How to be a better adult beginner student

[bernadette60614]

I've focused on my experience as a student, but I'd love to learn from teachers how to be a better student as an adult beginner.

Thanks!

[keypeg]

I was waiting to see if any answers were forthcoming.  I'm wondering whether you had any nigglings on that account from your own experience.

To be a good student, you have to have good (appropriate) instruction, and know how to follow that instruction both during the lesson and at home.  If the instruction isn't there, then there is nothing to follow.  Such instruction is hard to find.  Meanwhile, practising is 6/7 of your time, while a lesson is 1/7 of your time - but how much is spent on teaching you how to practice (part of the instruction you get in lessons)? You cannot be a good student, practising how you are supposed to, if you don't know what that is.

Common feedback about adult students by teachers, with some solutions:
- being anxious, wanting to be perfect, fearing not being good enough - Solution: Many of us think we are "performing" and the teacher wants a good performance.  We are also accustomed to school, where our homework is expected to be perfect.  But music is a physical art that must be shaped, so we are supposed to have weaknesses - these are the things the teacher wants to shape.  A teacher delights in weaknesses, because that gives her something to work on.  If you understand this, then your outlook will change and a lot of anxiety will vanish.
- only listening to part of what is said, picking and choosing, knowing better, trying something different (assuming there is clear, good instruction)
- (listening too precisely)

In lessons:  If you are corrected or shown how to do something, then you have to be able to follow.  This does not mean - when you think you can't follow, you don't try (that part is a student responsibility).  You have to be able to do what you are told to do.  That part is up to the teacher.  I don't know if teachers expect older students to catch on faster than children.  I also wonder whether teachers go "intellectual and verbal" on adults while being more physical and concrete with kids, and whether as adults we need similar.

Breaking this down further.  If you're told you're constantly playing the wrong sound, are you told how to get the right sound?  If you don't understand, does the teacher know you don't understand?  Do you let her know?  (Teachers - do you want to know?).

What happens in lessons also comes from what happened during your practicing.  I.e. if you come in with the same kinds of mistakes every week, is the cause how and what you practised at home?  If you are lost on that account, it has to be addressed.  (Assuming the teacher knows how to address it).

Practicing - at home:  There are some different broad areas

- How do you work on a particular technique?  Your teacher says your fingers should be less flat, your wrist less draped, and you play legato constantly (probably stay leaning on all the notes).  So how do you practice this?  What is it that you should be doing, specifically during each session, and over the week?  Do you know?  Have you been guided in this?  If not, how can you be a good student and do what you don't know?
- How do you practice any section of a piece of music, including corrections your teacher has given?  What should you do in a given session, and over the course of a week?
- How should you prepare a piece from stage 0 to stage 10?

If you have not been given guidance in these areas, then how can you practice as a "good adult student"?  When a young child starts lessons, he starts with very simple music, and what he is told to do becomes habit that he carries with him as he advances.  As adults, we need to acquire this same thing.  If we come in having already worked on music, we carry those habits with us too.

[pairra]

1. Practice!! - There can be no improvement without it.
 
2. Don't say I "can't" - It's super annoying and if you really couldn't do something then your teacher would ask for it. It might take make than five minutes for you to master the skill but you can do it.

3. Don't utter the phrase "It sounded better at home.", because odds are it didn't. Most students have trouble hearing what they actually play. (That's why they have teachers.) And just because you noticed the mistake at your lessons doesn't mean weren't playing it that way the entire week. You probably were, at least 50% of the time, and just didn't notice.
 
4. Be Brave - Play in the year end recitals, yearly festivals, or piano exams. Not to torture yourself but to push yourself.

5. Go the extra mile - Go ahead in a song, read about music, google a piano question (like what does sfz mean?) instead of waiting until your next lesson. And then discuss it with your teacher. If you've moved on in the song ask your teacher to point out what is wrong and explain it to you. If you read something interesting then ask for their opinion. If you've googled a question, ask for further explanation or to make sure your understanding is correct.

6. Act like an adult - Remember your books. Be on top of tuition payments. Practice all of your assignments.

7. Be willing to learn - Some students just want to play their songs and resist any kind of critique or advice. Be open to your teacher's suggestions. At the lessons the teacher isn't just supposed to hear your pieces they are also supposed to correct what is wrong, and make that which is mediocre, great.

[slobone]

6. Act like an adult - Remember your books. Be on top of tuition payments. Practice all of your assignments.

And be on time for your lessons. If you have to miss a lesson because of other responsibilities, call your teacher as early as possible. Hopefully she can reschedule you. If your teacher's policy is not to charge you for missed lessons, you've just deprived her of income.

Be honest. If you were too busy to practice much this week, say so. Your teacher can use the lesson time to teach you more about basics, or whatever she thinks is appropriate.

Listen. This was very hard for me when I took lessons as an adult. Basically don't talk unless your teacher asks you a question. She's really not interested in your excuses or opinions -- she's heard them all before. Lesson time is short, it should mostly be you playing and her talking. Of course at the beginning and end you can engage in friendly conversation, adult to adult.

Most important -- have fun! Otherwise, why are you there? Nobody is making you.

[keypeg]

I would like to know what the teachers in this forum think about what I wrote.  I see a list of common things you encounter, but my impression of the OP is that these are not things she needs to be told.  But if you read what I wrote, you might see obstacles that happen in some kinds of lessons.  For example, the advice I see about "practice" - read what I wrote about that, please.  Those are situations that I don't think are uncommon.

[bernadette60614]

May I also admit in the relative privacy of this forum, that my teacher intimidates the heck out of me.

This is obviously not the place to delve into whatever in my psychological make-up responds to her in such a way...but I actually find my hands becoming sweaty when I have to play at my lessons.

Any advice? (with as much kindess as such a childish question can muster...!)

[brogers70]

Off the top of my head:

1. Your teacher works for you. Your teacher needs to worry about making sure she impresses you (with the progress she helps you make). You do not have to worry about impressing your teacher.

2. Screwing up in front of the teacher is great. The nerves you feel reveal weaknesses in your technique that the teacher can help you fix. What I mean by that is that if you use a bad technique, but are not nervous, like when are are practicing alone, you may manage to play passably well. But once you get the jitters, your bad technique will give out on you. Often my best lessons have been when I played a piece so badly that the teacher couldn't bear to let me finish.

3. Your teacher has one particular skill you lack. But odds are you have other skills your teacher lacks. No need to be intimidated.

4. Whatever mistakes you make, your teacher has probably seen them all before. She won't be shocked or outraged. It's just a routine part of her job that she has to help you fix them.

5. You've had a good lesson not when the teacher tells you you did a great job, but when you go home with a bunch of ideas about things to practice and new ways to make a better sound.

Maybe one of those will help. Good luck.

PS What are you learning next after the Rondo alla turco?

[bernadette60614]

Thank you!

That was a terrific response.

Today we determine what I learn next.  Now that I have a few lessons under my ample belt, I realize that my initial goal (playing all the Mozart piano sonatas) may have been overly ambitious. So, my revised goal is to address my "muddy" articulation, learn how to structure my practice, and how to memorize a piece.

My teacher has suggested either early Beethoven sonatas or Bach Two Part Inventions. 

All my moaning/questioning aside, I must say it is a much more exciting life to learn something new every week and to even be nervous about it than to  repeat the familiar!

Thank you again for your reply.

[hfmadopter]

May I also admit in the relative privacy of this forum, that my teacher intimidates the heck out of me.

This is obviously not the place to delve into whatever in my psychological make-up responds to her in such a way...but I actually find my hands becoming sweaty when I have to play at my lessons.

Any advice? (with as much kindness as such a childish question can muster...!)

These are very common reactions actually and I remember them well both when first taking accordion lessons as a kid and even more so taking piano lessons as a young adult. Now that I do some limited teaching myself I see it in my students as well, the most as they enter off the street each week, not so much as we get into a lesson.

I can only give my own account on the matter. The teacher is viewed as an authority figure on the subject of music and the instrument being learned. I knew much less than any of my teachers knew. That was the first barrier to get a handle on, the teacher in my mind was not a peer but judge and jury of how I responded to what was being taught. There came a point where that changed to wanting to absorb all I could get from my teachers. There came another point where some styles of playing at my teachers work shops she did not teach ( after I took an auxiliary course one summer). That changed things forever for me. Why ? Because I could start to relax a bit at my lessons. Also, at this point I had been going so long to her that we knew one anothers personality and both our goals was music in general. We actually did have something in common that had now been  especially your learning of each of those.