Students that "stutter" while they play a piece

[go12_3]

In the past few weeks, I have been noticing how a few of my students are "stuttering"
on the keyboard.  While they play along, then they repeat the notes that they get
stuck on, or they kind of hesitate before playing the notes.  Either way, I am trying to make these students to play through without hesitation nor repeated notes in a piece.

 I don't know what it is about that....some kind of a mental block?  Not knowing the notes well enough?  Not as confident?  Not knowing the piece and fingering well enough?
 
I sure would appreciate any kind of feedback from teachers and students that has had or is experiencing this situation.  I need to know what I can do to make my students quit
this stuttering phase.
 
Thank you so much!   

[vviola]

Ask the student to start playing from a specific passage in the piece; this way you will know if they really "know" the piece or not. If the student can't do this, have him or her re-study the piece until he or she can.

[csharp_minor]

I can empathise with your students and their stuttering, I sometimes do it myself when playing in the lesson, and I’m adult learner.

I think it could be something to do with a mental block and nerves. Sometimes when I play on a new piano I can even momentarily forget how to play the piece!

I think the problem might be they get a slight mental block make a mistake, then become aware of the mistake and the nerves kick in and that makes the metal block worse, so you end up trying to play the part again but just can’t. I’m fully aware that playing the piano is a metal challenge with yourself and nerves as well as knowing the notes & all!

The problem for me does go way with more practice of that piece. If that happens in the lesson my
teacher makes me play from a bar she chooses. If your student has trouble with that then maybe they need to improve on their sight reading and practicing the piece more. 

Sometimes I can appear to stutter in the lesson if my teacher demonstrates the correct way to play that section. I practice that section over a few times after she has showed me to play it, so I sort out the problem right there, before playing the rest.

Hope that gives you an insight on a student's opinion about this.

[go12_3]

Thank you csharp_minor and vviola for your posts, it will help me with my students that
do stutter.  I think I'll play that section, where they stutter, a few times slowly during their
lessons, and in time I hope that the problem will resolve.  I find it also that whenever a student plays quickly and ends up  stuttering most of the time.  I have that kind of a student;   I have to tell her to slow down  until she  plays without the stutters.  I think this stuttering mostly occurs when students rush through a piece and thinking that they would play better. 

[pianisten1989]

I had that problem aswell. But then I really learnt the notes. To play the piece in my head, and stuff like that.

And one also has to practise to play it without hesitate. Tell them to play the pieces in a moderat speed, so they can think some notes ahead. Atleast it worked to me.

[CC]

Go to my home page below and look up "stuttering" in the Index.

[pianoplayjl]

It is a combination of everything that makes a student stutter. I for one thing stutter if I don't know the notes too well.

[_achilles_]

I've been reevaluating how I practice and I definitely stutter some.. I feel like what I really need to do is just slow down the song until I can play it fine and the slowly bring it up to speed. Sounds basic, but if your students aren't doing it that might be why they stutter. Nerves has something to do with it to when I'm playing for my piano teacher, hopefully once I get used to him (I've only had two lessons) that won't be an issue. It's not even that I'm nervous, it's just the fact that someone sitting two feet away from me is actively evaluating my every move and knows exactly when something is wrong.

[pianoplayjl]

Teachers must make students play at a speed they are comfortable with. With that teachers must ensure that a student can play a piece from beginnning to end without mistakes and hesitations of any sorts.

[loops]

as an adult learner who can consistently stutter at certain points in some pieces, what it is for me is that it is my initial reading of the piece stuttered at that point and the stutter gets practised in. To get out of it, I really analyse what is happening at that point, usually a misread note, misunderstood rhythm or bad fingering, then I cycle the passage containing the stutter starting from where I'm fluent to where I regain fluency, so that I relearn the whole passage in a fluent way.

If someone is stuttering a lot, you may be interested in the musical fossils website, there is an article about converting notation into musical flow that I myself found very helpful.

all best

[cjp_piano]

Stuttering is not always caused by the same thing, but usually it's because of a habit of stopping every time there's a mistake. I've been noticing that it seems like most students who do this are more TENSE than the ones that don't. If you imagine a runner or basketball player who trips slightly or stumbles for a split second, they don't freeze and stop everything. There's momentum and they either recover from the stumble or completely wipe out and crash to the ground. Either way, the momentum carries them through and they don't just freeze and stop right at the stumble.

It seems really weird and unnatural to me to immediately freeze/stop when making a mistake on the piano. You should have momentum and overall sense of pulse and rhythm so that the mistake just gets lost in the flow. A few things that help my students:

1. Play SLOWER. Don't push the speed. Relax.
2. When a stutter DOES occur. It's fine, just stop since you already stuttered. Work on that passage to eliminate the stutter. Start from before, play fluidly without stopping even if you make a mistake. If you keep making a mistake, then something else needs fixed, so figure out what it is. Be able to play the passage several times in a row fluidly without stopping. Then start from before that and be able to get through the same spot several times in a row.
3. Practice just the RHYTHM. This is more practical for beginners, elementary level, and intermediate students, but if you tap your hands on your lap (the rhythm that each hand plays in the piece/passage), there's no way you can play a wrong note or finger! Doing this several times with the passage will instill the MOMENTUM needed to play through a wrong note.
4. Play the passage but allow yourself to make unlimited note and finger mistakes! Yes, give yourself permission! The only thing you focus on is the rhythm and pulse (like tapping but now you're actually playing notes and fingers). This is actually pretty difficult to do, but again, will help the flow and momentum. You might think, "I don't want to practice wrong notes, what if I learn it the wrong way?" It's only a problem if you play the exact same wrong notes consistently, then you'll "learn" it that way as it becomes a habit. Simply playing random wrong notes but with the correct rhythm actually helps the steady pulse and momentum 

[collectivecolors]

As a student, I experience this when I am not very familiar with the piece in certain area's (Haven't figured out why which areas). But, if I just practice more, and work on those specific area's it's normally all good.

[flyinfingers]

For me it is mostly nerves and the feel of the teacher's Petrof.  I can play the piece real well at home and with expression -- well, only one that I've learned pretty well in two months -- other than the beer waltz but I'm saving that for Xmas -- HA!

I'm all new to this but I would say it's nerves.  I express that I'm nervous and maybe they're not.  So if it's not a question of knowing the material, it has to be nerves.  But how can you differentiate between the two?  You probably can't unless the student tells you!  ANd if they don't tell you it's nerves, then they probably haven't learned it real well!  I think that makes pretty good sense now that I think about it.  If a student was confident and knew they could play it well, then they would cite nerves as the problem.  Just like an athletic competition.  Sometimes you get so nervous you can't perform at your best.  But you would never leave the athletic competition saying, I couldn't perform athletically!  You would say, I was so nervous that it affected my performance!

By the way, If a student struggled, would you help them play and repeat a certain passage? 

[cjp_piano]

For me it is mostly nerves and the feel of the teacher's Petrof.  I can play the piece real well at home and with expression -- well, only one that I've learned pretty well in two months -- other than the beer waltz but I'm saving that for Xmas -- HA!

I'm all new to this but I would say it's nerves.  I express that I'm nervous and maybe they're not.  So if it's not a question of knowing the material, it has to be nerves.  But how can you differentiate between the two?  You probably can't unless the student tells you!  ANd if they don't tell you it's nerves, then they probably haven't learned it real well!  I think that makes pretty good sense now that I think about it.  If a student was confident and knew they could play it well, then they would cite nerves as the problem.  Just like an athletic competition.  Sometimes you get so nervous you can't perform at your best.  But you would never leave the athletic competition saying, I couldn't perform athletically!  You would say, I was so nervous that it affected my performance!

It can't be all nerves. Let's say I wanted you to play C D E for me at your lesson very slowly, 4 counts per note. Would you stutter because of nerves? I doubt it. It would be easy enough and slow enough that you wouldn't stutter EVEN if you were very nervous!

By the way, If a student struggled, would you help them play and repeat a certain passage? 

Absolutely! If I know they can play it without struggling so much, we work on it together so they feel a sense of accomplishment!

[mcdiddy1]

For me it is mostly nerves and the feel of the teacher's Petrof.  I can play the piece real well at home and with expression -- well, only one that I've learned pretty well in two months -- other than the beer waltz but I'm saving that for Xmas -- HA!

I'm all new to this but I would say it's nerves.  I express that I'm nervous and maybe they're not.  So if it's not a question of knowing the material, it has to be nerves.  But how can you differentiate between the two?  You probably can't unless the student tells you!  ANd if they don't tell you it's nerves, then they probably haven't learned it real well!  I think that makes pretty good sense now that I think about it.  If a student was confident and knew they could play it well, then they would cite nerves as the problem.  Just like an athletic competition.  Sometimes you get so nervous you can't perform at your best.  But you would never leave the athletic competition saying, I couldn't perform athletically!  You would say, I was so nervous that it affected my performance!

By the way, If a student struggled, would you help them play and repeat a certain passage? 

When people stutter at lessons, but the student says it was great at home I usually say it is most likely because they do not have the same amount of scrutiny that they have in the lesson. In my experience, students tend to go home, play the piece they way they want to, with no pressure with just themselves to please. When they come to a lesson, they try and sterilize their expression to what they think the teacher is looking for, try to play to the best of their ability, and analyze every single note. If how you play at home is different from how you play at the lesson then of course you will get a different result.

 I think the best solution is too put pressure on yourself at home and purposefully try and make thinks difficult. By this I mean, breaking the piece down into segments, playing in rhythms, practicing in front or in ear shot of other people, playing in extremes both fast and slow. When you have very effective practice, just simply playing the pieces tends to come easier and will easily stand up to someone standing around watching you or even performances.

[pianoplayjl]

When people stutter at lessons, but the student says it was great at home I usually say it is most likely because they do not have the same amount of scrutiny that they have in the lesson. In my experience, students tend to go home, play the piece they way they want to, with no pressure with just themselves to please. When they come to a lesson, they try and sterilize their expression to what they think the teacher is looking for, try to play to the best of their ability, and analyze every single note. If how you play at home is different from how you play at the lesson then of course you will get a different result.

I usually notice that too! A student performs well without pressure and nerves.

[brogers70]

I had a serious stuttering problem, even with pieces I had played for a long time. My teacher suggested ultra slow practice. I mean ridiculously slow, for example a Bach Allemande at 80 bpm for the 16th notes. And no stopping in the case of mistakes (not that there were a lot of mistakes at that glacial pace). I'd do that once a day for four or five days on any piece that had a stuttering problem and, bingo, the problem was fixed. I could play up to performance tempo without stuttering at all. Give it a try, it will only cost 10-15 minutes a day for a few days to see whether it will work for your student.

[cjp_piano]

I had a serious stuttering problem, even with pieces I had played for a long time. My teacher suggested ultra slow practice. I mean ridiculously slow, for example a Bach Allemande at 80 bpm for the 16th notes. And no stopping in the case of mistakes (not that there were a lot of mistakes at that glacial pace). I'd do that once a day for four or five days on any piece that had a stuttering problem and, bingo, the problem was fixed. I could play up to performance tempo without stuttering at all. Give it a try, it will only cost 10-15 minutes a day for a few days to see whether it will work for your student.

Seems like overkill to me. Wouldn't you really only need to do it for the spots that stutter and not go glacially slow for the entire piece? Or were your stutters inconsistent and just happened whenever?

[brogers70]

Seems like overkill to me. Wouldn't you really only need to do it for the spots that stutter and not go glacially slow for the entire piece? Or were your stutters inconsistent and just happened whenever?

That was the problem. The stutters appeared in random spots. If I had one spot that always gave me trouble, I knew how to work it out. The problem was that the stuttering was unpredictable, and wasn't consistently in especially difficult passages. Going glacially slow through an entire piece isn't that bad, if you just do it for one piece a day, and for me I only had to do it for a few days before the stuttering went away.