What to do with a Fast Learner

[fleetfingers]

This girl is 8 years old and has been taking lessons for 4 1/2 months. What I do is use the Suzuki books to teach pieces by rote and, separately, teach reading through workbooks and the Edna Mae Burnam series. She is learning to read wonderfully, but she is learning the Suzuki pieces very fast. I can't seem to keep up with her! She comes to lessons having practiced what I taught her and then says, "I also figured out how to play it with both hands. Oh, and I can also play the next song." She listens to the CD a lot, according to her 10-year-old brother, and figures them out by ear. Not only does she learn them on her own, but her technique is naturally very good. She plays effortlessly and relaxed, with articulations that I haven't taught her. It appears that she can hear the nuances in the music and also knows how to make her hands do what she wants them to. Of course, we're talking about beginner level pieces, but still. There is a clear difference between her playing and that of my other beginner students.

Should I advance her quickly through all of the pieces in order without skipping anything - and just go as fast as she wants? Or does anyone ever jump a talented and motivated student up a level or two? Especially since she is 8, which isn't that young in piano years.

To make it more complicated, her 10-year-old brother also takes lessons with me. He does great, too, but he moves at a 'normal' pace. He likes the sight reading better, so he moves faster and is further along than his sister in that area but is behind her in the Suzuki books. I worry about him losing motivation if his little sister continues to widen the gap between them. Should I put him in a method book that is completely different so they don't compare themselves to each other? He is by no means slow, she is just fast . . . and I don't want him to think he is slow.

[maykapar1]

Definitely put the brother and sister in different methods at the first opportunity.  It will reduce or avoid the inevitable comparisons.  I have heard of siblings who quit lessons or changed instruments when they perceived that the other sibling was better. 
The girl obviously has a terrific ear, but I would want to ensure that her reading develops equally as well, which is usually helped by a good foundation in theory.  Her reliance on the CD worries me.  Looking down the road, I wouldn't want to end up with a student who can only play something after hearing it first, and who can't figure out an unknown piece on her own.  Perhaps challenge her to learn one piece each week, using only the printed score - no CD's as reference.  Her ear is so good, I wouldn't play it for her even once when assigning the piece.  Good luck!

[ongaku_oniko]

Definitely put the brother and sister in different methods at the first opportunity.  It will reduce or avoid the inevitable comparisons.  I have heard of siblings who quit lessons or changed instruments when they perceived that the other sibling was better. 
The girl obviously has a terrific ear, but I would want to ensure that her reading develops equally as well, which is usually helped by a good foundation in theory.  Her reliance on the CD worries me.  Looking down the road, I wouldn't want to end up with a student who can only play something after hearing it first, and who can't figure out an unknown piece on her own.  Perhaps challenge her to learn one piece each week, using only the printed score - no CD's as reference.  Her ear is so good, I wouldn't play it for her even once when assigning the piece.  Good luck!

This is exactly me. To this date, I cannot play anything I've not heard at least once before. At least not with the correct rhythm, and therstuff.

Figuring out beginner pieces by ear isn't hard, since you can easily differentiate the sounds (not saying she isn't talented). Make her do more excercises without music to listen to

also, if you haven't taught her different scales yet, play something in like Bb major, something really simple, write out the notes, and give the notes and recording to her. See if she comes back next week playing it in C or Bb  (Although this won't work if she has perfect pitch..)

But in all honestly I think you should just SKIP the beginners stuff completely. That's what I would do with my children, for sure.

When I first started out the piano, I was stuck on one hand london bridge was falling down for a few months . It was so painfully boring I had no drive to practise at all. But suddenly I don't remember how (I did change a teacher), but it was determined that I take the Grade 4 piano exam, and in less than 3 months I learned 3 level 4 pieces, 2 studies, and all the scales, arpeggios and chords required at that level. and again, passed level 8 in about half a year more.

I don't think learning low level pieces will help techniques or anything else that much. It's better to jump to things that actually require hands together playing and sound somewhat like something you can perform to people. There's a lot more drive for that.

[fleetfingers]

Thank you both for some great insight and advice!

maykapar1: Yes, I think I will go ahead and switch the brother to another book. . . I'm not sure yet which one to use    but it seems like a good idea. He really wants to learn the drums and I don't want him to give up on piano! Not that he is, but he might down the road if, like you said, he perceives that his sister is better.

I agree with both of you that a student should learn to read music and not rely completely on the ear. Let me clarify that I separate performance pieces from sight reading. When they are learning pieces from the sight reading books, they have never heard them before and I don't play it first. And there are no finger numbers. It is 100% sight reading.

I do like the idea of developing a keen musical ear and am happy that she listens to the CD. I will consider giving her supplemental music that she does not get to listen to first and see how that goes. It should keep her nice and well-rounded. 

[maykapar1]

fleetfingers: don't be demoralized if the brother one day switches to the drums.    Piano teachers are the first music teacher for millions of musicians.  Give him the best musical foundation possible, with special emphasis on his ability to maintain a steady beat.... 

[scottmcc]

having been a quick study at most everything I've touched over the years, I would say that you shouldn't feel too constrained by the method book.  she's showing you that she gets it, and that she wants to move at a quicker pace.  so pick up the pace and go as fast as she can.  if there's a piece in the book that isn't challenging her and isn't illustrating a unique concept, skip it.  if she's progressed already to where the book isn't challenging, find a new book.  the worst thing to do is to have her get bored and give up entirely, something which I will freely admit happened to me in a number of subjects in school.

ask yourself, is EVERY exercise or piece in a given grade 1/easy piano/beginner text a requisite foundation for later pianistic skills?  sure, there are fundamentals which we must all learn, but how many permutations of the 5 finger exercises are beneficial, for instance, especially if the learner has already shown a command for more difficult things?

give her a real challenge!  give her some real music that you don't expect her to be able to pick up in a day or two, and see what she does with it!  you should be thankful for a student that progresses too quickly. 

[fleetfingers]

so pick up the pace and go as fast as she can.  if there's a piece in the book that isn't challenging her and isn't illustrating a unique concept, skip it. 

ask yourself, is EVERY exercise or piece in a given grade 1/easy piano/beginner text a requisite foundation for later pianistic skills? 

Excellent advice! Thank you. I have gone through her books, mentally weeding out the ones that don't introduce anything new. I will only assign those to her if I feel like she needs them, but I doubt she will. I am grateful to be teaching her. She loves to play and is such a joy at lessons.

fleetfingers: don't be demoralized if the brother one day switches to the drums.    Piano teachers are the first music teacher for millions of musicians.  Give him the best musical foundation possible, with special emphasis on his ability to maintain a steady beat.... 

I know, I will try not to take his preference for drums too personally. I have this vision of my students embracing classical piano and eventually surpassing my ability, making me a very proud teacher as they go on to major in piano performance. No, really though, I do enjoy the idea of providing a good musical foundation to a variety of students who will enjoy making music through the playing of various instruments and genres. Maybe one day I'll be the proud teacher of this student playing drums for his very own rock band. 

[dbmusic]

It's exciting to have a student who challenges your teaching isn't it! Since you're confident that her technique is sound I would not discourage her from moving through the Suzuki book at her own pace. Where technical issues arise perhaps you could find another piece which incorporates this particular aspect and use it to develop the appropriate technique. The ability to then transfer the technique to pieces already learned will demonstrate her level of mastery and whether you need to create further opportunity to practise it. In my experience, students such as your lovely 8 year old need to be encouraged to explore without too many rules about what they are and aren't allowed to cover at home from one lesson to the next. I find I can still steer their learning by extrapolating teaching points from everything they're playing by ear. However I do use an appropriate method book to provide structure as you do. Composition is also a great tool for these sorts of students. It leads into note writing and all the associated theory and since it's linked into what they are creating they're happy to take ownership of the activity! Improvisation over a teacher played bass is always lots of fun - particularly with these sorts of students because they think outside the square. They don't need too many guidelines to begin doing this.
I totally agree with having a different method book for her brother. It can be deflating to have someone snapping at your heels. It sounds as though whatever he plays, she will be able to play pretty quickly by ear anyway! Depending on the personalities of the two, maybe some duets together would be fun. Sharing music could be an enjoyable way to combine their skills and since it demands that you keep to the score it might give the 10 year old a chance to shine with his reading skills.  Be interested to hear how things progress and what good teaching ideas evolve from sharing music with this student over the coming months.

[mcrosbie]

My first piano teacher realized that I was a quick learner and had a good ear for music.  He progressed me rapidly.  He used the John Thompson course, which is very old, but I think it is very good and still enjoy playing pieces in his books.  My teacher also put me through the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto course books and I took the grade 3 exam after two years of lessons.  I got a mark of 76% which is honours with the RCMT. Then I did the grade 5 exam and got 73%.  My teacher always gave me supplemental music to play.  I quit lessons at age 15 due to circumstances beyond my control.  I continued to play at the RCMT grade 7 level for many years and did a lot of supplemental playing.  Age age 34 I resumed lessions and did the grade 7 exam at the RCMT.  I ended up quitting again due to famly pressures.  I recently resumed lessons and plan to do the level 7 RCMT exam when I am ready.

I had one son who was very bored with the John Bastien course and we switched him to John Thompson and he enjoyed that.  He then went on to do an exam with the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto.  He always had a strong temptation to go sports fishing in the spring rather than practice the piano, and in the end, the fishing won out, but he will always have the ability to play basic piano. 


I know this is rambling about myself but I hope it helps you. 

[mcrosbie]

Oops!  That should be I plan to do the grade 8 exam.

[love_that_tune]

I wanted wings from my teachers.  So... I always let my students fly.  On a few occasions, they have of their own accord gone back over earlier material.

When I was 20 and had only had a couple of years of piano lessons, I had a professor from Julliard one summer require that I play Bach Inventions with fingering exactly as on the page.  I had to stop each time I used the wrong finger.  Frustrated, I asked him if he thought I would EVER play the piano.  I still remember his droll voice saying, "I don't know."  Jerk.  To this day I play the fingering I like, sometimes I agree with the music and sometimes not.

Wings I say... I don't remember his teaching me a damn thing about technique.

Blah...

[tonalharmony]

I think it is fine to let your fast learner go ahead. I am a student and a fast learner, and my brother is slower. It doesn't affect his confidence at all. And yes, I think you should let your student go ahead a couple levels. I was just like she is when I started. I wanted to push and learn as fast as I could. Definitely LET HER GO AHEAD. She evidently has talent. I definitely  know I would not have wanted to be held back.

[pianoplayjl]

I reckon challenge her and give some harder pieces to learn.

[jesc]

from what I gather, the older brother knows why his little sister is moving at such a fast pace.

Let her go ahead as far as she can go. You'll be teaching her brother an important fact of life. I remember in high school when I had a classmate who's been studying piano since a child. Suddenly I got interested in piano and in three to four years I'm doing chopin's etudes, impromptu and the whole moonlight sonata (IIRC he couldn't play those). I heard he quit playing the piano because of me. 

Teach the brother this fact of life early on and he'll be more mature than my high school mate. As for me, I won't stop playing the piano just because a 12 year old manages to play better than me. It's part of growing up (sorry for the cliche).