"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Piano Lessons, Part 1
by Emily S. Jorgensen
If
I had a dollar for every excuse I have heard about why a piano
student didn’t practice this week, I think I could quit
teaching and retire on the interest.
Whenever
a student starts the lesson with, “Well, this week I didn’t
really practice because…” I listen respectfully and wait
for him to finish. Then I respond, “Ok, so are you ready to
repent this week?”
We
have a little chuckle and discuss strategies to do a better job this
week.
I
have taught well over 20,000 piano lessons at this point in my
career. In that time I have learned that some of the most important
of life’s lessons can be learned in the course of piano study.
One of them is indeed repentance.
Lesson
1: Repent Now or Repent More Later
I
make it a point to preview a new piece with students in each lesson.
I point out the parts that will be more difficult. I offer practice
strategies and hints to help them do their best this week. I may even
have them try a passage or two with me by their side so I can further
guide them.
Amanda
Vick Lethco, a late famous piano teacher called this “preparing
their success.” The idea is that we can prevent difficult
passages from becoming problematic bad habits if we approach them
correctly the first time.
However,
it inevitably happens that a student will come back with a problem or
two because he mislearned something or approached a passage in a way
that seemed easier to him at the time but in fact has bred a bad
habit that will cause problems later. At this point, I outline a plan
to fix the problem. This usually involves drilling the passage
several times, very slowly, perhaps in pieces, and then gradually
working it back up to speed. (This is very boring. But, it is also
very effective.)
Here’s
the rub: if the student is willing to fix the problem right away, in
the second week of learning the passage, it will take just a few days
to relearn it correctly. However, if he comes back to the next lesson
(and perhaps even the next) with the same problem because he didn’t
want to do the boring, monotonous drilling, then it becomes a problem
that will take possibly hours to relearn.
Eventually,
if he has avoided fixing the problem on his own for a substantial
amount of time, I will take our lesson time and we will drill it
together. This is my least favorite type of lesson. The student hates
it; I hate it. It is boring. It is tedious. It means we don’t
get to the fun stuff.
But,
usually, I only have to do this once with a student for them to
learn. If he fixes it right away next time, if he just sucks it up
and does the 10 times a day for 3 days that I recommend, he will
never have to endure this again.
Likewise,
if we face our temptations and our life’s mistakes right away,
repenting and turning from them, we can live a happier, freer life.
Bad habits won’t become addictions. Hurt feelings won’t
become a festering grudge. A misunderstanding won’t destroy a
relationship.
Why
don’t we face our problems right away? Because just like
drilling the same two measures of a piano piece ad
nauseam,
the work of repentance is rather unpleasant.
Recently, my
nine-year-old daughter came to me to confess that she had
inadvertently lied to me about some such thing a while ago. It was
clear as she talked to me that she felt nervous and that this was a
difficult thing for her to say. Of course, I couldn’t even
remember the situation to which she was referring; it was easy to
forgive her.
I realized this was a
golden teaching moment.
I asked her how she felt
now that she had told me and apologized, and she said with a big sigh
and smile, “really good.”
I’ve seen that same
smile on students’ faces after they face that difficult passage
and invest the necessary work. Alternatively, the student who avoids
the unpleasantness just feels worse and worse about it every week,
making lame excuses and claiming to not like piano anymore.
The peace a pianist feels
once a difficult passage is mastered is just a microcosm of the peace
to our soul that comes from repenting from sin. And just like on the
piano bench, it is much easier to get to that peaceful place right
now than it will be two weeks, two months, or even a year from now.
Emily
Jorgensen received her bachelor's degree in piano performance from
Brigham Young University. She earned her master's degree in
elementary music education, also at BYU. She holds a Kodaly
certificate in choral education, as well as permanent certification
in piano from Music Teacher’s National Association.
She
has taught piano, solfege, and children’s music classes for 17
years in her own studio. She has also taught group piano classes at
BYU.
She
is an active adjudicator throughout the Wasatch Front and has served
in local, regional, and state positions Utah Music Teachers'
Association, as well as the Inspirations arts contest chair at
Freedom Academy.
She
gets a lot of her inspiration for her column by parenting her own
rambunctious four children, aged from “in diapers” to
“into Harry Potter.” She is still married to her high
school sweetheart and serves in her ward’s Primary.