Simpedia

Anneka S., Australia

I teach mainly adults, and I teach them all in groups. I have two small groups of only 5 adults, but most of my groups have between 8 – 12 students in them. Having a background in teaching personal and professional development courses in groups, I have been teaching this size piano groups ever since Neil brought out the program on video.

Kerry H. did a beautiful job on outlining all the advantages of teaching in groups, each point of which I strongly agree with. I would just like to share here my experience with adult concerts.

One marvelous thing with teaching in groups is that right from the outset my students play in front of each other. I discuss the issue of “feelings” as part of the group teaching right in the first lesson set-up conversation. I mention that feeling joy, excitement, inspiration, frustration and nervousness are all part of the wonderful of array of emotions that making music and being with people bring out. I also regularly remind people not to compare themselves to others, because everybody has a different background.

Here are some of the things I have found and considered. It is often the people that are the better players that get more nervous. I think that that is largely because their expectations of themselves are higher. For example, I have sometimes found that a group of Simply Music teachers appear much more nervous about playing in front of others than many of my students. They care more about how good their playing is!

I just started off another 45 adults in 4 groups three weeks ago. I always make sure in the first lesson that every one gets a go at playing the 5 steps of sound in front of everybody else in the first lesson. This allows the more experienced people in the group (who care more) to do something that needs relatively little thought, while they feel nervous. It also allows me to instantly pick up who is unfamiliar with playing, because I like to use them more for demonstrations, as they go nice and slow. I make sure that I compliment everybody on something that they do well; e.g. “beautiful hand positioning”, “nice and slow”, “you have a lovely touch” or “everybody, did you notice how nicely John sat down and moved his body so he could play comfortably”.

Over time everybody gets a go at playing in front of others. By the third lesson when I have asked a few people to play Dreams, or Dreams-one-note-up or the right hand of Night Storm, guaranteed someone will bring up the fact that they are nervous and that they can play it perfectly at home! I always point out that this is totally normal, and that I am going to install a button on my digital piano that has a little flag come out saying “I play this perfectly at home”. I assure them that I can pick the difference between someone who is’t clear about what they are playing, or someone who is affected by nerves.

I also ask anyone who feels a bit or a lot nervous when they play in front of the class to put up their hand, and let the person sitting at the piano who has just declared they were nervous look behind them. Commonly at least 9 out of 10 people will put up their hand. Often everybody in class will put up their hand. This creates a huge sense of relief. It reconfirms that it is normal to feel nervous, just like you do in meetings, when someone says “Now I need a volunteer”. I point out that playing music is much harder than holding a speech, because if you um and ur and stumble during a speech it doesn’t stand out so much, whereas people tend to pick stumbles in music instantly. I tell my students that the good news is that the nervousness will get less, and even go away in the class environment, although sometimes it might just come back again occasionally (for instance during concerts).

Every year I have organized concerts at the end of the year, and occasionally I have also organized more impromptu open stage sessions. For the concerts I have taken down names and pieces of what each person is going to play, while at the impromptu play along sessions people can just sit down and play what and when ever they feel like it.

I usually run my kids concerts and my adult concerts separately, because adults seem to get intimidated by the kids’ apparent confidence in performing. For the kids this year I did a “PIANOEASY IDOL” concert complete with three very witty “judges / commentators” and medals for each kid. It was incredible fun. It went for over three hours, and loads of people came to tell me afterwards it had been their most enjoyable three hours of their year.

For the adults I have run my concerts in the local pub and the local teahouse where there is a piano. I love these concerts. I feel like a proud mother duck, watching all my students perform. Each concert is full of victories, and even though I have often had between 40 – 60 adults performing, it never gets boring.

There are many memories that I will never forget, like my student Chris losing it in the middle of the second part of Ballade, stopping, smiling at the audience and loudly exclaiming “And I was going so well!”. Hearing people play pieces that they have worked at so hard, especially their own compositions is a real treat. This year I had one of my 84 year old women, who first was quite reluctant to get up suddenly burst into two “encores”, when she settled in. I have had lots of students who practiced duets, sing alongs and pieces with other instruments. At a recent concert one of my students organized a little band singing a song called “Don’t jump of the roof, Anneka”.

Having said all the above, I am very aware that the concerts are a huge thing / ordeal for quite a few of my students. It is very common for a large number of students to experience a sense of disappointment after their playing. Commonly the piece didn’t go as well as they had hoped. I think all I can do here is prepare people that this is likely to happen before, and de-brief with them afterwards. In addition in class before a concert I offer these strategies and recommendations:

• Choose a piece that you are very comfortable with and is not still challenging you.

• Take a moment before you start to contemplate where you are going to play your piece, where you’re starting and that you are playing it at a slow pace. Breathe.

• I invite people to practice their performance, turning my piano facing the class in the lesson(s) before the concert.

• I remind them that all musicians commonly make mistakes (you can pick it in bands when this grin appears on someone’s face, or you see this puzzled look between band members).

• I recommend that if you stuff up that the first strategy is keeping straight faced and just keep playing till you’re back on track again (I like demonstrating these points with examples).

• If the mistake is early on in the piece you can stop, say something to the audience like “let’s try that again” and start again.

• Another strategy when you make a mistake is to make the same mistake again on purpose, so that people will think it must be some modern variation (also great to demonstrate).

• If you lose it towards the end, you can try playing a chord using the notes that you have just been working with and make some sort of improvised ending.

• I remind students that if they make a mistake that is really great, because then everybody else doesn’t need to feel so nervous about being perfect; I even tell them that I need people to make mistakes for that very reason!

• I remind students that the point of the performance is not how they play, but it’s that they play, the progress they have made since last year and the courage that they are demonstrating in sharing their playing.

• With some students I point out that rather than needing to raise their standard of playing they need to lower their expectations of their standard of perfection in playing: you don’t expect a child who has been talking for 3 years to present a perfect Shakespeare Sonnet.

During the concerts itself I hover just behind the student, helping people put their fingers in the right spot, putting a hand on their back or making a joke where needed. I never correct or even acknowledge mistakes during performances if they are not hindering the student in their playing.

I am always reminding my students that they should use any opportunity to practice their performance skills, for their friends, neighbors, mums (of whatever age LOVE to hear their children play), or when unsuspecting sales agents knock on the door…

Lastly, I believe what Neil says about students mirroring the teacher’s unspoken concerns applies here as well. I was playing in front of app. 800 people last Saturday and I wasn’t nervous, but just pleased to be sharing my music in a magnificent venue. I think it helps a lot if you as a teacher can be relaxed about playing in front of people yourself. I always tell my students that they don’t have to perform, but that I would like to invite them to do it, even if they will be (very) nervous. Commonly the large majority turns up, even when it is just before Xmas when everybody is very busy.

I would love to invite all of you to join in any of my existing groups, but I know that most of you are a bit far away…