adult student help

[amanfang]

I have an adult student that I am not quite sure what to do with.  I am also teaching his children (ages 5 and 7 - I do "music lessons" with the 5 year old rather than piano).  He does not spend much time practicing, mostly because he is self-employed, his wife is expecting, and he has two young kids.  He is approximately level 1 or 2.  He wants to learn to play so he can sing with his kids, so I am taking a more theoretical/functional skills approach in teaching him.  He is also working some arrangements of Phantom of the Opera and hymns that he knows and wants to play.  He's had a elementary level arrangement of Music of the Night that he's been working on now for about 2 months.  We spend time on theory in the lessons but he doesn't practice incorporating it, and then forgets it by the next lesson.  And when he keeps struggling through his piece (or pieces) at the lesson every week because he doesn't practice, I don't know what to do at the lessons.  What is the best way to help him?

[ludwig]

hmmm tricky, especially if they are adults and you can't sound patronising when telling them off for not practising! Do you have to do the theory with him? it sounds to me that he want to share something with his kids and do something fun together with them, as a hobby. I think the best thing for adults is to imitate, their technical things will not be as sound as someone who started doing studies very early on, just because the nature of the hands, and getting use to something at a young age. I find the coordination things a big problem with adult students, so just focus on songs with a simple bass line or even chords in the left hand, and a melody in the right, then gradually develop the coordination skills with more complex things. Try to show them a lot of the times what they should be doing, and if they haven't practiced for the week and they come for a lesson, do what you would do with any other student, help them practice during lesson time

[keyofc]

I would lay low on the theory.  I think we tend to want to give adults more theory because of their develloped intelligence.
But working it out through the fingers is a totally different thing.  If he just wants to have fun with his kids in playing - he is looking for some quicker results.  I have found that when I use a lot of theory it becomes frustating to them.  (I personally love theory)
but I didn't learn it till years after I played fluently.
   What about trying to find one thing you can help him with in playing better and focus on that?  If you can, he'll walk away with a sense of accomplishment and hopefully a bigger desire to practice. 
  Good luck!

[amanfang]

He told me he wants theory.  He wants to understand chords and how they're built and how to invert, and how to use it functionally.  I'm trying for a balance.  I certainly don't spend the entire time with theory.  I would like to try to build good sight-reading habits, and have him practice that more, perhaps with only simple melodies over blocked chords initially, and then expand from there.

[rlefebvr]

Teach him the circle of seven. Major chords first.
Also teach him basic scales and how they are made up and how they relate to chords.

The circle of seven is the best way I have found of learning and teaching chords.

Then teach him about 1 4 5 sequencing.

[sarahlein]

What about giving him a duet to play with one (or both!) of his kids?

Perhaps give him one that his part involves lots of blocked and/or arpeggiated chords.(if he likes those)

Then use that piece to teach more about chords. How they are used in the piece, which ones are used for cadences and why...and so on....

[m1469]

I have an adult student that I am not quite sure what to do with.  I am also teaching his children (ages 5 and 7 - I do "music lessons" with the 5 year old rather than piano).  He does not spend much time practicing, mostly because he is self-employed, his wife is expecting, and he has two young kids.  He is approximately level 1 or 2.  He wants to learn to play so he can sing with his kids, so I am taking a more theoretical/functional skills approach in teaching him.  He is also working some arrangements of Phantom of the Opera and hymns that he knows and wants to play.  He's had a elementary level arrangement of Music of the Night that he's been working on now for about 2 months.  We spend time on theory in the lessons but he doesn't practice incorporating it, and then forgets it by the next lesson.  And when he keeps struggling through his piece (or pieces) at the lesson every week because he doesn't practice, I don't know what to do at the lessons.  What is the best way to help him?

This is a good time to spend on ear training, learning about scales, chords, etc.  Having lots of books on hand for sight-reading.  Working sections of repertoire and using that time as practice, basically.  Talking about practice methods and going through the steps.

Also, you could have a piece of music ready that would take escatly the entire lesson to learn.  Go through all of the steps of learning a piece :

1.  Numbering measures (I always do this but maybe not everybody does)
2.  Find what sections/measures are identical to others
3.  Identify the most difficult section and work on that first
.
.
.

You could even push memorization at the lesson for that piece (and sections) and may even record at the end of the lesson.   


m1469

[keyofc]

  What is the circle of sevens?  Never heard of it...

[juliax]

I had a student who was a dentist and was going to law school at night.  She was very determined to learn and worked really hard.  I spent a lot of time helping her, almost babying her and figuring out her learning style.  She would bring me songs WAY beyond her level and expect me to help her learn them, and I would.  I wrote all over the page.  I had a highlighter, and usually a copy of the song she wanted to learn.  We would either use books that came with CD accompaniments or I would find the song for her another way.  We would spend the entire lesson studying either a page or an entire song, and I guided her using highlighters and notes all over the music.  I eventually had her make copies of her music because I wrote so much and I didn't want to ruin her books. 
I had this student at a music school, and all of her substitute teachers were very pushy about theory with her, and she told me she hated it and would never take from anyone else because they wouldn't take the time to help her like I would.  I admit, it was very taxing for me.  I had to really brainstorm for the entire lesson and constantly come up with new ways to show her how to connect the music on the page to what was under her fingers. 
Fortunately she had a very good sense of rhythm.  I know that finding ones rhythm can be extremely difficult to communicate to a student, but she was very bright and could mimc what she heard very accurately.  I'm sure that made a big difference, but again that was one of her strengths.  Reading music was her weakness, and I found a way around it so that she could still enjoy playing complicated music, but not study reading music for a year. 

I actually came to this forum seeking advice about one of my current adult students.  I don't want to say she is elderly, but I will say she is older than my mother.  She is so determined to learn.  She works very hard and practices a lot, but I am having trouble helping her with her rhythm.  We have only been working together a couple of months now, and I didn't really stress it enough from the beginning.  Now that we are towards the end of her book, it is becoming more difficult to move forward.  Does anyone know any good supplementary material I can order for her or have any advice on how I can go about teaching her rhythm more efficiently during our lessons?  Everything else she has a great handle on, but when she counts out loud along with her playing she has trouble. 

[pianowelsh]

you have to show him how to apply what he just leant to the piece.  link what youve covered in the theory section to the playing part ie weve just been looking at chords and their inversions ... playing part 'music of the night' ok Mr X so can you workout for me which chord we start on? ... 'No' Ok well whcih note do we have in the bass? whaich other notes do we have etcetc. gradually walk him through ok now which chord does this move to ? and which inversion is it in? ... give continual praise when get something correct. once worked through a section (putting in fingering for chords!! vital they understand efficiency of fingeing) get them to play throught the LH alone (the bed to sit on) saying the name of the chord as they play it and the one they are going to! Go very slow (slow piece anyway so you ay not have to go so slow) and repeat a couple of times pointing out links and things which will help them to remember and write it ALL on the music (or they do forget).  I would then as its a song look at the melody phrase by phrase getting them to apply what they know about phrase marks and relating that to a singer who needs to breathe.  mark in fingering and any accidentals which they miss so they dont keep doing it (hard to get out of habit) . Then build the piece back up again phrase by phrase slowly putting hands together and listening to how the two relate  and if helpful analysing it (look your LH is a third lower than the Rh here) or this passage is almost the same as this one but can you tell me whats different?? 
If you do this (asking lots of questions) He will be forced to apply what you have taught theoretically and you will see if he has misunderstood you along the way.  I usually give a bit of homework to beginner students (ie note reading exercises and puzzles - chord identification games etc) these migh work with him as he could do them with the kids or as a family (more fun too) but if time isnt available as he seems busy you could take a moment or two to try some games or do a puzle in the theory section. I always warm my students up mentally and physically when they start the practical bit too with a note test (find me lowest C highest a etc and also with black notes and chords) and then move onto a study or exercise which applies the principle we have been looking at before going into repertoire. This way the lesson has a flow and unity of purpose. As they become assured in the fundamentals we begin to move more towards repertoire for the bulk of the lesson.  hope something here helps?!

[timothy42b]

What is the best way to help him?

Let me reword the last sentence.  "What is the best way for me to help him meet his goals?"

It is clear he is not meeting your goals, but this may not be possible.

It is not so clear yet that he is unhappy.   We don't do discussions like this with children much, because they aren't accustomed to thinking verbally, but it can be profitable with an adult.

[thaicheow]

For adults, I usually use number system.

For example, everything starts in C major first. In solfege, C will be Do, D as Re, so on and so forth. So Do will be number 1, re as 2, so on and so forth.

In my music schools, we have some collection of songs, basically pop tunes, church hymns, etc, which we have simplify most of them into C major (or A minor). And they are in big notation.

So, I simply teach a song by just writing the number above the notes, with some indication on the solfege. Viola, they can do tunes like "Memory", "pass it on" in their first lesson.

Scales, and much more demanding classical repertoires only comes in if the adult student is determined, obeying (at least listen to what I say), and show appreciation in classical music.

I also create some simple five fingers exercise, which most of my students do b4 the lesson. Some may not want to do it, as they are somewhat boring. But actually I fing that these exercise helps my student to familiarize with the geography of the keyboard better. It helps them to pick up a song much faster as well.

Anyway, teaching adults has never been easy. You may say that I have given up on most of my adults students. I just teach for the sake of money.