Choice Words – a unique blog of one piano teacher's journey towards happiness.

I’ve done a lot – some of it by accident, but that doesn’t matter in hindsight. At the age of 19 while studying music as an undergraduate, I was cast into the unexpected role of a private piano teacher. I remember teaching a 5 yr old beginner how to play a C major scale. I was going off of what I thought a piano lesson should be like though I had never contemplated it beforehand.

A lot has changed in twenty years of teaching. It took me getting a couple of years into teaching privately when I realized it was useless to ask a student why they did not practice. Meeting a student where they are means most times repeating what was done in the previous lesson. And that’s ok! A beginner’s mind is not accustomed to the task of playing piano. In fact, a non musical mind is not accustomed to repeating things over and over and over again. Really. If you ask anyone on the street to repeat a simple rhythmic pattern four times, the chances of them getting it perfect is highly unlikely, doing it out of time doesn’t count! Pointing this out to a new piano student gives them an idea of what they are up against.

Talking about the conventions that govern music making allows learners to make connections between every day tasks and playing music.