Cute or funny teaching stories

[lagin]

Hi, I was wondering if some people had some funny stories or cute senarios while teaching?  I have one little Spanish boy I teach who just turning 5.  We were learning "Little boy of China," and when I asked him if he knew where China was he said, "Yes, I have one gob."  (Interpretation: a globe)  At a Christmas recital he introduced his piece, "This is the song of 'Lightly Row,' and then climbed over the bench as opposed to walking around it and sitting down.  He proceded to play counting out loud as he went!   

[thierry13]

  He proceded to play counting out loud as he went!   

Not sure what you meant there, do you said he was playing piano at the same time he was talking about the piece?

If yes, he has the talent to be abble to play piano and sing a song at the same time like some jazz pianists  lol (sarcasm)

[steinwayguy]

Not sure what you meant there, do you said he was playing piano at the same time he was talking about the piece?

If yes, he has the talent to be abble to play piano and sing a song at the same time like some jazz pianists lol (sarcasm)

what?

No, he was saying "1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4" while he played. Isn't this basic terminology?

[will]

He proceded to play counting out loud as he went!   

Must be a Gould fan...

[keys]

At one lesson, I was explaining note names to a very little girl who hadn’t quite mastered the alphabet. When I played each note from A to G she exclaimed,  “I didn’t know notes had names! Kind of weird names though, not like you’d call a kid.” And I once conducted an entire piano lesson while one of my students had her brand new pet lizard perched on her shoulder. It attracted quite a large audience made up of her six brothers and sisters. I would’ve called for it’s removal, but I knew that her mind was with the lizard, and at least this way the lizard was in the close vicinity of the piano.       

[lagin]

Yes, I did mean he was going, 1,2,1,2 as he was playing.  I told him to count when he played, and recital or not, he was going to count!  We have to work on counting in one's head when performing.     I wish my other students would take so literally everything I say!

[lostinidlewonder]

Actually a pretty recent one a student was doing a peice and didn't notice that both staves where in Bass Clef, and played the RH as Trebel and LH as bass. He actually memorised an entire page like that. When i told him its wrong you should have seen his face. utter horror lol. I was like, can't you hear its wrong?

[Egghead]

Actually a pretty recent one a student was doing a peice and didn't notice that both staves where in Bass Clef, and played the RH as Trebel and LH as bass. He actually memorised an entire page like that. When i told him its wrong you should have seen his face. utter horror lol. I was like, can't you hear its wrong?

Hahaha!
Actually, I have managed something v. similar when sightreading - went on for a few bars until I realised! Yeah, it DID sound pretty strange, but hey, when I sightread it always sounds pretty strange 
But learning something by heart like that- poor guy!

[anja]

I've started collecting the funny things that happen while teaching. I've had an adult student say inuendo in place of diminuendo. Another friend said "Let's sing it Acapulco" instead of "a cappela." I've had a girl say I should marry my brother or someone else you love (she has 4 brothers). Once I told a boy you should enjoy what you play--life is short. He countered, "No, it's not!" And he was correct. He had 30 years on me.

[allchopin]

I was teaching a 4 year old girl once and I had asked her to draw a treble clef on a piece of paper.  After several seconds of intense concentration she showed me her interpretation of the treble clef and it looked something like this :

Close enough! 

[Sergey R]

LOL....looks like a snowman or something...

[stokes]

I have a good one..... I have a six year old student who was going to learn the names of the black keys. As you know in European languages F# is called Fiss for example. I explained to this little girl that you just add "iss" after the names of the white keys. She was thinking for a while and then she said: "Good that there is no white key called P, because that would be something disgusting"

[lagin]

I think that's the funniest one on here. lol

[anda]

this one's from a friend of mine also piano teacher:

here, the intervals are called "little" and "big" (for minor/major). so, explaining a very young student about the minor (little) 3rd vs. major (big) 3rd: "see, minor sounds sad, major sounds happy". and the young girl says: "i know why the minor 3rd is sad: beacuse it's little!"