Help me out please!!!

[schnabels_grandson]

Hello, I have one student.  She is about 12 years old and is progressing at a medium pace.  I have given her lessons for six months but I feel she is not learning as quick as she should/could.  This may be because she is not always able to practice during the week and she ends up getting only a couple hours of practice on the weekends.  

I have a feeling that she is not interested enough to put a lot of effort into it, but I also think her interest could be sparked if she was able to play more substantial pieces.

So my question:  Would it be advisable to teach her a piece such as Fur Elise (or one of equivallent popularity) by rote?  

I think something like this would help, but I do not want to make a mistake that would potentially hurt her in the long run.

[RGPianoMusic]

Hi.  I don't know if this is going to help or not but I have 45 students at this point and I have been in that situation many more times than I would like to.  What it boils down to in most cases, is that the kid wants instant gratification and of course would LOVE to play a more substantial piece if he/she could.  However, without practice, it will never happen.  You can be encouraging and slowly build her up but just jumping to a harder piece, even if by immitation, will only discourage her in the long run.  If she learns by immitation, she may develop some technique to play harder pieces but her reading abilities will never be up to par.  This wil only discourage her in the long run. My suggestion is to build slowly with pieces she is really interested in (maybe slightly easier versions of them) and slowly increasing her practice time, even if by only 5 min. per week.  The bottom line is, she will do it only if she is willing to.  Nothing you can do will make her do it.  If anyone knows of a way to do this, I am all ears.  I hope that helps some

Rich

[andigone]

hi,
i think it's not a bad idea to teach a popular piece by rote just for once.
if it doesn't work the way you want you can always go back to your usual teaching programme.
your student just needs some motivation and if this helps why not?

[bernhard]

Yes, it is all right to teach pieces by rote. I doubt it will do any damage. In fact, if you choose a piece that is challenging enough you may be able to point out to her how inefficient the “learning by rote process” actually is, and how much it is possible to accelerate learning by havig a full grasp of theory and sight-reading (surely the reason why we do it – if learning by rote was the most efficient way that is what we would be doing).

The fact is, after a certain level of difficulty learning by rote may well become impossible.

Good luck,
Bernhard.

[thracozaag]

What, exactly does "learning by rote" entail?

koji

[bernhard]

What, exactly does "learning by rote" entail?

koji

When you get a complete beginner who knows nothing (which key is C, how to read music, I mean nothing), you have two choices. One is spend a month or so teaching the basics of the basics - which most students find very boring - and then proceed to teach a piece.

Or you can teach them a simple piece strightaway by rote. The means sitting with him/her at the piano and playing hands separate first a single phrase over and over while they imitate you. Then as they play that phrase RH, you play the LH so they get use to the sound of it together. Then you teach the LH and play the RH. Finally you teach both hands by imitation and (if necessary) by guiding their fingers to the proper keys. then you move to the next phrase. If the piece is simple enough and short enough you may get them to play a whole piece in one lesson.

Everyone is impressed, the student is highly motivated, since now he can play something, and the parents think you are the greatest teacher in the universe.

Unfortunately this method of teaching depends completely on the memory of the student. So as the pieces gets more complex, it becomes more and more impossible to learn them this way.

Of course, this has always been the way music has been learnt in the past until musical notation was invented. One of the consequences of musical notation is that music became much much more complex, since now it did not need to be learnt by rote anymore.

It is a bit like computers. As they get more powerful, the programs required to run them demand more memory. Or as someone said:

"Work expands to fill the time available for its complexion"

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[thracozaag]

 Thanks for the clarification.  A modified method on that principle, though, is a pretty darn good way of learning a piece, I've found.

koji

[bernhard]

 Thanks for the clarification.  A modified method on that principle, though, is a pretty darn good way of learning a piece, I've found.

koji

Yes, you are right, it is.

However most teachers do not have the patience to do it (actually I do, because it means I can use the lesson to practise myself). Most teachers like to drop a score on the student's lap and expect him/her to bring it ready next lesson.

[thracozaag]

 One of my evil plots eventually, if I actually had a studio of decent students, would be to assign them pieces I haven't played yet, and "work" ' through them in lessons, just so that I can get them in my fingers

koji