I can tell him that I'm getting confused and stuff, and feeling anxious, he'll understand because he knows I have "issues" and said he does too!.. But I'm starting to feel like every time I say that I don't know how to do this or I didn't know how to do that, I got confused at home or I didn't know what to do, that it all sounds like excuses for not practising or something.
So .... What do you expect from your students each week? Do you ask to see certain pieces or do you ask them to present whatever they've prepared? What do you suggest to them to do each time they practise?
We do talk about practising, and in lesson when I am struggling with something he will ask me how I am going to practise it and then we'll talk about it. So I do get the idea of what I am meant to be doing, I just feel a little bit anxious about it all, perhaps I should stop overanalysing it and just leave that for my practise sessions!
My Teacher is a little fed up with me, I tend to make the same mistakes every week (despite working on them at home!) with pretty much every piece I do, the same patterns coming up all the time (not knowing what fingering I'm using, articulation, pedalling etc.) So he has said I really need to improve my practise quality over the long holiday. I've figured out all the different things I need to work on, on paper it looks simple but I think putting it into action will be difficult. I really need to start being able to finish pieces, nicely polished and performance ready because I think it's about time I start doing performances (shock horror!) and competitions.
There is a cognitive connection that a student needs to bridge between the lessons a teacher gives and being able to execute them. Work more on thinking about the lessons from your teacher and achieving a personal understanding of the concept. It is not enough to just do or play "as you are told." If you do, you will not understand the meaning of what you are doing, when you should be doing it, and why it works. A teacher can assist by further elaboration, but the onus of bridging the gap to understanding falls on the student and not the teacher. There is an element of cognitive contemplation that can only be done by the student in order to reach that personal level of knowledge: the "ah hah" moment...........IMO, students need to be taught how to practice. There is a difference between teaching a lesson, and a student practicing that lesson. It is not enough for a teacher to just hand over a package of information and say: here student, learn this and come back next week. The teacher needs to show the student how to digest the concepts when the student is working alone. The goal is to make the student an independent thinker and learner, and not to have the student run to the teacher every time he/she doesn't understand something.
So he has said I really need to improve my practise quality over the long holiday.
I generally find listening to certain pieces (checking whether they have worked or not) during the lesson merely a waste of time. Usually, we practise during the lesson as if the piece were new, because what they have to do is often not something you can just solve or acquire between lessons anyway. .........P.S.: Most of my students are very advanced and don't need any guidance on interpretation etc.Paul
Paul, do you do any listening at all (but not for checking whether they have worked)? Like, a student has practised at home for a week, comes to lessons and ..... do you hear any of it? There is the lesson - practising - the next lesson. What is the link between them, if any?
What is it that the student does once he or she gets home for the next seven days and possibly the weeks afterward.
What does the student do for the hour or two hours of the practicing session?
Usually when I tutored, there was a student in trouble needing help with a specific thing like math or grades in English. But when I worked with the kid, almost always there was something else. I think that you work with these "something elses" just like I did.
Exactly right. What you see on the surface in people with problems is often an indication for something else. The real solutions may be very unexpected sometimes.P.S.: By the way, if we limit this to music and piano playing, did you know that aural feedback can actually hold you back in some cases because it creates a negative loop? If you take on something like Rachmaninov's concerto no.3, for example, it can be so overwhelming in places that passages that would otherwise work don't work, and it can be very difficult for musical and emotional people to hold back and do what's required: first ingrain the piece like a bean counter, and only then let it all go. People who don't realize this may get into very deep trouble and blame either poor Rachmaninov or the concerto for being so "difficult". Things get even worse when the teacher asks them to "listen more"...Paul
Come to lessons prepared and not struggle with note learning.
There's more to it than that. You seem to be talking about the immature student who doesn't practice and arrives unprepared.
More students are immature than you might think...
You wrote that you only teach part time, and only take "talented" students who are more advanced. What happens if a student isn't taught properly or is mistaught? When you assess a student, how much of what you see comes from natural ability, and how much from a good grounding? And can ability be masked by poor foundations or misteaching?