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Start piano at home with your child
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WHY CHILDREN FAIL AT PIANO
I have to say that it is almost always the fault of the teacher.
What about all those teachers saying, "He doesn't practice, he doesn't pay attention."
Saying a child doesn't pay attention simply defines what the child is like. Inattention is part of the definition of childhood: they are in their own world, struggling to get into the adult world.
How do you reach these children? Especially, how do you reach them with a skill-intensive art like the piano?
First of all, you need to get your expectations as a teacher in order.
An art teacher who expects kindergartners to paint detailed frescoes is most likely going to be bitterly disappointed.
An art teacher who is wise enough to nurture the child's doodling may get an entirely different result.
Similarly, with the piano, you would be wise to examine what makes the child not pay attention.
For example, I was once teaching a song to a child, and that child was not paying any attention. Usually, I would let the child move to a song they were interested in, and go with that. But we were playing a song they had requested, so we set to work on it.
I instantly noticed that the child could not grasp the musical groups, which were six or eight notes long.
I realized that their inattention was due to my failure to break the groups down into small enough parts.
We began experimenting with two and three note groups, and this was an instant success.
In fact, we then became involved in games using three note cells, or groups of tones, and he learned a lot about chords and their similarities on the keyboard. Instead of being frustrated by an academic and rather dogmatic approach, I managed to see that he needed the information packaged into bits that he could easily grasp.
Once the child grasped the idea on HIS level, they were able to enjoy any games or songs we played.
The lesson here is observation.
If you really step back and observe children's piano experience, you will see that they are usually struggling with some small concept that prevents them from understanding the musical idea you are presenting. Try going a step back, and watch their behavior for the "comfort zone."
For example, if you are trying to get the child to understand a six-note group, and they are failing at the fourth note, it means that their capacity is three notes.
Observe the child and throw your process out. Mold your process to the child and be patient.
By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2008 Walden Pond Press All Rights Reserved
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