I did already modify slightly how I teach beginners. I am not willing to go any further. I have no interest in playing baby "thunder" songs, as someone suggested here. It's just not my cap of tea. My style is not for everyone. My own satisfaction after a lesson not any less important to me than a satisfaction of my student. Any modification take enormous amount of research and time.
No it doesn't, ingagroznaya, all it takes is an understanding that different people learn in different ways: by reading; aurally; by physical feel - 'tactile'; by a combination of these.
What we teachers
do need is to be able to spot which are the best strategies for our pupils quickly and early in our relationship. Then we can adopt the best learning strategies for the pupils, playing to their strengths and helping them develop their weaker areas.
Insisting, for example, that aural learners learn solely through reading, or that reading learners learn solely through listening are going to be counter-productive strategies. Teachers need to be flexible.
Memorizing 10 notes in a week ............................. is not a lot to ask.
Not to you and I, ingagroznaya, or the other talented ones here. It is a heck of a lot for those with lesser ability - a mountainous task for many. What you are instantly doing here is setting up failure right from the start, for many pupils. Instantly you are saying to a vulnerable beginner unable to meet your over-demanding requirements, "Playing the piano is
really hard. You have to be able to master staggeringly large amounts of material in a ridiculously short time. If you cannot do this, then you are useless and should not continue."
Uh, forgot to share with you - one of my teenager cried today. I was not yelling. I was silent actually. Closed my face with my hands because I could not see or hear it much longer. I had nothing to say. Neurotic laughs was verging, but I held them. I did not know how to react.
She brought back Tchaikovsky's "June Barcarolla " for the first time ( first week ) almost up to tempo ( faster actually in some parts ), almost memorized. 1/3 of the notes wrong. If I were not to know what she was playing, I probably would not recognize it at all.
Amused, I asked her to repeat it. She played same nonsense note by note without blinking an eye. Assuming she was a perfect student for 5 years, how would you react? I really did not know how to handle it. If this is happens next week, what should I do? What would you do? 1/3 through out the whole piece. 2/3 in some parts. I don't exaggerate the number.
Here is how I would have handled this. I would have said, "Great try, well done. It was fluent, nearly up to speed and almost memorised. I am impressed."
Brief pause and a hug (you might need to miss out that last bit

)
"Do you realise how many misreadings you have?"
What happened next would depend on the reply. A 'no' would call for a few lines of me playing it correctly so see if she can hear the difference. Establishing this might call for a bit of me playing it correctly and then demonstrating the difference in her playing, but all kids get the message in the end.
Having established some understanding of how far astray she had gone, this would have followed, "You have three choices. Which one you chose depends entirely on you, on how much you enjoy the piece and how confident you are. You can: abandon the piece altogether; you can take it away and try to correct it yourself - this will be a good exercise for you; I will correct it with you, but this will feel very critical. What is your choice?"
Assuming she wanted to carry on with the piece, my end of lesson comment would be the nearest thing I said to being harsh, "Ok, do the best you can with it for next week. I will not criticise you if you do not make huge progress with the textual accuracy, so do not be apprehensive. We
will abandon it next week, though, if it is not a lot better - there is no point in my trying to teach you something that is hopelessly incorrect."
See: no yelling; no unhappiness; no resentful, hurt or humiliated child.
The same sort of event happened here, last Saturday. For reasons that do not matter, 16 year old Kieran had his first lesson for a month. He played me the Mozart D minor Fantasy - he wants to play it as part of an exam programme in November and had two lessons on it previously.
In a way, his performance was wonderful - passionate, full-of-life, stormy, fast, brilllliant finger work, the lot.
And completely, hopelessly wrong. Rhythm clueless. Tempi changing nearly every bar. Stylistically clueless. So far wide of the mark that the mark could not even be seen

So, did I shout at him? Call him an idiot? Throw things at him? Tell him how bad it really was?
Of course not. That would have gained nothing but a humiliated, resentful, surly and un-cooperative pupil for an hour long lesson that would have been conducted in a hurt silence.
Kieran is emotionally robust, so I did not need to be as gentle with him as with others. What I said was, "Wow. That was some performance. Fiery and passionate doesn't do it justice. How on earth did you play the cadenzas at that speed? Fantastic. You have major problems with the piece, though. Your rhythms are mostly wrong. Your tempi change almost bar-by-bar. The dynamic range and emotional intensity are overdone in much of the piece. Putting the latter right will be easy - I can show you where you are going wrong. Correcting the rhythms will be much harder. After all, I spent the previous two lessons with you on the rhythm and you appear to have taken no notice. I am afraid this is what happens when people do not have a lesson for a month. I am not going to try to do anything about it now because you have already been playing this piece for two months and it is time to do something different. We shall return to it in a few weeks and look afresh at the rhythm and temip. Then it will be a case of correcting them or learning a different piece. Playing it as you do is not an option - you would fail."
Had Kieran played the piece to me without such a long gap in between lessons, my approach would have been slightly different - more in the style I described earlier. A slightly different approach to the same problem given the differing circumstances.
Common to both, and to any other such instances, would be: recognition of, and praise for, what the student has achieved; presentation of the options\explanation of the course of action I am taking.
Shouting? That is an admission of failure by teachers unable to control themselves and consider the feelings of their pupils. That is why I never do it. Doesn't make my teaching any less rigorous, though.
Sorry this post is so long.
Steve
