Simpedia

Sheri R., California

I started groups in September of 2003. Some are still going strong, others have morphed into smaller groups or been absorbed into other groups. I’m almost embarrassed to say I went from a high of 75 in September to 45 current students, although I am adding 20 to 30 more this week in groups. Many of mine that stopped were adults who either found they didn’t have the time to practice (the main reason stated), or who had a medical problems that needed tending to. Some adults were retired and had to go back to work. Others were financially strapped. It seems all except two of them stopped not because they didn’t like it but because of time and/or money. Two stopped because I didn’t have the right words to help them over their psychological humps or who just weren’t open to the possibility that mistakes are all just part of the game.

In reference to asking people to wait for a large group to form, Neil once said to me you don’t want to delay starting people for too long, because they will either lose interest or find another teacher. Strike while the iron is hot! But yes, do try to get more students so you can start a group if that’s what your goal is. If you are holding off on someone due to lack of numbers, I would try to encourage the student(s) who is/are waiting to refer your studio to others and maybe that would get a group going sooner.

As far as adults quitting, I think I will start telling adult students at the first lesson about the commitment issue with the intent to warn them and help them put into place something to keep them disciplined and playing for the long-term. One thing kids have over adults is someone telling them to practice, ensuring it gets done; while adults have to rely on their own discipline. One thing I thought might be helpful for some is to have a pseudo-parent in their life to answer to, really a sort of personal coach. It will be instructive to see if anyone does this but I think I am going to push it and see what happens.

Sheri R., California

I pretty much follow the order Neil established in the Groups teacher training and bring up the subjects that Neil has said to (like exchanging numbers, etc.) I haven’t added anything of my own that I can think of off the top of my head right now. I just read Kerry’s excellent e-mail and will start encouraging more team work away from lessons. I love that idea and have only done it minimally and will definitely start to really push it from the first lesson.

My sister just shared something with me that she did in her first week of teaching last week and maybe when she sees this she will share it on the Forum because I think it will be very valuable to everyone but to paraphrase what she told me today she talked to adults about being easy on themselves and realizing that it could take some time to get the fingers to do what the brain already knows. She expressed it very well to me today and in much more depth and so I’m hoping she’ll have time to put it in writing for all of us.  If I had known to have that conversation from the beginning I may have been able to keep a few students who stopped because their expectations of themselves were just too unrealistic. She also spoke about the possibility that they may suddenly feel like bursting out crying (or laughing) and to give themselves permission to do that as well.

Jy G., California

I am a brand new teacher, so I have absolutely no records yet with regard to attrition rates, but since my sister implicated me… : )

I found in the past (teaching other subjects) that if I believed that what I was offering could be a great benefit to the lives of the individuals in the group, then it followed that I would want them to stay interested. The key is that this must occur through their OWN discovery of that benefit.

I try to base my work with people on the premise that the greatest human need is the need to feel connected. If the individuals in the group feel connected to each other and to me, and in turn, most importantly to themselves on a deeper level (consciously or not), they will more likely want to keep coming back to the environment that “creates” that feeling in them. They would want to see each other, see me, and see themselves in a new light. In creating this kind of environment, it is easier to create in each student a motivation to succeed. If they feel that kind of excitement, they are more open to actually act on suggestions from me (and eachother) regarding how to succeed (i.e. linking up with each other during the week for mutual encouragement, etc.)

I try to make the lessons, especially the first one, fun and full of laughter, as well as begin to create (through action, through teaching a song) a sense of certainty in their abilities to really “do” this. I try to be the kind of teacher that I would want to have myself — very real, no empty-sounding promises, etc.

I explain at the first lesson that they already know everything they need to know to be wonderful piano players; we’ll just meet once a week so that I can facilitate for them the discovery of that knowingness. That it is going to feel like trying to ride a bicycle for the first time — they can see what it is they need to do; but it feels funny to try it. It looks so easy when watching someone else doing it, and that’s how it will soon be for them, and so on. That we will be playing with rewiring the brain starting right now, in the very first lesson. (I refer to the studies I have out on the table for them to read if they would like.) I explain that they may feel things they have never felt before, or have not felt in a long, long time and that all this is a quite “normal” part of the whole process. I elaborate on this! (Wanting to laugh – or cry – or be ecstatic or angry, etc… but I add, because some feel they would be out of “control”, that they will not “go through” anything they don’t want to “go through” – they’ll choose their emotions every step of the way.)

I have given two lessons so far to my adult groups, and I find that it will be very important to repeat myself over and over when it comes to the need for them to be “easy on their brains” during the intense rewiring process that is taking place in the beginning. That their brains and fingers need time to catch up to their minds, the mind that sees how “easy” it all really is. I find that it is less threatening to speak in less personal terms — saying stuff like easy on their brains rather than easy on themselves, and then explaining it through — because they then see their personal process as kind of scientific rather than “something about me is slow, or wrong”, or, “oh my, the teacher thinks that I think that something about me is slow, or wrong, or hard on myself, or easy on myself”, or all the millions of interesting thoughts (!) we seem to accumulate and “live” off of.

My adult students have responded well to the suggestion of “picturing” their brains while they are playing, and not yet “getting it”. I am very physical in my description of what the blood is doing when trying to get through to an underused capillary (?) in the brain; it’s building a dam because it’s not enough power to flow through yet, and that when enough accumulates, it’ll be too heavy for the floodgates; it’ll finally burst through (the verbal response being “I got it! It’s easy now!”)

Again, I try to play as much as possible with connecting the group together as human beings. This seems to facilitate the letting go of fears, and the process of getting comfortable with themselves with themselves, not to mention themselves with each other. We begin by briefly introducing ourselves and saying a sentence or three about how we found ourselves here now. Since they basically have all just stated in one way or another that they want to learn how to play the piano, I can restate that collective intention, and tell them that whether we are aware of it or not, we will all be teaching each other throughout the process. That in the natural unfolding of the group process, we will all be teachers just by being here and participating in our own learning.

This creates a sort of accountability from the beginning, not by saying it like that or in any way that could be construed as threatening (keeping in mind that their idea of threatening could be far different than my idea of threatening — best to swing it the other way, and have no expectations, just a pure knowing – that they definitely can do this), but by showing them that they have power to affect, simply by having made their own decision to learn.

On a technical note, I think a lot of communication really helps – encouraging (but again, very real!) emails, calls, newsletters. I also encourage my students to visit the website. The more they know about what it is they have made a decision to learn in their lives, the better (the less the attrition…?)

All the suggestions about buddies within or outside of the group are great. I will continue to encourage my students to take advantage of this until I am blue in the face.