Two Broken Arms
Found in: Special Needs & Learning Differences
Joan H., Canada
Greetings – I have a student who finished F1 in June, did review with me every few weeks in the summer, and just broke both arms last week, both are casted, and quite immobile – he cannot write, and even requires help with eating. Any suggestions as to what he could do in the next 2 months or so to keep the playlist alive without being able to play or use his hands at all?
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
Wow, interesting….I have an almost identical situation in my studio – boy just finishing up L1 broke both arms. He came to one lesson to see how it went (not quite as immobilized as your student), but it was hard for him to play and keep up.
I am allowing the family to take a month off without paying (don’t normally allow that), until the casts come off. Then we will see where he’s at with his repertoire and put him in an appropriate class. He will likely need a lot of review and will definitely need a different class.
Marg G.
Just a thought – an adult student of mine has two very small children and precious little time to practice so she does the following –
She puts the DVD on while she does dishes etc. then While she’s feeding the baby she goes through, in her mind, what she needs to do at the piano. I was VERY surprised at her progress using this method. I then realised that they say it’s mind work that we put in that eventuality feeds into the hands. Obviously this won’t be forever but in the short term, may be helpful.
Karen D.
I agree that playing the songs in one’s mind can work really well to keep songs alive if one cannot physically play them. I also recently spoke to another teacher whose adult student was traveling all summer (or something like this). The adult student didn’t play while traveling, but did listen to the CDs a whole lot, and her playlist was still in good shape after that time. While your student will have to bring back the physical capability, I suspect there’s a lot his mind can do while he is unable to play.