Teaching Piano Students When They Don’t Believe In Themselves
Learning music is pretty amazing. Not only do you learn a new language but you learn to express your feelings through sound. Just like anything new, it can feel frustrating to feel like you’re not learning as fast as you'd like. We can sometimes be really hard on ourselves and it definitely helps when you have a teacher that finds ways of explaining things that is tailored to the student. That explanation may not be the same for every student and it may be understood the first time or it may take some repetition until that topic is fully understood. I have students that have been really hard on themselves. It’s really important for me to be vocal with them and teach them to understand that I’m not looking for perfection when they are learning a new piece. I want to see them try their best and I give them the tools to answer their own questions.
Here are some things my students have said to me during lessons:
“I don’t know what position I should be in. What note is it? I just give up!”
Usually this comes from a beginner student. To this I usually won’t give them the answer. I’ve taught my students how to read music and have taught them the “tricks” to reading notes: “Every Good Bird Does Fly”, “F-A-C-E” etc…
What I WILL do is ask them their own question back to them. “Great question! What note is it? Is the first note in the right hand on a line or space?” If it’s on a line I’ll ask them what the trick for the treble clef lines is. This will help them learn the process of figuring things out on their own when they are practicing instead of just giving up.
Of course, if they are having a really hard time I will still go through those same steps and help them along the way. I most likely will go over reading more notes so they get the hang of it before proceeding with playing the song.
“I can’t play piano. I can’t do anything”
This is a tough one to hear. As a teacher, my number one priority is that my student is enjoying learning the piano. If they are not enjoying their lesson then I need to find the way to interest them. This of course does not apply to students who are being forced to learn an instrument that they absolutely do not want to learn. I definitely don’t think anyone should be forced to learn something they are not interested in because they will go into it unhappy.
Sometimes students can be really hard on themselves. Through teaching I’ve learned that you have to be patient with yourself and take it one step at a time. If my student is getting really frustrated with themselves for making a mistake, I ask them to take a step back and we’ll go over the section where they are having trouble. We’ll go over it and I make sure that they understand what the problem was. If it was a rhythm mistake, I might make them clap and count it for me a few times and then ask them to play the passage and count aloud. If it’s a fingering mistake I will make them play it slowly several times and maybe even turn that passage into an exercise and play that pattern going up a step each time. If it’s a note that they continuously play wrong, I will go over the notes and maybe even circle it with a colored pencil or even write the letter on the note so they fix the mistake during their practice.
Most importantly, I tell them to be patient with themselves. I make sure they know that mistakes happen and they are totally okay! I make sure to help them understand any mistakes they might be making and go over it until they have a good understanding of it (even if it takes a good chunk out of class time).
“Can we play an easier song? I’ll never be able to learn this. It’s too difficult!”
As the student progresses so does the difficulty of the piece. Sometimes they say “There is NO WAY I can play this” or if I play the song for them they say “I’m going to play THAT?! It’s going to take me FOREVER!!” I get it! Sometimes the notes on the page look really scary. The awesome part is teaching them about patterns and making it less “scary” and easier for them to learn. Most of the time, all it takes is going over the notes, rhythm, and patterns and suddenly you see the light bulb turn on for them and the piece becomes less “scary”. That’s when I say “You see? I told you you could do it!”
Don’t forget to let your students know how well they are doing. Celebrate the small and big victories!
Happy teaching!