pitfalls for children / how did players like Per practice when they were small?

[stringoverstrung]

Hi all,

i'd like to have an idea what the biggest pitfalls are for children when they learn to play (i'm  making the assumption that they like to play the piano).

playing things that are too difficult
playing too fast
not have enough patience to do every basic movement right
not repeating enough
practice chunks not small enough
movements of the fingers / hand too big...
never think enough about music and what the music represents

It would be interesting to know how people like Per Tengstrand practiced when they were young and on what their teachers were focusing? (slow practice / 7 times repeat ? ...)

[danny elfboy]

Hi all,

i'd like to have an idea what the biggest pitfalls are for children

The same pitfalls of adults, and life for adults it depends on the individual and his or her unique weak points and predispositions

when they learn to play (i'm  making the assumption that they like to play the piano).

playing things that are too difficult
playing too fast
not have enough patience to do every basic movement right
not repeating enough
practice chunks not small enough
movements of the fingers / hand too big...
never think enough about music and what the music represents

I would add (but this is actually a pitfall of the teacher)

not building a solid foundations based on focusing on each baby step for the time required to absorb and master each step perfectly.

It's pretty useless to aspect someone to pay attention to fingers, hand, whole body, reading, music, interpretation, what the music represents, speed, rhythmic complexity, basic movements ...

We can't really focus on so many things the same time UNLESSS many of this things have become subconscious and happen automatically.

I was reading about a program for alcohol addicted and it is based on 7 steps.
The patient should focus on just one step at a time and move to the next step only when the previous step have become natural and instinctive

1) Have breakfast every morning
2) Take a journal
3) Take supplements
4) Eat three meals a day and don't graze
5) Reduce alcohol and sugars
6) Eliminate alcohol
7) Plan your new life

Now imagine an alcohol addicted accostumed to drinking all night, sleeping all morning, always skipping breakfast, grazing on junk food and alcohol all day ... having cold turkey to remember to have breakfast, then take a journal, then plan a new meals, eat three nutritional meals, remove alcohol. That's just a plan of failure

Instead if he or she focus for a couple of week on just "having breakfast" it is a goal small enough to be achieved and remembered. While at the beginning they will have to force themselves to eating in the morning after a couple of weeks they will automatically feel hungry in the morning and will automatically have in the fridge or cupboard what it takes to make a nutrition breakfast in 5 minutes. This means that STEP 1 has become like second nature and happens at an unconscious way. It has been mastered and absorbed and it's time to move to STEP 2.

What the article explained is that the program is a success and helped a lot of additcted but those who skipped steps and went cold turkey on many steps at once just failed.
The program works as long as it is consistently followed step by step.

I don't believe this is how piano training should be but it is my informed opinion that the foundation that should be built first thing in the beginner stage of piano training should exactly follow this same step by step approach