Thursday, March 29, 2012

Help! Piano Teacher Question

One of my piano teacher friends wrote me a message. She is having a little bit of trouble with one of her students. So I thought what better way to get ideas to help her than to post it on here for you guys to make suggestions. This is what she wrote:

"I have a 10 yr old that is just starting lessons and for the life of me I can't figure out why she's not getting this one concept. I've tried several different ways to teach it, but it's not sticking. UGH! Basically, she's not seeing the notes on the page for what they are i.e. she's not memorizing where middle C is or any of the notes. We've been on the very basics for 2 months now! She's still having trouble with middle C. She's still not mastering the keyboard. Like today, she said "B" and played "A" and then stared at me like, "What? I'm playing the right note?" At first I thought she was cocky like, "I don't really have to pay attention because all the rest of this has been so easy." But then last week she says, "this is too hard I want to quit." She's bored and I'm frustrated. I'm doing flashcards at the end of each lesson and using several books so that she's getting the same concept in 6 different songs instead of 2. Any thoughts? She's driving me nuts with the attitude. It doesn't help that mom is sitting in the next room till the lesson is over."

So any thoughts for my friend on how to help her student?