coach
Adult Students Mutual Support
Thoughts on creating some kind of buddy system opportunities for adult private students who could use some extra support beyond their own playing the coaching the role for themselves? I do have more than one, so I could approach my own to pose this to…
Resistance Writing Lyrics
One of my farthest-along students is pushing back on writing lyrics because she doesn’t want to sing. I assigned composition two weeks in a row–make up a song. Then I assigned to make up words for the song. Mom texted me today (their lesson is…
Charge Parent Who Wants to Learn
I had an inquiry from a lady today, she and her daughter both want to learn. I was wondering since I require parents to attend lessons anyway, should I charge only one private fee? Two shared lesson fees? I have a pair like that. I…
Requirement Success
Sharing a requirement-based success story. I had a family recently whose two children never practiced consistently since they started. I told parents and children consistently the past week before spring break and week following that it wasn’t a problem, but that it wasn’t going to…
Internal Motivation
Has anyone heard of school teachers saying children should use their own ‘internal motivation’ rather than pushing them to do something? We were discussing reward for completing tasks. Poor Mum is confused, I am telling her she needs to guide her children, manage their activities and…
Student/Coach Responsibility
If you’re a requirement based studio, how much responsibility do you place on teenage students vs life coaches? I’d say if the student is not meeting the requirements on their own, the coach should still be responsible for making sure it happens. I agree that…
Teaching and coaching your own children
I am desperately seeking help for teaching my own daughter. She is 14, and we have been doing SM in a group for 5 years now, and are in the midst of Level 6. Even though she does not like it, she mostly has been…
How do we get students to answer truthfully about their relationship to piano?
I was wondering about a couple of things and if anyone has any advice or thoughts, or can direct me to anything in the library section of the SM intranet for guidance. Here are my questions: How to go about determining and addressing the gap…
Combining special needs student with younger students
I need help to navigate a new challenge. A 10-year-old boy with ADHD/LD has been taking private lessons. His 6-year-old brother is in a shared lesson. This past year, the 6-year-old’s progress has caught up with the older boy so I announced that it was…
Three Leg Pizza Stool
Somewhere in the training or archives, someone mentioned using the analogy of a three legged stool to illustrate the roles we each have (teacher, parent and student) and the importance of each one doing their part. I find this to be very helpful and use…