Just this past week I had an inquiry from a mother with a 16-year old daughter. Will my program help her daughter to read?
I inquired more about her daughter, her level of competence. I needed a "picture" of the student. The picture: student has been learning for 8 years, is playing two pieces, one of which is a simplified version of a piece that is not written for piano, and the other some little "fluff" piece of dubious music value. Certainly, you will never hear it in the concert hall. Why not? It's not interesting enough for the audience to listen to.
My Summary: Student is playing well below not only her age level but also well below the skills of someone learning for 8 years. Unfortunately, this is true too many times. It's the result of a teacher -- or in this case, more than one teacher -- who does not know how to advance students quickly.
And the outcome is student boredom.
It could also be the outcome of mixing music "patterns" too much in the younger grades. Some students work better in the early years when they see regular patterns. Example: A piano piece most of my students learn around the end of their first year is Burgmuller's Op. 100, No. 15 ("Ballade"). Not only is it a great character study, but it has repeated patterns, especially in the right hand. All students, in my opinion, need to learn pieces such as this which are lively, regular, and fun to play. This makes reading easy, learning is fast, and so motivation is high.
Now, how can our 16-year old be fixed? So many times, it cannot be fixed, since the student has already reached an age where she's ready to quit. "Why learn now?", she is thinking subconsciously. The learning process is more challenging because teenage students don't want to play music that sounds great for an eight-year old but boring and "simple" to a teenager. You have to find pieces that are relatively simple, regular, and appeal to more mature students.
It takes a highly motivated teenager to overcome issues such as this. Without that, parents probably should cancel lessons, save their money, and spend it on something more valuable to their child's education.
But if the teenager is motivated enough, here's a simple solution:
I inquired more about her daughter, her level of competence. I needed a "picture" of the student. The picture: student has been learning for 8 years, is playing two pieces, one of which is a simplified version of a piece that is not written for piano, and the other some little "fluff" piece of dubious music value. Certainly, you will never hear it in the concert hall. Why not? It's not interesting enough for the audience to listen to.
My Summary: Student is playing well below not only her age level but also well below the skills of someone learning for 8 years. Unfortunately, this is true too many times. It's the result of a teacher -- or in this case, more than one teacher -- who does not know how to advance students quickly.
And the outcome is student boredom.
It could also be the outcome of mixing music "patterns" too much in the younger grades. Some students work better in the early years when they see regular patterns. Example: A piano piece most of my students learn around the end of their first year is Burgmuller's Op. 100, No. 15 ("Ballade"). Not only is it a great character study, but it has repeated patterns, especially in the right hand. All students, in my opinion, need to learn pieces such as this which are lively, regular, and fun to play. This makes reading easy, learning is fast, and so motivation is high.
Now, how can our 16-year old be fixed? So many times, it cannot be fixed, since the student has already reached an age where she's ready to quit. "Why learn now?", she is thinking subconsciously. The learning process is more challenging because teenage students don't want to play music that sounds great for an eight-year old but boring and "simple" to a teenager. You have to find pieces that are relatively simple, regular, and appeal to more mature students.
It takes a highly motivated teenager to overcome issues such as this. Without that, parents probably should cancel lessons, save their money, and spend it on something more valuable to their child's education.
But if the teenager is motivated enough, here's a simple solution:
- Student needs new music every week, length depending on complexity, but see next point.
- Student needs to be able to decipher the notes on the page, so it cannot be too complex.
- Student needs to be able to play the notes as they are being read.
- Student needs great sounding pieces, regular patterns.
- This should not take more than about 15 minutes a day
- Student should have the goal of playing the music from memory as quickly as possible.
- Where possible, use more than one piece of music, so there is variety in the student's learning. Two shorter pieces is better than one longer one.
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