Teens and Piano
Found in: Composition & Improvisation, Practicing & Playlists, Shared Lessons, Students with Prior Experience, Teen Students
Stephen R., California
I have a handful of teen students most of whom have switched over to SM from traditional experience. I have to say that they cover the gamut of ability, interest and practice regiment. This is a very challenging age group because I have a couple students who can play reasonably well, but their reading skills are not very good and they want to learn difficult music that is almost always way beyond their reading level (one wants to learn Chopin’s C# minor Waltz). I have others that hardly practice at all, it’s a big problem in my book!!!
I can hear Neil now “the magic doesn’t happen in the studio, it happens at home”. I try to get to the root of the issue w the students and parents, often to no avail! They want to do the least amount to get by, which won’t work for very long and certainly doesn’t help build and maintain the playlist.
Do any teachers have any advice on how to work w this age group and parents that often A) have too much homework/demanding classes B) multiple activities going on, i.e two music lessons and/or sports which take up virtually every day of the week and lead to missed lessons because of games C) have very strong opinions about what songs they like, don’t like, what they want to learn and practice!
Thanks! Any thoughts would be great!
Amber B., Michigan
Teenagers have different problems but ALL ages can fall into these traps. My first thought is do you have this age in group lessons with parents attending? Unless you have paired two non-practicing families together, I can’t imagine one family practicing and the other putting up with it! If they are in groups with parents attending, it’s time for the “talk.” All I make here at my business is piano players. If you are not growing as a piano player and you leave this studio each week not playing consistently, we can be friends but I cannot continue to teach you. I would put them on a 30 day plan with playlist requirements.
On the other hand, this is a wonderful age to attract to your studio, and if a student begins piano at this age with Simply Music, they can be very appreciative of the opportunity to learn after not playing as a younger child. If you keep your standards high you can replace these non-serious students with new faces that will raise the quality of your product, making piano players.
Our community has a crisis of teen suicides. This 8th grader who is all Simply Music trained and has been taking lessons for almost a year composed this song after she heard about another 8th grader who took his life.
On a lighter note these middle school boys had a blast last week playing Blues in a group lesson.