Students who haven't heard piano music

[faulty_damper]

I'm wondering this about young piano students.  When they start learning, have they heard any pieces for the piano aside from simple tunes they'll find in any children's piano book?

To answer my own question:
No.  They have never heard of any kind of piano music that is of interest.  The only piano music they have ever heard were the ones they were learning in the children's books.

I just asked my two younger sisters whether or not they have heard any kind of piano music when they started learning to confirm my answer.  The answer was "no".  I asked if they ever heard of Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart, or Bach.  They answered "no" with the exception of one who said she "has the book" (by Bach).

Two of my cousins, a boy and a girl, will also answer "no" if I am correct about this.  I infer this from the fact that they do not play the piano very much but do practice when they are taking lessons.  And when they hear me play something interesting, they usually come over to the piano to listen as if they have never heard so many notes played in such a short period of time in such a manner that interests them.

I have asked a while ago about whether they know of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Liszt, et al.  "No", they answered.

    "What composer do you like?" I asked.  
    "What's a composer?" they responded.

Some of you have ranted about why your young students don't practice or always have an excuse why they didn't practice.  I mentioned in another thread about motivation being a reason why they don't.  Since motivation is the only reason why we do anything regardless of circumstances whether we are willing or unwilling, then this is true of the reason they didn't practice.  Young students who take piano lessons have little motivation to learn because they are not motivated to do so.  The reason is because they have never heard of any kind of interesting piano music or any kind of piano music at all.  Because of this, they do not know what this intrument is capable of, but more importantly, what they are capable of.

"I want to play that!"
What child ever says this without having heard piano music that they liked?  And because they wanted to play it, they had the motivation to do so.  They practiced it until they could say "I can play this!" with a big smile on their face.  

They things they learned from "I want to play that" to "I can play it" are very important.  They learned that if they really wanted to do something, and spent the time in learning it, then they can accomplish it.  They are successful in their venture into something new.  From this one accomplishment, it opens up many new doors that they would never have thought possible had they not attempted to do what they wanted.

I'll also add this: all piano students never become serious without having heard something that was of interest that they wanted to play, whether it be Happy Birthday or Un Sospiro.  They all thought to themselves, "I want to play that."

[monk]

The simple reason for all that is:

Most people can't be serious about anything!
They do only what other people tell them to do - except perhaps some sports, watching television or dabbling at the computer.

People who have a real field of interest, who really want to know as much as possible about that interest, are VERY rare.

In terms of motivational science: Almost all people are almost all the time extrinsically motivated (by outer things, e.g. that one hopes to get applause), and only very few people know what it means to be intrinsically motivated.

Best Wishes,
Monk

[faulty_damper]

I'm thinking that the reason so many students quit taking piano lessons is because they have no idea what the piano can do.  They have never heard the piano played exceptionally well aside from what songs are in their children's books.  And most likely, the songs they do learn, they have never heard anyone else play it so they have little or nothing to compare to.  So whatever mediocrity of playing of these songs, they perhaps think it's just boring or uninteresting because of the way they are playing it.  But what if they heard those pieces played exceptionally well?  Would that not motivate them to play just as well?

I'll also add that both of my younger sisters mentioned in the parent post quit at a rather early age citing "I don't like it!"  They were forced and perhaps this is a reason they resented playing (even though I don't remember any of them practicing) and then just finally compelled my mother to allow them to quit.

[bernhard]

This is the single unsurmountable problem one faces when trying to teach the piano: When a student (of whatever age) has no experience with music (piano or otherwise). Usually you see that more in children, because a teenager/adult with no musical experience will not contemplate piano lessons.

However, over the past 50 years a lot of research has been publicised about the desirable side effects of learning a musical instrument. Parents read about this, and having no real interest in music themselves, want to get the side benefits (better memory, better maths skills, better language mastery, better socialisation etc.). There is no real interest in music really. But they want to give their children an “edge”, so they push them into learning a musical instrument. Usually it is not the piano because of the huge investment (unless they already have an old – usually unusable – piano in the house). Typically they go for the recorder (the cheapest instrument).

Children with no musical interest? The parents are always at fault, I am afraid.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Spatula]

This is the single unsurmountable problem one faces when trying to teach the piano: When a student (of whatever age) has no experience with music (piano or otherwise). Usually you see that more in children, because a teenager/adult with no musical experience will not contemplate piano lessons.

However, over the past 50 years a lot of research has been publicised about the desirable side effects of learning a musical instrument. Parents read about this, and having no real interest in music themselves, want to get the side benefits (better memory, better maths skills, better language mastery, better socialisation etc.). There is no real interest in music really. But they want to give their children an “edge”, so they push them into learning a musical instrument. Usually it is not the piano because of the huge investment (unless they already have an old – usually unusable – piano in the house). Typically they go for the recorder (the cheapest instrument).

Children with no musical interest? The parents are always at fault, I am afraid.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

That's very true that children (I'm talking like 5 yr olds) are very keen in music, like sing alongs etc and songs that are interactive like "head and shoulders knees toes etc".  They may not get in the groove for Mozart, but I don't know of any single child that hates all kinds of music whatsoever, and I used to volunteer for kids schools (scary 5 year olds seriously!  they can kill you in a pack)!

[Antnee]

Yeah But I've noticed that little kids by the time they are about six or seven already prefer jamming to hard rock than listening to any kind of classical. I guess this might be because musically untrained kids like the stuff that's easy to listen to, but then they start actually liking the loud stuff and they later find classical absolutely repulsive. If only they were given some calssical while they were young it would be more familiar to them and more enjoyable later...

-Tony-

[willcowskitz]

That's very true that children (I'm talking like 5 yr olds) are very keen in music, like sing alongs etc and songs that are interactive like "head and shoulders knees toes etc".  They may not get in the groove for Mozart, but I don't know of any single child that hates all kinds of music whatsoever, and I used to volunteer for kids schools (scary 5 year olds seriously!  they can kill you in a pack)!

As far as I remember (includes kindergarten here) I have hated the "sing alongs". They were always pressuring and forced and when I reached elementary they started to sound dumb too. Then I found Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker from a CD shelf at home and listened to it, nice. I wish somebody, at school or home, would had really put effort into introducing children to some classical - the children's songs (since when have children listened to their 'own' music anyway, and why?) have really zero content in them and do anything but inspire children musically.

[pies]

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