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Cindy B., Illinois

Try this – when a student is about to play something, whether it’s an entire song or a fragment that you just showed them, make sure to instruct them to play slowly. If they disregard the “play slowly” instructions, interrupt them immediately and ask them if they understand what play slowly means. I usually will put my hands on their hands, my fingers on their fingers, and physically demonstrate what I mean by play slowly.

If none of that has an impact – then it’s probably a territory issue and I won’t let them play the piano at all. With every new opportunity, they have a chance to play slowly – but they also will be immediately interrupted and will not be allowed to play if they won’t do it slowly. This is all cheerfully and compassionately done – but very, very firmly. You could even tell them that your piano just hurts when students play too fast and make lots of mistakes, or something ridiculous like that.

Unknown

I find that 7 year olds, especially boys, have a hard time going slowly.

I’ve been saying “think…..” ( an idea I saw a mom do with her 5 year old boy).  That seems to work a little better. That same mom would also say, ” I bet you can’t do that. No way.” I started doing that with the age group of 7’s and they love it. They want to prove me wrong every time, and I carry on and on about how upset I am that they won.

Children follow their heart rate naturally, so I don’t think it’s a willful thing.  We play stop and think games in the room with moving around and me shouting: stop and think. Then I gradually take it down to a whisper.  We also do it over and over throughout the year – first in the whole body, then the hands, then the fingers, then at the piano.

My 7 year olds have had 2 years of pre-piano in the early childhood program and they are just now getting the hang of it.

I think the bigger the group, the better. With more than 2 children there is usually at least one child who gets it and can demonstrate. Then I make a big deal over that child.  In the all-boy class, they ALL want to get the attention.

Those are some of the things that I’ve tried that worked for me.

Crystal H., Canada

One of my teaching tools is a simple hand gesture that helps me to control the events.  It takes a month or so, but my students learn that when I gently clasp their wrist with my thumb and forefinger, it means not to play. That way, I can be sure that they don’t start playing until I am ready/finished speaking my instructions. I use this technique if we are repeating a certain passage. (Certainly, I do not require that the hands remain in position for the whole lesson.)

Also, if I find a student is just rushing through the notes, not really internalizing the correct steps and simply flying over mistakes, or has many “speed bumps”, then I will ask the student to play one note or set of notes and just “freeze”. I say it with a grin very lightheartedly, then will go to the next note/ notes….and freeze! This helps to control the events.

Emilie B., Connecticut

I had one boy who played everything at one speed – fast.  Invariably he made mistakes. Mistakes of course aren’t a problem generally, but in this case I would put my hands under his wrists and lift his hands as soon as he made a mistake and tell him he would have to start over.  After a few times of not being allowed to finish the song but being stopped every time he made a mistake, he really concentrated (he didn’t know it, but he was controlling the events!), slowed down and played it perfectly.  See, I said, when you do it slowly you can do it perfectly: that’s what I want you to do.

I often tell them to see and know what both hands are doing before playing any note – that results in perfection. (I think physically trying to make a student’s hands go slower would not work for me, I use a different approach, and make them slow their hands down themselves.)

Another thing I do is, and I ALWAYS do this when teaching RH of AM Blues on 1, so I’ll use that as an example, I’ll play the RH five notes while I sing “Here’s Humpty Dumpty” all really slowly repeatedly without pausing. I tell the student, now watch me do it a few times and join in when you feel ready. I see the student watching me intently, then they play along with me an octave higher and at the same pace. That works beautifully every time. They don’t have to think about what speed to play, they only have to notice what their fingers are doing.

With other pieces (one hand at a time), you can do the same, play the song or part of the song slowly and have them play the same thing along with you, matching your speed. They get the “feel” of what I want them to do quickly when I do this.

I’ll also play the piece a student may be having trouble with slowly to show them, I think that sometimes they don’t really know what “slowly” means until they see me do it. They think their slightly slower version is correct then they see that I play it even slower, and that it’s okay to play it as slowly as I show them.

And with a new piece, when we’re ready to bring both hands together for example, I will always say something like “Now play just these first two notes together and hold them down, don’t play anything else.” I’ve seen Neil do that – thank you Neil – and it works fabulously every time, without fail, like magic. And I find that actually talking slower while going through the process helps. I want a student’s eyes to have time to see what their hands are doing, and I tell them that.  I highly recommend watching the Master, Neil, on the training videos over and over.

These things have worked really well for me. I had a boy who, after seeing the value of going slow (and after hearing me say “The slower the better” so often), brought me a sign he made on his computer that said “The slower the better!” I pinned it up over my piano.

I hope something in all of this is of help. Good luck. Controlling the events is SO important.