Just A Beginner...

We piano teachers hold some negative feelings about things people say about piano lessons. One is when parents refer to lessons as "practice," like soccer practice. At soccer practice, tennis practice, basketball practice, a lot of the time is spent in drills to reinforce movements and techniques. With piano lessons, since we meet only once a week, those drills need to be done at home (practice), so we can move forward learning new things in the lesson. Another is "I can't do that because I'm not very talented." We hope parents and students realize that talent is no more than a kernel of potential. Skill comes from practice, and almost everybody can develop basic skill with effort. But, the phrase I hate most is any phrase that includes these three words:  just a beginner.

"Well, she's just a beginner, so grandma's old piano with 6 sticking keys, a cracked soundboard, and no more capacity to hold tune (because it hasn't been tuned in 2 decades) will be good enough for her to start on."

Yikes! Please, no! She will never feel competent on that instrument and may not even be able to play all of her pieces.

"Well, she's just a beginner, so we bought a $100 keyboard from Walm*rt that has only 76 keys and we let her sit cross-legged on her bed with it to practice."

Eek! Please, no! If she studies with me, she'll need to have all 88 keys at her disposal, touch sensitivity that allows her to play both loudly and quietly without using the volume knob, and a damper pedal (sustain pedal), all within the first year of study. At home, she needs an acoustic or digital piano at the proper height with a bench, preferably adjustable, and a pedal. She can't learn technique if she's sitting all hunched over on the bed!

And this is the worst. "Well, she's just a beginner, so she's taking lessons from the nice lady down the road who plays a little. She's the cheapest teacher in town, and since she's JUST a beginner..."

Oh, boy. I've been teaching piano since 1987. I have a masters in performance, and 2 more years of graduate study. I LOVE teaching beginners, but I can tell you, beginners are the most challenging students I have.

Prior to my official start of piano teaching, I taught a cousin of mine and a couple of neighbor's children when I was in high school. I was a pretty good pianist at that point, but a terrible teacher. I was what I now call a "turn-the-page" teacher. I got the students a method book, we learned the first 2 pieces, they came back and played them, and then we turned the page and did the next 2 pieces. I depended entirely on the method book to tell me what to cover next and what issues to address. When the students had problems with posture, hand position and technique, reading, rhythm, or expression, I had no tools in my toolbox to know how to help them beyond what was written in the method book. When that wasn't enough, they grew frustrated, I grew frustrated with them because my explanations weren't getting through, and nobody had any fun. It wasn't their fault. They were just normal kids. It was mine. None of those kids grew up to continue playing.

Every beginner I teach is different. Some are a perfect fit for the method books I tend to use the most. Most are not a perfect fit. This means, I need to be familiar with the teaching materials on the market so that I know how to supplement the method or choose a better one if necessary.

Some automatically use great hand position and posture and have natural technique. Most do not. That means that I need manipulatives and props to help students feel what to do, and an eagle eye to watch and head off at the pass any physical approach to the piano that has the possibility of sabotaging their future growth,

Some students have a natural affinity for rhythm and latch onto meter and note values with ease. Some don't. That means I need to have tricks and games up my sleeve beyond the method book to help them develop those skills.

Some students learn to read the notes on the staff with ease. Some do not. I need as many different approaches to explaining note reading as I can possibly have. (And sometimes, the patience of Job!)

Some students simply can't sit on the bench and concentrate for 45 minutes. Actually, most of them can't! I need games and off-the-bench learning activities to keep a student's attention.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take piano pedagogy courses from a fabulous professor in college. This included surveys of the teaching materials available on the market, tons of ideas and activities for teaching specific concepts and techniques, practice teaching, and mentorship from an expert as I taught in front of our class. I have been to teacher workshops and continuing education. I don't consider that I will ever be finished in learning how to be a good teacher.

Parents tell me that they want their child to be able to enjoy music for a lifetime. That's, of course, what I want, too. It's most likely to happen if you don't settle for what you think is "good enough" for a beginner, but give him/her equipment and tools in good working condition and a teacher who has invested a lot of time and effort in learning to be a good one.

No student is just a mere beginner. This may be the most important stage of growth for a pianist! A house built on a shaky foundation will not last a lifetime. Beginners are the best, most fun, most demanding, and most rewarding students to teach! Pick a teacher who can establish the best start to ensure future growth!

Smart Sharing: Posting Student Media for Motivation and Marketing

In my very small hometown, our local newspaper celebrated student achievements, even small ones, by publishing lots and lots of photos. Nice older folks in my community would clip those photos and articles and mail them to the students with congratulatory notes. These days, we do the same thing with social media and "likes." This year, I've created an Instagram account for my studio. Parents can easily share links to a post with grandparents and friends, and this makes it convenient for them to support the student.

I plan to use Instagram 1) as a way to celebrate small student successes by posting photos and short videos, 2) as an instructional tool, and 3) as a way to shape my "brand" as a teacher. Instagram is my tool of choice this year because it seems to be the best option of the social media formats popular with my students. Also, the 60-second limit on videos means that I won't be tempted to spend too much time creating masterpieces. In fact, I can snap a picture or short clip with my phone and upload it within seconds, so it's super easy. I'll continue to use a private YouTube channel for things that need to stay private or longer videos.

The use of social media as a motivational and instructional tool is obvious, but you might not have considered how it can help advertise your studio. First, it gives you a means to demonstrate that you aren't teaching your grandmother's piano lessons. Pictures that include students playing off-the-bench activities or using an ipad show that you are innovative. Video clips that feature both classical and pop styles show that you are versatile. Clips of your cat and dog play-fighting next to the piano show that you are human. Secondly, a social media outlet such as Instagram allows you to make contact with others who might either enroll in lessons or refer you to others.

If you decide to use Instagram for your studio, I strongly suggest that you keep your studio account dedicated to studio stuff. Have a separate account for your personal posts.

Before you jump on the social media bandwagon, it's wise to take some precautions to protect both your students and yourself.

1.  Obtain the parents' permission on a media release form before posting your students photos or videos.

Schools now require parents to sign a media release form indicating that they do or do not consent to their a child's photo or video being used in online media. This is required by the Family Educational Rights And Privacy Act (FERPA). Some states also have additional laws. As a small business, your best practice is to comply with any federal and state laws that the schools must obey. If parents don't wish to grant permission, then don't pressure them, and don't post! Your media release form can also serve to protect you and should mention that no compensation will be given for the use of student photos or videos and that you are not liable for others' illegal use of your photos or videos. Your best option for creating this form is to consult an attorney. If you don't want to go that route, at least do some research online by searching for "sample media release form for minors."

2.  Obtain the child's permission before posting and promise to delete any posted material if the child changes his/her mind.

The digital rights of children is another evolving topic, and it touches on their rights to use digital media as well as their rights to consent and privacy. Never before has it been so easy for parents and piano teachers to upload photos and videos without the child even knowing, much less consenting. If I sense any hesitation from a student about sharing their picture or video, I won't do it. Don't post anything that you and the student are not willing for the whole universe to see. I hope it goes without saying that you should only post media that reflects positively on the student.

3.  Don't include any identifying information.

Don't use a child's full name, and don't link your posts to any of their social media accounts. I use pseudonyms only. Don't provide any geographical information or tagging. Turn off the geotagging feature on your smart phone's camera. Don't allow background images to give away your location. I take more precautions about this than my daughter's school does, and I point that out to my studio parents.

Adult Students

If you teach adults, it's a good idea to create a media release form for them as well. Again, this is the right thing to do for the student, but it also protects you and your studio from potential liability.

If my precautions haven't scared you off, I hope you'll consider embracing social media in your studio this year. If you're using it already, I'd love to hear how you're incorporating it and how it's working! Please feel free to comment!

Should Parents Make Their Child Practice?

Photo by Woodley Wonderworks via Wiki Commons

I'll bet that most piano teachers can relate to this:  I wish I had a nickel for every parent who has said to me in an interview, "I'm not going to MAKE him/her practice." After 20 years of experience, I've come to see this as a tip-off that, if I accept the student, there is a decent chance that he or she won't stick with piano longer than two years. I wanted to know if there was any real truth to that belief or if I could find some evidence for it.

As a child, I occasionally needed some enforcement of the practice routine from my parents, even though I loved playing and never entertained the idea of quitting. I wondered if other piano teachers would say the same about their childhood piano study.

I posted my question yesterday in two facebook groups:  Piano Teacher Central and The Art of Piano Pedagogy.  I got a huge number of responses! In fact, the responses are still coming in, but I decided to tally the results at 9:00 this morning. I had a total of 293 answers!

Here's the question:

I’m taking a poll. I have a hunch that most of us who are now music professionals sometimes needed our parents to give us a push about practicing when we were growing up. Which of the following choices best describes your childhood piano practice routine? This could be useful information to share with our students! (B is the answer for me.) 

A. I was always self-motivated to practice. My parents never made me practice. 

B. I was mostly self-motivated to practice. My parents sometimes made me practice. 

C. My parents often had to make me practice. I was only occasionally self-motivated. 

D. I was rarely self-motivated to practice. My parents are the main reason I learned anything.

I later posted to clarify that I specifically wondering about the elementary years. Had I said that when I first posted, it might have changed the results. This graph shows the percentage of each answer choice among the 293 total answers.

I confess that I got more A answers than I was expecting. Maybe I was projecting my own lack of discipline on everyone else! I suppose that among music teachers, I shouldn't be surprised that most of them loved practicing! The A answers represented 49% of the whole. A large number of the A answers indicated that their parents sometimes had to make them STOP practicing!

The E answers were ones that didn't fit well into any of the other categories. They ranged from "I didn't practice" to "I don't know if I was self-motivated or not because my parents gave me no opportunity to be."

Ultimately, though, my original hunch was pretty good. I think it's hugely important to note that a full 49% of people who now earn some or all of their income as musicians answered B, C, or D. "We needed a push from our parents at least occasionally." Many of the B and C responses indicated that by middle school or high school, self-motivation had taken over because their successes had spurred them on to greater effort. Considering that these answers came from people who now earn money as musicians, I suspect that among the general population, that percentage would be even higher. Of course this survey is entirely non-scientific, but the results suggest to me that in order to become competent at playing an instrument, at least half of students under the age of 13 or 14 are going to need the parent to be willing to enforce the practice routine.

So what does this mean in my studio? Well, it encourages me to believe that more students than I expected could turn out to be entirely self-motivated to practice! That's good news! But, this information also gives me something realistic to share with piano parents who say that they aren't willing to make a child practice. There's at least a 50-50 chance that your child might eventually be very grateful that you made them practice. 

In my studio, when the parents indicate that the child is never self-motivated and all of the practice is at the parents' insistence (the D answer), I support their desire to quit. Sometimes, I wonder if it was the right answer, though. Ten percent of the responses to the survey were D!

Ultimately, a parent's decision to make a child practice or not is a very personal one influenced by many different factors. Teachers, parents, and students should weigh all of the pros and cons in each individual situation together. I do think, though, that there is a perception that the "good" students are always self-motivated. This informal survey suggests otherwise.

I plan to show parents this article and graph and encourage them to use this information, non-scientific though it may be, in their decision about whether to require their child to practice. You can do the same. At the end of the post is a link to a printable document you can share with your parents.

What do these results say to you? Do you think I'm overstating my case? How would you use this information in your studio?

Click here for a printable document.

Piano Parent Tip: Know and Respect Your Teacher's Make-Up Policy

Graphic by Marco Buonvino

Labor Day seems like an appropriate time to take on a subject that creates additional labor for piano teachers:  make-up lessons.  There's a wide continuum of policies among piano teachers about making up missed lessons. On one end is the teacher who will bend over backwards to make parents happy, even if it means giving up personal time and making financial sacrifices. On the other end is the teacher who makes no accommodations for missed lessons. Your own teacher's policy will depend on several things including the number of students he/she teaches and how full the schedule is, the presence or absence of a waiting list, and their own personality.

Over the years, I have found that parents often haven't thought through what they're really asking when they ask me to make up missed lessons. For instance, I had a parent once who wanted her two boys to be able to reschedule lessons for a month due to a sports schedule. I had already told my daughter that she could not sign up for soccer because the practices met during my teaching time which happened to be during these boys' lessons. It was now too late to sign my daughter up for soccer - we had already made the sacrifice. So, now that I'd already irretrievably dedicated one slot of time to this family, she wanted another time as well - which could only be taken from my personal time since my teaching schedule was full. In short, she wanted the ability to make some other activity a priority over piano, and she did not mind asking me and my family to be inconvenienced to facilitate it. Teachers who agree to demands like this become burned out. Quite often, their next course of action is to adopt a very strict no make-up policy because they've grown very tired of trying to make a studio full of over-scheduled families happy at their own expense.

I had another family once who wanted to take a month-long vacation and simply pay no tuition while they were gone. This would have resulted in a significant financial sacrifice on my part as I had no way to recoup the lost income. I can't just stick another student in that slot for a month and then kick him out once the original student returns. Even if I had not had a waiting list at the time (I did, which made this request absurd), I would not have agreed to it.  If I allow one family to do this, I'd have to extend that policy to all, and this would mean that any of my students could come and go as they pleased with no financial obligation. I can't run a business that way. Better to refuse and risk losing that student but maintain the integrity of my policy and the stability of my income.

Teachers also struggle with the fact that we have a very short number of after-school hours to devote to teaching. I usually try to fill up all of my available teaching time, which means that if a student is sick, I simply don't have an open time to shift them to unless I resort to using my personal time. The more students I have, the more burdensome this becomes.

I tell my parents that they should think of their monthly fee as tuition which reserves their place in my studio, not a per-lesson fee. Hopefully, your teacher has a clear, written policy about missed lessons. If he/she hasn't provided you with one, you might ask for one. It's much better to deal with this issue before it actually comes up so that you know what to expect. I've found that the best practice, by far, is to make my policy clear before the student ever begins lessons. Some teachers will make up lessons under certain conditions, some teachers may provide a swap list so that you can rearrange lessons yourself, and some teachers may make no accommodations at all. Know what your teacher expects, and don't go into the situation thinking that you'll talk her/him out of it or that you'll somehow be exempt.

I have some wonderful families who truly "get it." Last year, two families had situations come up which created a conflict with piano for a period of a few weeks. In both cases, they apologized for the conflict and simply pledged to continue to pay the tuition until the conflict had passed. They offered this up front without my having to defend my policy in any way. While I would have loved it if piano had been a bigger priority, I felt that they showed me a great deal of respect, and I respected their handling of the situation in return.

Those parents fully understand what Vicky Barham writes in a fantastic online article:  Make-Up Lessons From An Economist's Point Of View.  She teaches economics at her local university, and is the parent of music students. She explains, from the business perspective, why music teachers should not be under any obligation to find another spot during the week or to refund for missed lessons. Be sure to read it!

Thanks in advance for your support!

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Piano Parent Tip: Scheduling Practice Time

Photo by Sadie Hernandez

Back-to-school time is when I focus on organization. I've got my household notebook for the year set up (I'll be posting about that soon at my other blog), and my daughter's activities all scheduled. I'm hoping that with some advanced planning, we'll have time to do everything on the calendar!

I've posted already about time management, but my current obsession with organization has my mind still stuck on these things. Today, I'm writing about the benefits of scheduling your practice time rather than leaving it as a catch-as-catch can activity.

Do you work out or run? If you do, then you know that you're most likely to do it regularly if you set a specific time for it. If you leave it to chance, chances are it won't happen. Especially with children under 12, setting a specific time for practice in the schedule and then protecting that time is the way to continue to make progress from week to week.

Another benefit of having scheduled practice time (besides the fact that this approach gets it done) is that it reduces performance anxiety. When I know that I've set aside a reasonable amount of time to practice and then I've kept that practice appointment, then I don't feel bad about myself if I make some mistakes at the lesson or in the performance. I know that I've done everything reasonable to be prepared. When I know I haven't done everything I could have, then I go to the lesson or to the performance with an extra level of worry, and I feel worse about myself if I don't play well.

In our house, the munchkin's practice happens after supper because that's her first shot at the piano after my teaching day. My preference would be to include it in the after-school homework routine before she's tired out at the end of the day, but evening practice is better than no practice. For some students, practicing before school is a good routine.

Remember that it takes at least 21 days to establish a habit, and some research now suggests that it takes as many as 66. When you repeat an action over and over, especially at the same time every day, the neuron connections in your brain actually change to fit the pattern of the habit. You can help to establish those neural pathways by connecting something really pleasurable with practicing. In the case of my munchkin, I make it a point to sit with her and give her lots of positive feedback, so she's getting the reward of dedicated parental attention and feel-good pats on the back for her effort. Make a commitment to stick rigidly to your plan for at least 4-6 weeks, and then sit down and anticipate all of the temptations that could sabotage your commitment. Make a plan ahead of time for how to resist that temptation. Now, lest I sound a little too perfect, I'll confess that we have rough weeks just like everyone else! Don't be too hard on yourselves; just get back on track as soon as possible!

You can do this! Thanks in advance for your support!

Piano Parent Tip: Pay Your Teacher On Time

One of the most common topics on piano teacher forums or when piano teachers chat is "How do I get my parents to pay on time?"  Piano teachers lament the late payments because they depend on their teaching income to be able to pay their own bills on time. Imagine if your monthly paycheck came to you in bits and pieces throughout the month, or part of it was delayed until the next month. It would be pretty frustrating, eh?

Teachers have a variety of policies about payment, and if you aren't sure what yours is, be sure to ask. Most have a due date and a late fee. Some have a grace period, and some don't. You may have a teacher who is so nice that they don't levy late fees at all or even have much of a payment policy, but I can almost guarantee that they are the ones who are the most frustrated about late payments.You can endear yourself to your teacher by paying on time, and encouraging them yourselves to operate as any other business would and establish a payment policy.

I love it when my parents arrive at the first lesson of the month with a check in hand. The message I hear is, "I value your work, your expertise, and your education, and I want you to stay in business!" Thanks in advance for your support!

Piano Parent Tip: Manners Matter

Photo by J.A.Holland

Over the years, I've taught students whose manners ranged from impeccable to the ones who constantly interrupt conversations, speak to me in sullen monosyllables, and one memorable student who, while I was having a conversation with her mother, decided to go upstairs and explore my closet. I've had siblings who were waiting for their own lesson go into my kitchen, check the contents of the refrigerator, and come back to ask if they could have some pie!

I've learned that I have to give students boundaries when they come into my home, and I have to teach them how to interact with me. This job is a lot easier when I'm reiterating what the student has already learned from the parents. You can help your child feel more confident and help me be a more successful teacher by emphasizing just five important behaviors.

Etiquette For Piano Students

1. Whether lessons take place in a home or a business setting, students should be respectful of the equipment and objects in the room and ask permission before touching.

2. Students should not bring food and drink to the lesson.

3. Students should ask permission before going into other rooms of the home or business.

4. Students should not interrupt others' conversations unless there is an emergency that needs to be attended to, and when interrupting should say, "Excuse me."

5. Students should listen respectfully to the teacher and try their best to follow instructions with a positive, can-do attitude.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Piano Parent Tip: Punctuality

Photo by kobiz7

The while we keep a man waiting, he reflects on our shortcomings. ~French proverb

When I was a little girl, our church held an evening fellowship (translation from church lingo = party) that was sort of like a roast for families. My family received an "award." I wish I had a picture of it to show you. A caricature artist had drawn my father, mother, and little me in full dash to make it to church on time. We were the family who was always late! Over the years, I've had some piano families who needed one of those caricature drawings. It's a nice way to point out, "Your lateness is so frequent that it defines you." We got a little better about punctuality after that!

I'm fortunate that my current families are punctual, but I've had students who frequently show up with only half of their lesson left to go. When it happens repeatedly, it carries the message that the event you're late for is not very important to you. As much as I regret the lost instructional time, I regret even more the fact that the children involved are learning to believe that they are exempt from showing respect toward the event or person that's on the schedule because their own importance trumps all other considerations. I had a choir member once who could never make it to the pre-service rehearsal on time. "You don't understand!" she complained. "I have to have enough time to eat breakfast!" As though the rest of us didn't!

The common excuse for lateness is, "We're just so busy!" I don't subscribe to the idea that we're helpless victims of our busyness. We make the choices, and we can choose to schedule fewer things and be more organized about doing what we need to do to arrive on time. You have the choice of teaching your child integrity by respecting people and events enough to be punctual, or of teaching them how to become masters of excusing themselves.

I should point out here that we teachers know the difference between a parent who has a real difficulty to overcome and one who just has a lateness complex. I had a parent last year whose bus driver was erratic and often late, making it impossible for her to show up on time. I didn't have any openings for her to move her lesson time. Another parent would have said, "There's just nothing I can do about it; we'll have to be late," but this parent started driving to meet the bus at an earlier point on the route to pick up the kids earlier. These children are learning lessons in integrity.

On the flip side of punctuality is the problem of arriving too soon. I've never had this problem with students, but I can certainly see that it would be inconvenient. Some teachers have resorted to putting a clock outside the door and instructing students not to ring the doorbell until their lesson time.

Another punctuality issue is that of picking your students up on time. Students who are loose cannons can be a problem when you're teaching another student, and when it's the last student of my day, it can make me late if I need to leave to go somewhere. I really like Wendy's policy that says "if you are late picking your children up, I reserve the right to transport your children wherever I need to go at the time." Parents, remember that you wouldn't want to be delayed at the end of your work day either.

So, be organized, plan ahead, and use piano study as an opportunity to teach your children the virtue of punctuality. Thanks in advance for your support!

Piano Parent Tip: Time Management

Photo by Earls37a

Whenever I'm in a group of piano teachers, this subject always comes up:  over-scheduled students. I do sympathize with my parents. As a parent myself, I'm not immune to the subtle peer pressure involved when my fellow moms mention an activity their child is involved in that mine isn't. Am I failing my daughter in some way by not signing her up for tumbling or chess camp? After all, it's never too soon to begin assembling her "success portfolio," right? Yet, her ultimate success will depend on her own ingenuity, innovative thinking, and creativity - and these grow out of free time to think and imagine. Success in piano study will grow out of time not just to practice, but to play around with music.

I once had a family in my studio (not my current families!) where the two students never came prepared. Finally, the mom admitted that the only opportunity the students had to practice was on the weekend. Between sports, scouting, and a heavy homework load, they truly did not have time. I had a very candid talk with the mom and explained to her that signing these kids up for piano on top of all of those pre-existing activities was a guarantee that they would not do well in piano, and instead of piano lessons being a positive enrichment activity, it would be another arena where they felt constantly behind (as they were in their schoolwork). She wanted them to be exposed to music. I suggested that she either cut some of the other activities so they'd have time to practice and make progress or take them out of piano and use the money to buy symphony tickets. They ultimately dropped, and I believe it was the right decision.

For many young students, just having time to do the minimum practicing is a challenge. But, the thing is that being a musician requires having more time than just what is required to learn to reproduce the piece on the page. Open-ended, unstructured practice time allows for experimenting with a new interpretation, trying out a new fingering, listening to other performances of that piece, maybe making up your own original ending. These are the things that make being a musician really fun, but this kind of creativity seldom surfaces when practice time is limited because you have to finish in time to get to your soccer practice and there will be homework to do when you get back. Under those circumstances, the practice time becomes reduced to merely getting the minimum done.

How Much Time Do You Really Have For Extracurricular Activities?

Here's an activity I did once for myself with life-changing results. I now recommend it to every new family in my studio.

Make out a 24-hour schedule for a week on a sheet of paper. Now, start filling it in, but don't start with the extracurricular activities. Start with the optimal amount required for all of the following things which should be priorities:

1. The optimal amount of sleep your child needs to be healthy.
2. Time for a bedtime routine that involves maybe some reading and some reconnection at the end of the day with mom or dad.
3. Time for family meals at home and the time required to prepare the family meals. Don't schedule extracurriculars first and then settle for fast food in the car.
4. Time for your spiritual observances such as church or daily devotions.

Now it's time to mark in the things we all have to do:

5. Schedule the hours for school and any work the parent does after school. Include transportation time.
6. Schedule in the amount of time needed for your child to focus on homework at home, not in the car. Don't put in the minimum here; allow enough to make straight As.

Now, be sure you make your family a priority. As much as your child may benefit from extracurriculars, he benefits more from time with you.

7. Schedule in family time.
8. Schedule a reasonable amount of leisure time for your child to allow for rejuvenation and stress-relief. Leave enough time for the "stuff" that happens - the dog needs to go to the vet, you need to schedule a haircut, a friend invites you over for a playdate, etc.

Now, once all of the above items are covered, it's time to start considering the extracurriculars. Not much time left, is there? All too often, we start the other way around and then lament the lack of time for those other "priorities." News flash: you're in control of your priorities! Exercise that control! The schedule you set for your family teaches your children what you value most, and it teaches them how to manage (or not manage) their own time when it becomes their own responsibility.

Now, as you start adding in soccer, gymnastics, scouting, karate, piano, and the like, remember that piano is not a once-weekly commitment. It should count as more than one activity since it requires a daily commitment. Can you really do it? Is it fair to your child? Do you need to drop something else to be able to enjoy piano study and allow it to be fun without being unduly stressful? As you add in the extracurriculars, you should also remember that any activity that prevents a child from being at home to practice, do homework in a quiet place, or just play is a commitment for that child, even if the activity is tagging along with a parent or a sibling to one of their activities.

Myth of the Over-Scheduled Child?

There have been several news articles lately that debunk the "myth of the over-scheduled child." I get the point that many children are not over-scheduled. An outcry against too many extracurricular activities might sabotage after-school enrichment that many children need when their parents provide little enrichment at home. But the sliver of culture that is over-scheduled happens to be the sliver that tends to sign up for piano lessons. None of my students do fewer than two extracurricular activities on top of homework and church activities, and most do more than two, or they end up attending their two even while driving with the family to their siblings' activities as well. On top of that, mom and dad are involved in many church and community activities which create commitments for their children, too. I hope that piano parents will be judicious and not use these "myth" articles as fuel to keep adding more to their children's plates.

Piano Parent Tip: Everything In Its Place




Organized and good to go!
Photo by Pinot & Dita

  Happy Fourth of July! I hope you're enjoying good times with family, and I hope you'll take a moment to remember the sacrifices of our dedicated troops who protect the freedoms we celebrate today.

Here's a quick piano parent tip.

Designate a place for your student's piano books, and create the habit of always putting them in the right spot once practicing is done. My munchkin has a piano bag, and we try always to put the books back in the bag so that when it's time to go to the lesson, we can just grab the bag and go. No searching all over for the right books, and no showing up to say, "I couldn't find my lesson book."

Interestingly enough, this problem tends to crop up in my most musical families where several people share the piano. Music gets moved aside, mixed into stacks, and misplaced. In my own studio where I have teaching material, my own personal music, and my munchkin's music, it's very easy to have musical chaos take over! When the munchkin has left her music on the piano, and I don't have time to call her in there to put it away, I have to be very careful not to set it on top of a stack where it will soon be swallowed up by all of the other stuff.

Parents, you should make it the child's job to keep up with her own music, but don't totally abdicate responsibility here. I do know how frustrating it gets to help your child keep up with all of his school books and notebooks, sports equipment, and shoes. (It's the shoes in my house! "Where are your shoes?" is the bane of my school morning existence!) You still need to enforce the routine of always putting the books in the right place, and you still need to make sure that your child shows up to the lesson with all of the proper books. I have a parent with a good idea - she charges the student for the lesson when he forgets his music! Establishing a designated spot really helps.

Piano Parent Tip: Notify Me If You're Going To Be Absent

Video is from Dan Shure of EvolvingMusic - When Your Piano Student Forgets Their Lesson.

There's nothing quite so frustrating as waiting for a no-show student, particularly when you could have been doing something useful with the time. A 45-minute lesson is long enough to run an errand to the post office or bank or cook my supper, but if a student doesn't arrive on time, we teachers assume that you're running late, so we wait. The worst thing is finding out later that you didn't have an emergency, but it was a planned absence that you knew about days in advance.

I know sometimes things come up at the last minute that you can't control - a child comes home from school sick or your car breaks down. That's a good reason to keep your teacher's phone number programmed into your cell phone so you can call, even if it's last minute. If your absence is planned, let your teacher know with enough advance notice to use your time for something else. Depending on your teacher's policy, they might want to know far enough in advance so that they can offer a different student the time for a make-up lesson.That means they need time to try to reach the other parent, leave a message, have the other parent call back, leave a message...

To ensure that you are one of your teacher's most beloved piano parents, do all of the following:

1. As soon as you make the decision to do something that will conflict with your scheduled lesson, notify your teacher. If your child wakes up sick and stays home from school on the day of the lesson, notify your teacher as soon as that decision is made. I prefer an email notification, but ONLY when notification is at least 24 hours in advance. Otherwise, I'd like a phone call. Ask your teacher how he/she would like to be notified.

2. Program your teacher's studio phone number into your cell phone so that you can call if you're stuck in traffic or your child gets sick on the way to your lesson.

3. Don't schedule other things during your lesson time. Should be obvious, but you'd be surprised how often it isn't.

Thanks in advance for your support!

It should be noted that I currently have a fantastic bunch of piano parents who are considerate, respect my policies, and are great all-around parents. I'm very lucky! This hasn't always been the case!

Piano Parent Tip: Read Your Child's Assignment Page

Photo by incurable_hippie

Welcome to the first installment of Monday Piano Parent Tips! If you have a child who studies piano, you'll want to check out these weekly ideas for establishing a good relationship with your piano teacher and helping your child enjoy success with piano lessons.

Today's Tip:  Be sure that you read your child's assignment page, and be sure that your child reads it every time he/she sits down to practice. I ask my students to bring a ring binder notebook, and I write an assignment page at every lesson. Other teachers use different systems, but nearly all of them send home written assignments. (If they don't, you might consider asking them to.) Reading the assignments helps you know whether your child is organizing his practice time to cover all of the assignments or spending all of his piano time on one piece, or maybe even playing things that weren't assigned. One of the most frequent things I hear from students is, "Oh, I forgot that I was supposed to work on that piece," or learn that scale or study those terms and symbols, even though I had written the assignment in the notebook. We end up repeating part of the lesson from the week before, and this is not a good use of your investment in piano study!

I also frequently write information for parents on the assignment page. Once, I had a parent call me to ask, "I know there's a recital coming up, but I don't know the date or what my child is supposed to play." I had to answer, "I've written the date, time, and location for the recital in your child's notebook at the last three lessons, and the recital pieces have been listed there for the last two months." The parent admitted, a bit sheepishly, that she had never looked there.

So, piano parents, be sure to read those assignment pages! Thanks in advance for your support!

When Should You Let Your Child Quit Piano?

Photo by thart2009

If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you might think I would never advocate letting a child quit piano lessons. Not true. Sometimes, I think it’s the best choice! The hard thing is figuring out whether the child really doesn't enjoy piano study, or whether they'd just rather play Wii than practice. I don't advocate making a child stay with piano if they're truly not interested. I think the first step is to do some stealthy observation for a couple of weeks to watch for the presence or absence of the red flags I've suggested here. Then, sit down and have a very candid talk with your child and your teacher. You know your child best, and only you can decide the right thing to do. Do remember that sometimes a change of approach or possibly even a change of teacher can make a big difference! Maybe you can think of more red flags, but here are some that spring to mind for me:

The child never initiates a practice session himself. 

My daughter usually needs to be prompted, but every once in a while, I hear her at the piano when I didn’t send her there. If yours doesn’t, that’s a red flag.

The child never becomes involved/engaged in the process of practicing.

Once I get her to the piano, my child frequently loses track of time and practices for longer than I might have asked her to. If your child is sullen and resistant for most of the practice session, that’s a red flag. We all have good days and bad days, but if the bad days outnumber the good…

It’s a power struggle at every practice time.

Sometimes, my daughter resists when I tell her it's time to practice, but mostly she's just testing the limits. She gives in pretty quickly, and occasionally doesn't offer any protest. If yours resists mightily every time, that’s a red flag.

He never sits down and proudly plays that recital piece he learned so well over and over and over, or he never seems proud of his accomplishments.

We grow in maturity when we accept that in order to get to the pleasure of playing well, we’ve got to work at it. But if playing well doesn’t excite your child or if he never seems to want to show off a well-polished piece, that’s a red flag.

There’s another pursuit that the child is passionate about, and he wants to dedicate himself more fully to it.

While I believe that some music study is beneficial for everyone, the rigor of studying an instrument privately is not for everyone. What I most want for my daughter, and I bet what you most want for your child, is that she find some pursuit that she can fully invest in – an arena where she will engage the struggle, the ups and downs, work hard toward her goals, and come out better for it. For me, that arena is music. This is where my soul is formed. For someone else, it may be art or theatre or ballet or tennis. Here’s where wise parenting comes in. It can be hard to know whether resistence to practicing is because they just aren't passionate about music, or because they just aren't willing to invest much effort in anything. Good parents don't let their children choose to be lazy and always just do the least they can get away with in life. But good parents also have to be observant and wise about what activity is best for the child.

Teaching White Key Names

I'm getting ready for my pre-piano class at the end of July, and thought I'd share my tricks for teaching the names of white keys. These games are always a big hit!

Hey Diddle, Diddle! D's in the Middle!
Start with D. It's the easiest to find because it's in the middle of the two-black key group. I have the students practice this by using a fist to gently play the two black keys while saying "Hey Diddle Diddle," then using an index finger to play the D while saying "D's in the middle!" Repeat with all the two black key groups up and down the piano.

Shoot-Out At the White-Key Corral
Next, we learn that C is just below it and E is just above it. Now, it's time to have a shoot-out at the white key corral! We pretend to have water shooters by pointing our fingers like a gun. Starting at the low end of the piano, we "shoot out" all the Ds by playing them, alternating left and right hand. Then we come back down the piano shooting out all of the Cs, then back up, on the Es. I tell them to make sure none of them gets away without a good squirting. It's usually best to move the bench away from the piano and let them stand.

The assignment for the first week is to shoot out D, C, and E, in that order. I send a note home to parents (if they weren't watching in the lesson, which is what I prefer) to explain that I do not want the students to shoot out keys in alphabetical order. Many of my parents, like most of us from that generation, learned middle C first, and then learned to find other white keys in relation to C. I want the students to be able to find a key without having to count up from any other key. They need to learn where each one is in relation to the black key group that it is near so that they can find it directly. Once the parent understands the goal, it makes their work at home more efficient.

F and B, Outside the Three
In the second lesson, we add F and B. Using the index fingers of each hand, we play the F, then B while saying "F and B," then we play the three-black key group with a gentle fist while saying "Outside the Three." Now, it's shoot-out time, using F, B, E, C, and D. The assignment at home is to play the "F and B, Outside the Three" game up and down the piano, and then to practice the shoot out in the order given above (or any non-alphabetical order).

Our State Is On The Piano!
The next week, it's time to learn G and A. My trick for this may not work for you, but since I live in GA, I tell them that we can find our state's abbreviation in the middle of the black keys! And so, we play GA all the way up the keyboard. One of my students came up with another cute idea that might work for non-Georgians: she says there's a baby cradled in the 3-black-key group, and the baby says "Ga! Ga!"

Of course, now it's time to shoot out all of the keys on the piano. The home assignment is to find GA all over the piano, and to shoot out all the keys. I assign an order for the shoot-out, usually working through fifths - D, A, E, B, F, C, G

Don't Stop Now!
One of my mistakes as a younger teacher was to think that once the student had been through this three-week process, my work in teaching white keys was done. I now know that it's a rare student who doesn't need to have this reinforced over several more weeks. In my studio, we talk a lot about "forever knowledge" as being something that you know as well as you know your birthdate or phone number. We don't stop reviewing until white key names are in "forever knowledge." So, in subsequent weeks, I like to play another game.

White-Key Relay
The student stands on the far side of the studio, away from the piano. I'll call out "Lowest E on the piano, " or "An F in the middle," or "Highest G on the piano" - you get the idea. Then the student runs to the piano, plays the key, and runs back as fast as possible. They love it! As they get faster, I make it harder by asking them to play two keys, usually involving a downward step. I especially emphasize the step between A and G. This helps them to become more comfortable with moving backwards through the alphabet. After two keys are easy, we move on to three. After a few weeks of this, the student knows the white keys forever and never has to count up from C.

Instead of Baby Einstein: How to Engage Your Baby With Music

When my daughter was a baby, we signed up for Music Together classes. Soon after, I got my Kindermusik certification and taught for a large school. When hubby's job moved us again, I decided to start my own early childhood music and movement program, so I did some training with Musikgarten and opened up a studio. I’m not teaching those classes anymore, but I learned so much by being involved with all three of those programs. One of the things I learned is this:

Don’t spend your money on baby music videos.

Here’s why. Passively watching a television screen isn’t going to teach your child musical skills. Making music will. It's possible that watching those videos might even delay language development. A team led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis at the University of Washington discovered that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. (Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All)

I’m all for playing classical music for your child. You should do that often. But, you can do that for free with Pandora radio or your local NPR station. When you discover classical music you like, buy the CDs! Listen to the music yourself in the car and on your own, as well as together with your child because this communicates that you value it. Listening to classical music may improve your child’s cognitive abilities – to be honest, the jury’s still out on whether the so-called Mozart effect really exists. But listening to classical music together and demonstrating to your child that this is something mommy and daddy enjoy will certainly improve the possibility that your child will grow to appreciate it.

If you really want to get your child's creative juices flowing, then don't just be a passive music consumer. Make music a hands-on activity and be a music maker! Put on some music and take all the pots and pans out of the kitchen and play. Don’t just give him a pot and a spoon, but get one yourself, too, and model playing on the steady beat. Have fun! Don’t worry about whether he’s right on the beat yet. He’ll get it in his own time, and the more often you clap, bang on a drum, or shake the maracas, the sooner that skill will emerge. The mantra I chanted over and over in the classes I taught was “you are your child’s best teacher.” He learns to talk, walk, and do most everything by observing and imitating the grownups around him.

So, don’t give him a video to watch. Let him watch you making music!

Picture by Qole Perjorian

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Minute for Marketing #6: More on Self-Promotion

Minute for Marketing is a weekly series about advertising the independent teaching studio. Click here for all Minute for Marketing posts.

My students will tell you that I'm incapable of making a point simply, but that I drive it home with too many words. Maybe that's what I'm doing here, but hey, it's my blog! My last Minute for Marketing post, in which I related my personal experience in overcoming fear of self-promotion, has attracted more email feedback than anything else I've written here, so I want to spend some more time on this topic. We all find it difficult to overcome the "yuck" response we have to marketing ourselves as teachers or performers. We associate any kind of advertising with the worst kind, and even though we're selling a product worth its weight in gold, instead of feeling good about it, most of us feel like a smarmy used car salesman.

I received a very encouraging email from Greg Sandow who writes for ArtsJournal and teaches at Julliard and Eastman. He tells me that my message (that you can be an authentic person and still market yourself) is exactly the one he's trying to convey to his students. He writes "...they'll sometimes say, 'Well, I'm not sure about marketing my concert because that would detract from the dignity of the music.'" The more I think about that notion, the more it bugs me. We seem to believe that if we actually have to work at getting people to come to our concerts or sign up for our lessons, then it looks like our "product" is so worthless that we have to beg people to buy it. In other words, if we have to employ marketing tactics to sell it, it must be a lemon. "Oh no," we say, "Our Art is Sacred. We aren't going to reduce ourselves to selling it (ewww); we'll just wait around until those people who already value it come and ask for it and offer to pay for it." Well, here's the thing: if we don't market what we do, then we pass up the opportunity to educate people about how sacred and dignified it really is! And many of us can't afford to wait around until an increasingly arts-ignorant culture decides to come to us on their own - we're still paying for our music degrees.

In his email, Mr. Sandow went on to say, "They don't understand that they can market their dignity and integrity, not to mention the music." Right on! And they don't understand what James says so plainly in the article I linked to previously at Men With Pens:

Marketing and sales does not equal snake oil screw-you tactics. Yes, there are those who abuse the knowledge they have and take it to extremes for their own gains, but even the most innocent and acceptable marketing and sales tactics come from the same knowledge. Let me repeat it in shorter words: ethical marketers use the same tactics that smarmy marketers use.

The fact that I've thought hard about how to work a plug for my studio into a conversation doesn't reduce my sincerity. The fact that I want an income from my work does not reduce the dignity of my work. Do people end up perceiving me to be a smarmy used car salesman? No. I almost always end up finding connections and sharing stories about music making. If I don't end up with a student, I end up with a friend. Now, you can certainly promote yourself in a way that comes off as smarmy, but that's not a very effective way to market anything, and my belief is that we need to get over our fear of doing it at all so that we can learn to do it well.

If you think that promoting your teaching makes you look too much centered on Me Me Me, then I think you haven't thought it through very far. The biggest reason you need to be promoting your work is that it isn't about You You You. It's about the work, the value of the work, the value of the education that allows you to produce the work, and the value of having such things in our culture.

If anybody in the music industry needs to be successful at marketing, it's the people who teach young kids (and therefore, families) how to appreciate and play good music. If we don't make ourselves knowledgeable about using effective marketing tactics and get over ourselves and our sacred dignities enough to use them, then the students who might have studied piano will sign up for cheerleading because their advertising was more effective. (My students: you can sign up for cheerleading! Just take piano, too!) Instead of growing up into adults buying season tickets to classical concert series they'll be buying tickets to something else. In the last place I lived, the orchestra went bankrupt and the best music store in town closed its doors. More families involved in independent music study might have changed that. You are not just marketing yourself.

Minute for Marketing by Laura Lowe is licensed under a Creative-Commons-Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Photo by Victoriafee.

Piano Progress Reports

Last fall, I made up some progress reports which I plan to give to parents at the end of the school year. I’ve mapped out lists of skills for 2 ability levels in the following categories: Sight-reading, Ear-training, Theory, Technique, Practice & Self-Motivation, and Performance. (I only did 2 ability levels because I currently only have 1st and 2nd year students.) It’s been very helpful to me all year to check my teaching against the plan and make sure that I’m covering all of the goals. I’ve tried very hard to keep my list of skills adaptable enough to accommodate varying degrees of ability while still requiring that students make an effort to achieve target goals appropriate to their level of study. I’m happy to say that most of my students are right on track and some are ahead of the game! I hope that positive reports to parents will motivate them to continue their good efforts!

Without some definition of what reasonable forward progress actually consists of, some students will progress at the slowest speed they can get away with. Without a definition of reasonable progress, parents may not realize that most average beginners don’t require 2 full school years to complete a Primer level lesson book. With no definition of minimum standards of achievement for a particular year of study, parents have no way to evaluate whether or not the teacher is doing a good job. I believe that parents have a right to know whether or not their child is doing appropriate work for their number of years of study.

Now, on the other hand, I do believe that one of the great things about private instruction is that it can be individualized. I don't teach students younger than first grade, but if I did, I'd need a special progress report for the younger beginner. If I have a traditional student who is truly giving her best effort to piano study but is just not capable of meeting the requirements I’ve listed as my minimum standards, I’ll create a special progress report just for her that displays the many skills she has achieved and a small number of skills that are emerging that we should work at. Even so, I believe in complete transparency with the parent. I might say, “I’m using a special progress report that I’ve created just for Susie that reflects what I expect of her, based on her capabilities.” That’s really all that needs to be said, but it lets the parent know that perhaps Susie’s capabilities are different from the average student. I really feel that the parent has a right to hear an honest assessment from the musical expert that they are paying to teach their child, and the truth is that in most cases, the parent already knows that the child's capability is different. If I seem to be avoiding or hiding the situation, what message does that carry? I actually believe that being honest about the fact that I have individualized her progress report is a better tool for showing how much I value her as a student than is giving false impressions. On the other hand, if a capable student is not meeting my minimum standards because of lack of effort, that’s a different matter. I use my standard progress report and score it honestly, and it serves as a big help in showing the parents what’s not being done.

Providing progress reports is also a great means of educating parents about the value of piano study. I’ll write more about that tomorrow.

In the meantime, you can view my Level A and Level B progress reports here, or for that matter, print them off and use them yourself. I’d love to hear feedback from other teachers about them!

Caring For Your Piano: A Guide for Parents

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