the past, I am sometimes unpleasantly surprised that the student has no idea how to spend their time.  This gives me the opportunity to clearly define how to spend practice time to the student AND the parent.
• Don’t lecture, be proactive.  If a student has failed an assignment try to stray from lecturing (unless you are absolutely certain they didn’t practice or prepare).  Turn the situation around by reinforcing the tools that the student will need as they practice at home.
• Consider the student’s abilities, strengths and weaknesses.  Remember that everyone learns differently.  I am often frustrated by the student who just can’t do it like most other students.  But when I use the individual’s strengths to approach the desired outcome I am pleased at the ease of their success.
• Continually address weaknesses.  If a student is weak in a certain area, look for every opportunity to review and develop that concept.
• Be ready to explain a concept a number of different ways.  Sometimes I catch myself saying the same thing over and over, without any response.  But if I say the same thing in a different way the student suddenly responds.
• Assign pieces that will allow the student to be successful.
• Be patient.