Simpedia

Diana A., Australia

I have a shared lesson of a boy and a girl. The girl practices religiously but the boy doesn’t like attempting anything unless he knows it will be perfect, he was losing heart and practicing less. The mothers of these 2 children had always attended class.

One day I looked at this boy and said “I bet your Mum could play this. If you practice 5 times this week, I will make your Mum play this piece next week.” You should have seen the look on the Mum’s face. She nearly died. Well, the boy and the girl practiced harder than they ever had and the boy accomplished so much that he got over the hurdle of not being able to play anything to his level of expectation. The Mums had to play and they did really well! The Mums had never paid so much attention in that lesson as they knew there was a chance that I would ask them to play again the next week. It continued for a few weeks, with everyone improving and Mums being really proud of them.

To push them a little harder I said “If you practice 6 times this week, YOU can choose any song out of the book that we have done for Mum to play.” I really heard about it from the Mums, but the kids have never been so enthused. It has been several months now and both Mums and kids are playing really well. It was the kind of incentive that was a win for everyone. I also found everyone was much more focused in the lesson because the Mums didn’t want the children to outshine them and the kids were determined that they would get to “announce” what Mum would be playing. So, it has turned into a mini concert each lesson at the end.