Dealing with an easily-distracted student

[soundingjack]

Hello,
I have a young and talented piano student, who obviously loves music ... but he is energetic and easily distracted. Sometimes he starts playing random music in lessons, and it can be hard for him to listen to me. It's also hard for him to practise slowly: I have to do it with him and insist on a tempo.

Do you have any tips for the following:
How to persuade a young learner to practise slowly.
To get the notes and rhythms right, to make a 'full, deep' contact with the key –– and to repeat it so that it's secure, not just right by chance. I think he finds it boring so he gets fed up with it and doesn't do it.

How to keep discipline in lessons?
I'm a non-confrontational character, and getting angry is not my style. But are there ways I can be more firm and persuasive?

Thanks 

[quantum]

Hi and welcome to Pianostreet,

For slow practice, teach him to count out loud and think using subdivisions.  You could also do clapping / subdivision counting exercises.

Give clear, articulate, precise instructions and take charge of the lesson.  You don't need to be confrontational in order to project the sense of being a confident leader. 

Rather than saying: let's start from the beginning of the piece.

Say: Turn to page 38 in your repertoire book. We will start playing on the second system, measure 26, beat 4. Hands in position, feet on the floor, think of your tempo, and GO!

Use small sets of quickly achievable goals, rather than long complex concepts that take long to ponder and give the opportunity for the student to distract themselves.  If you are trying to get your student to think of notes, and rhythm, and touch, all at the same time, break the concepts up.  Flip between doing notes for a short time, then rhythm for a short time, then touch. 

Prepare several contrasting lessons to teach at any given moment.  Switch between the lessons before the student has an opportunity to become distracted.  It might seem fragmented to you, but all the material is still there for your student to learn.  It is just broken up into smaller chunks.

Example: 
Turn to page 20 in your lesson book, third system, bar 52, and PLAY. 
Before they reach then end of the piece, without warning: show flash card, quick name the symbol!
As soon as they do that point to bar 45, start here, and PLAY.
When they get to bar 67, without warning: quick write the G major scale, trebble clef on staff paper.
As soon as they finish: turn to page 54 in lesson book...
...but I haven't finished...
turn to the page quickly, play starting on the third system, first bar, fourth beat. PLAY.
When they reach the end of the phrase: quickly turn to page 20, third system, bar 57, PLAY.
After they cadence, interrupt them and ask, did that sound familiar?  You just played it in two different pieces, it is the G major scale ascending in the right hand.
We are going to do some improvisation using the G major scale now...

You could also do a similar jumping around technique with a single piece, pointing to random parts of the score for the student to immediately switch to playing without stopping the flow of the music.  It develops skill in both sight reading, and understanding how to deal with slips in live performances. 

Once in a while entertain his random music, you could do is as a reward for focused attention during the lesson, however, use it as a teaching point.  For example, if he starts  playing a chord pattern, have him improvise a melody over the chord pattern.  Have the student transpose the chord pattern into different keys. Have the student switch the mode of the pattern from major to minor or vice versa.

[lostinidlewonder]

Hello,
I have a young and talented piano student, who obviously loves music ... but he is energetic and easily distracted. Sometimes he starts playing random music in lessons, and it can be hard for him to listen to me. It's also hard for him to practise slowly: I have to do it with him and insist on a tempo.

Do you have any tips for the following:
How to persuade a young learner to practise slowly.
To get the notes and rhythms right, to make a 'full, deep' contact with the key –– and to repeat it so that it's secure, not just right by chance. I think he finds it boring so he gets fed up with it and doesn't do it.

How to keep discipline in lessons?
I'm a non-confrontational character, and getting angry is not my style. But are there ways I can be more firm and persuasive?

Thanks 

It can be quite detrimental to the teaching relationship if you veto how the child is to behave and not have some relaxed approach that gives them the space to be themselves. It can be hard to remember that being a child means a lot of play, to muck around, to toy around with ideas, it may look unserious to you but give them that freedom to be themselves. Once you allow them to do that you can then much more easily encourage them to have short bursts of serious focus, or change in their approach even if you are quite demanding that they do it. So long they realize you allow them a lot of space to be themselves they will always appreciate that and then give back to you by listening to you even if you are tough on them. When they do do something you ask of them be lavish with praise and commendation. Continue being a soft and kind teacher, these playful kids will love having lessons with you and over time will bend to your will more and more.

A key factor is "maturity" that is to take the work in a more serious manner. This is something that can take young kids a few years to get to a good level and something we just cannot rush unless you risk them hating music lessons with you. So allow them to be themselves, allow them to play without being totally perfect, let suboptimal solutions be acceptable and move on. As the child relaxes they will be much more open to education rather than feeling tense and constantly having to follow rules. This benefits the childs relationship with education a lot more to be in a relaxed state, they will learn to enjoy learning not dread that their individuality is going to get crushed and their creative drive forcefully moulded.

Always build them up, never break them down.
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=65615

[keypeg]

Excellent ideas.
Refining this:

Give clear, articulate, precise instructions and take charge of the lesson.  ......

Rather than saying: let's start from the beginning of the piece.

Say: Turn to page 38 in your repertoire book. We will start playing on the second system, measure 26, beat 4. Hands in position, feet on the floor, think of your tempo, and GO!

We don't know the age of the student.  In my teacher training many years ago, I was reminded that young students cannot follow numerous instructions.  So you might tell older students "We'll go over spelling in page 4, numbers 1 - 12."  For the younger student you'd say. "Take out your spelling books." (wait) "Open your books to page 4." (pause - help anyone who can't find page 4).   "Put your finger on number 1." (or "find number 1).  I was quite surprised to be told this, but later found it was quite valid.

[ranjit]

Excellent ideas.
Refining this:

We don't know the age of the student.  In my teacher training many years ago, I was reminded that young students cannot follow numerous instructions.  So you might tell older students "We'll go over spelling in page 4, numbers 1 - 12."  For the younger student you'd say. "Take out your spelling books." (wait) "Open your books to page 4." (pause - help anyone who can't find page 4).   "Put your finger on number 1." (or "find number 1).  I was quite surprised to be told this, but later found it was quite valid.

Interesting. I wonder if this has something to do with the development of working memory in children. I would definitely expect children with high working memory to be better at executing multiple instructions one after another. Why do adults not face the same difficulty?

[soundingjack]

Thank you for your amazing answers! It's so helpful and I'll definitely think about them all very carefully. The student is around 8 years old preparing for his ABRSM grade 8 exam (not entered by me, I just started with him a couple of weeks ago). So he's advanced but still a child (naturally).

Definitely agree that it's important not to 'veto the child's behaviour' – while being firm and precise with what I do. Your suggestions for improving practise are very helpful. Thank you all so much 

[keypeg]

Thinking:
8 years old
preparing for a grade 8 ABRSM exam
a new student having had a previous teacher

Are there hints or hidden things in this cluster of facts?  Like, what happened in previous lessons - what are the differences now - are their hidden problems?  Like the age and grade - I don't know ABRSM - but isn't that a tad fast?

[ranjit]

Thank you for your amazing answers! It's so helpful and I'll definitely think about them all very carefully. The student is around 8 years old preparing for his ABRSM grade 8 exam (not entered by me, I just started with him a couple of weeks ago). So he's advanced but still a child (naturally).

I think every time you have a child who advances quickly like that, you can't use general "rules" for their progress. From what I've seen, even the best teachers in the world can't get an average kid to play grade 8 that young, so there's usually something different with the kid. By that I mean, they might have excellent abstract thinking ability, high working memory, inherent drive, ability to work long hours, good ability with theory etc. Many "rules" which you apply to young children may not apply, and they may be operating closer to what you would imagine from a teenager.

I feel like finding it hard to practice slowly is very common among talented kids. I don't know if that's distractibility, exactly. Is he convinced he must practice slowly? One thing my teacher did was to ask me to observe multiple indications on the score while playing simultaneously. I couldn't do all of them immediately, so naturally my tempo went down a little.

I'm not quite sure it matters to play under tempo if you can get the movement required perfectly at tempo. Is there a particular reason why you want him to play slowly? Thinking about this should help imo. You can then gradually make him realize the necessity of doing so naturally by working on specific things in lessons which require slow practice in order to get right.

Another thing I think is important is asking how the child got to grade 8 that fast. Tbh I think they may have been pushed past earlier grades without developing proper technical skills. If they had all the maturity to play grade 8 well at that age, they wouldn't just be talented, they would be closer to a genuine prodigy. From your description, that doesn't sound to be the case, so I think it would be much more beneficial to develop his basic technique. I feel like a good way to do this might be to show him how to play a simpler piece or even a scale very musically with even touch and really good phrasing etc. Of course, you would need to be a good pianist yourself. And then ask him to emulate that. Without a proper technique, it will be impossible. I think this should make it more apparent why your practice methods are necessary.

On getting it right every time, I can see why someone would be impatient with drilling to get that. A thought, perhaps you could work on pieces a few grades below his level, where after 3-5 repetitions or so, he could play with a full, deep contact with the keys and confidence to get it right. Gradually, this sensation should transfer to harder pieces. I don't think most kids that age will have the patience to do that sort of practice for long periods of time, so your best bet imo would be to try to get them to do it for a few repetitions so that they gradually get used to it. And they will get much better at it as they mature.

[soundingjack]

Are there hints or hidden things in this cluster of facts?  Like, what happened in previous lessons - what are the differences now - are their hidden problems?  Like the age and grade - I don't know ABRSM - but isn't that a tad fast?

Keypeg: I agree it's rather fast. He does learn very fast but seems 'very hungry for new things,' be it sightreading, playing random tunes, or hearing unfamiliar pieces for the aural question. He has probably skipped previous grades as his aural and sightreading need work. It might be Covid related, as his previous teacher is apparently in a different country.

(I'm not sure if I'd have entered him for the exam myself: I think he might benefit from growing musically first before we try to make everything perfect, and I don't think he has the discipline yet to study for a high-level grade...)

Many "rules" which you apply to young children may not apply, and they may be operating closer to what you would imagine from a teenager.

I agree he's operating at a pretty high level Ranjit, which often impresses me. He is still a distractable younger child in several respects.

I'm not quite sure it matters to play under tempo if you can get the movement required perfectly at tempo. Is there a particular reason why you want him to play slowly?

He plays quite well but with blips and stumbling in fast passages. So we do need to do some corners slowly. I'm also being put under outside pressure to make him practise slowly for the whole lesson. I agree it's part of the solution but a) he just won't listen to me, and b) I think too much slow practice for a child can make them dislike the music.

I think it would be much more beneficial to develop his basic technique. I feel like a good way to do this might be to show him how to play a simpler piece or even a scale very musically with even touch and really good phrasing etc. [...] A thought, perhaps you could work on pieces a few grades below his level, where after 3-5 repetitions or so, he could play with a full, deep contact with the keys and confidence to get it right. Gradually, this sensation should transfer to harder pieces.

Agreed – thank you so much! This sounds much more productive, and I'll take it onboard once his exam (in 2 weeks) is out of the way. Thanks for being so friendly and helpful.