CHATGPT:
Recently I took on a new piano student. Their previous teacher had informed me of how impressive this student is, how quickly they learn - and have started playing Hanon exercises as well as starting on Mozart's Rondo alla Turca, in the original arrangement. When hearing all of this I thought - wow this student is 11 years old, they might eventually need a more advanced level teacher. When I finally met with the student I asked them to play the most recent exercises and pieces from his previous teacher. He is learning from the Faber Piano Adventure Level 3B book and played the last lesson very fast - I learned he had been practicing that lesson piece for one month and each week it was to increase the tempo. When he played his Hanon exercise, again it was played fast and mechanically. Again, I learned he spends a month on each exercise and the goal each week is to increase the speed. In the one year he had started on Hanon, this student reached Exercise 11 this month. I also discovered that the previous teacher skipped around in the method books.After about 3 lessons with him, I asked him what are his goals in learning piano. He said he didn't know. I then asked if he liked learning piano, and it was a yes. When I asked what he thought about learning Hanon, he grinned and said it gave him a sense of accomplishment. Hearing this, I thought great, he's interested in learning skills. But when I then learned he hadn't played any music aside from the Faber books and now Hanon, I decided it would be good to introduce some short pieces for him to apply his skills.That's when things became extremely difficult with this student. He has been resisting in learning the order of the key signatures - because he was taught a nemonic method of finding sharps and flats he didn't see a reason to understand that G major starts 5 notes from C major, but once he discovers this pattern then he dismissed the entire concept of the Circle of 5ths. He protested at having to play C major (because he already knows it) but later discovered he had difficulty playing it in contrary motion or finding the block chords. And he doesn't see a reason to practice scales if he knows how to find them with the nemonic method his previous teacher taught - it doesn't matter to him that he didn't remember the pattern of major scales (WWHWWWH) - which is covered in the Faber books but he obviously didn't practice continuously to put into memory. But his biggest complaint about me is that he accuses me of holding him back. And I can see he doesn't think I know how to teach because he believes he already knows everything. When I ask him a question, and he thinks he knows the answer, he would respond in a condescending tone of voice, even when he is wrong. I'm very patient but I'm not going to tolerate rudeness and disrespect. He is acting this way in part because I informed him and his parents that the Mozart piece is too advanced for him to learn at this time. Due to his interest in playing fast, his hand was hurting from the 2 months of learning the introduction - and which was only possible by writing in the name of the notes on the page and removing some notes. I also recognized that he figured out the pattern in the Hanon exercises and wants to finish the entire book as his accomplishment. Meanwhile, he might be at a late beginner level, he hasn't put into practice the lessons from the method books he had completed towards an original piece of music. I gave him a short Minuet by JCF Bach, which is at his level and he is letting me know he doesn't care about the piece by how he plays. This student resents learning music and just wants to play from the Hanon book, When I explained to him that this short piece of music also contains technique to learn, he got a bit interested and finally put some effort in learning the piece. But when lessons ended I can see he was still not happy with me. I have met a number of students who have some type of goal for learning the piano. Some want to be able to write their own songs, form a band with their friends, play music that their parent learned to play, or if they're adult learners, finally fulling a dream to play the piano. While each of these students have their different challenges, overall they all have a motivation to keep them learning and practicing - and the motivation doesn't involve learning from only one book of finger exercises.