Student in a valley
Found in: Adult Students, Shared Lessons
Ruth P., North Carolina
One of my students hit a valley this week and I am struggling to know how to navigate it with him. It is a very personal connection as my student is also my husband! He has been taking for about five years from me, and although he doesn’t practice a ton, has always seemed to enjoy his group lessons. Now he is in a group of three with one student who is more advanced and he is feeling some “musical low self-esteem”.
It seems obvious to me that the problem is he doesn’t practice enough – or keep his pieces alive so that he feels victory. We’ve talked about it – and he can see that perspective – but I think more is that he feels is not very natural at music. He is a very natural athlete, so I think he compares his ability to play piano to his physical abilities on the court/field).
I’ve always been so happy that he was my first Simply Music student and I don’t want to lose him! Any suggestions? His favorite music to play is blues and he would love to be able to improvise well. I’ve done a bit with him with the blues scale etc. but becoming a good improviser, as we all know, takes quite a while.
Robin T., China
He can do more improvisationally by adding a major pentatonic scale to his repertoire as it will work over tunes that contain the secondary chords as well as I, IV, and V and minor progressions. By combining the blues scale and major/minor pentatonics, his improvisations over a blues progression will have more interest, plus he will be able to get some nice sounds over major progressions containing secondary chords also.
Rebecca G., Colorado
I always ask myself how much I want to keep a student. If the answer is “a lot”, as in what you’re describing, then I try to stay really open to all the possibilities. It could be that this class just isn’t a great match for him, given where he’s at right now, and that has nothing to do with his abilities (or maybe even his practice time). Perhaps he (and you!) would feel better with him either in a different group or in a private lesson. Staying in touch with what my students need/are asking of me (often without words) helps me feel like I’m connected to them and gives me a lot of energy to keep teaching even when things feel stressful.
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
My husband has been in different groups off and on since I started teaching. He takes many sabbaticals. He’s gotten through Level 4 and joins groups at different points to get the needed review. He is very competent in the first few levels!
Maybe your husband could continue in lessons but with a different group where he could review some things and rebuild his confidence? I know some people equate that with repeating a grade in school, but it usually is great for confidence-boosting. They get to be the one who is on top of things for a while during the review part. Just a thought – everyone’s different, but that has worked well with my own husband.