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Laurie Richards, Nebraska

Hi Ruth. What kinds of situations are coming up where you feel like your focused attention is warranted? There could potentially be several factors that would be relevant, e.g. practice habits, SHM, learning styles, etc.

Could other students contribute to the solution during a shared lesson? That would be good for building generative muscle.

Maureen K., California

I always take a hard look at my groups and shift a few people around September and January too!

One thing that has helped me a lot: I hold “office hours” once a month. These are usually on Zoom nowadays—used to be in person. I publish the times to students ahead of time and they email me to sign up. Usually they are 10 min private slots. We can work on whatever they want, for example help with a piece they are struggling with, or learning a new arrangement that the rest of the class isn’t ready for.

Sometimes I strongly encourage or even require a student to attend an office hour, for some of the reasons you mention above.

I’m thinking of having one hour every week for office hours rather than several hours once per month.

Maureen K., California

Un Mani No. it is included in tuition.

Joan H., Canada

love the office hour idea! I think I’ll try it. I’m always looking for ways to “add value” to parents. Mostly however, I find very few takers which tells me they 1. are not looking for more to do 2. are satisifed with their ROI (return on invesment) in piano

Maureen K., California

Joan H. Yes! I don’t get lots of takers regularly to office hours either. Those who want more value take advantage. Others find it too much.

Laurie Richards, Nebraska

To follow up, some of those issues could potentially be handled well within the shared lesson environment. I always believe everyone benefits. Others, depending upon the circumstances, may warrant a shift for a student to a different class. A few specific suggestions:

Student struggling with processing intervals:
– If student is a child, enlist the coach’s help to work on it at home
– isolate individual intervals separately – ie process only 2nds, then only 3rds etc. so they can identify patterns.
– the student who process intervals more quickly can assist the other student

Flat fingers:
– I guess I never assume it’s a bad thing unless I see that it is getting in the way. If it is, it doesn’t necessarily need to take up a lot of lesson time to address. Also…Have you ever seen Valentina Lisitsa play? Really interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPErSyk5iHs

L4 different paces:
– Not knowing any specifics it’s hard to say. May need to switch classes if this is typical – after L4 as you know, different learning paces can become problematic

Processing PB clues:
– Sometimes students get a bit “stuck” here because of unmet expectations – they may believe they should be extracting more detail from the diagrams. A conversation about LAWOL may help – the diagrams are more conceptual than informational – the brain can fill in the details. It may take time to allow a new kind of learning. A good piece of training to review is “The Role of Diagrams” – a 5min audio.

A more general thought re: shared lessons:

It’s easy as teachers to feel stuck in a more traditional pattern of thinking that students only benefit from constantly moving forward, and that pausing in a lesson to address another student’s challenge wastes their time. I think it can actually be a good opportunity:
– You are modeling *how* to address issues in general
– Enlist the other students’ help with the ‘struggling’ student – generative skill
– It creates an environment where you are free to spend a few minutes with *anyone* in the class to address something. For a student who processes more quickly they may get their turn when you assign them an extra project so they don’t feel stuck.
– While you are addressing a specific issue with one student, you can also have the others do something together.
In general, doing anything as a group should include some leeway as we’re all just different. That doesn’t mean it’s not a beneficial experience for everyone. Of course there will be times when a change in classes is warranted. But not as often as many believe.
Great topic for discussion.