Adult student delusional about ability, won't do remedial study

[lizschneider]

My subject line says it all - I have an adult student, retired, about 65 and not in great health, who requests I teach him Rachmaninoff preludes and Chopin ballades, but he can't get through a single piece by Burgmuller or a Bach prelude. He has obviously been abused and browbeaten by teacher after teacher. Yet he's such a sweet person with such a great and inspiring, abiding passion for playing piano, that I have truly striven hard to help him. I survived abusive teachers myself, and as a result, I always respect and encourage my students. But I don't want to enable a delusion. That is a strong term, but apparently accurate in this case.

I've practiced with him at each lesson on scales, a short version of Hanon no. 1 in different keys, Czerny-Schaum Volume 1 etc but he finds these difficult and has progressed little. With lots of coaching I helped him perform a cut version of Chopin's Polonaise Militaire which he had learned in college (no telling how, or how long ago). He did learn Bach's first WTC prelude in C, and he can manage Schumann "Of Foreign Lands and People," but that is about all, over lessons for almost 3 years minus several months here and there when he was ill or traveling.
He keeps changing the subject mid-lesson, or saying he is getting tired, or just not being able to master simple repertoire.

One credit to him is that he sight reads pretty well - pitches good, rhythms not so much. And has a fairly good memory for the bits he has mastered. He is on the board of a retirement/nursing home and told me he wanted to play a singalong for the folks on Christmas Day. I couldn't attend, but I printed out easy versions of his requests and made word sheets. I found out later that he had printed a Classical program of difficult pieces by Chopin and Rachmaninoff. He played a few bars of one of them then left the stage. Yet he has not admitted to me anything but success. (I heard from a resident who's a friend, then talked to the activities director and she was embarrassed).

I am really grasping now for how to treat him. A kind of intervention? My husband, a violin teacher, says don't worry you'll break his heart - it has to break to heal. I think of requiring he memorize two of the little Czerny Schaum etudes (they are simple but effective) and start this to begin each lesson, and if they are not learned telling him to try again next week, no lesson. Asking for memory might provide proof he is not just wasting his practice time pretending to play concert repertoire.

By the way - I know what I'm doing otherwise: masters in performance from Juilliard, DMA in pedagogy, church musician also. But teaching always reveals new dilemmas! I would appreciate input from the experience of contributors to this forum. THANKS

[lostinidlewonder]

Some students genuinely need to learn through their interests more than others. While it’s wonderful when a student will simply do whatever is set, more and more we encounter students with very specific musical goals. In those cases it’s important to meet somewhere in the middle (and even this can be a process in itself).

You mentioned that you already tried an easier version of the Chopin piece I think that’s exactly the right direction. Working on more music the student is drawn to, whether through edited versions or small passages, it can be extremely effective.

Engagement is the number one priority for us as teachers. If the student is engaged, meaningful learning can happen. That engagement doesn’t always come packaged with efficiency, especially for students who have a very narrow focus in what they want from the piano, but it's still be a crucial part of their musical journey.

Also memory work (playing without the score)is not always necessary for everyone, you mention he's good at reading so there's nothing wrong just focusing on making his reading skills better and not worry about memorization so much.

[ranjit]

I don't get why you're so insistent on the Czerny etudes. It's possible this student might be motivated by easier Chopin pieces or simple sections of pieces. If he only wants to play pieces that sound musical to him, I think he might be better off (even though it might be suboptimal) leaning pieces he likes.

[quantum]

Does your student have a recurring tendency to start many new projects but rarely see them to completion?  Not just in music, but in anything they have interest in, or even in the mundane events of daily life.  What about planning, does your student like to talk a lot about plans?  How often do these ideas make the leap from plan to action?

Tell us about your student's work habits.  In lesson, how does your student work through a problem?  Say you are working through a problem passage of music that is of reasonable length and complexity to be solved within a single lesson.  Is your student interested, focused, indifferent, distracted, overwhelmed, anxious etc. by the prospect of methodically working to a solution?

I do share ranjit's concern, why are you placing a lot of emphasis on Hanon and Czerny?