Throughout my piano tutoring experience (since 2009) I encountered a fair amount of students with underdeveloped skills and bad habits who were previously taught by other teachers. In some cases, the students had no idea about most basic theory concepts and even know how to read the notes or understand rhythm after more than 3 years of piano lessons.

Before I continue, I would like to mention that this post was not made with the intent to make petty assumptions and accusations towards other colleagues and their overall approach. I was not present, thus I simply do not have enough information to allow myself to do that. The reason why I chose to write about this, however, is because of the various bad habits and specific “lazy” teaching hacks that I found written in students’ books or I was made aware of by the students themselves.

To be fair, I am also guilty of committing some of these mistakes along the way until I realized that they do not help the students as much as I believed them to. It did take me a few years to transition from what I knew a piano tutor did, to what I believe they ought to do and adopt a more entrepreneurial approach. One, that was catered to the overall development of the student and not solely around teaching them just how to play the piano.

I ran a bunch of experiments throughout the years to find the best teaching style only to realize that maybe squeezing every student through the same prism of learning might not be the ideal way. It finally dawned on me that a teacher’s approach to the material they teach, their way of distilling information and communicating, their demeanor, and their focus on theory must depend on the person they are teaching. Once I established that I made a few changes that lead, almost immediately to an increase in engagement, focus, understanding, and satisfaction with many of my students.

* * *

Here are the 5 mistakes I have come accross that every teacher and piano player should be aware of.

1. Write the names or finger numbers for each note on the page.
   
   A few years back I was contacted by someone who was looking for a piano tutor for their children, as their teacher of four years was not able to do it anymore. During my first visit, I asked the students to show me what they have been working on at the time when they stopped playing. To my surprise, when they opened their books I saw the names of every single note written underneath and the finger number written on top. Not surprisingly, both the students were playing way more advanced songs than they should have been, making their playing incredibly choppy, uneven, and simply incorrect. They also had no idea about basic concepts like time and key signature, majors, minors, etc.
   
   Here is the thing! Way too often I have seen piano tutors allow themselves to give the students little cheat sheets from time to time. For example, write the names of the first notes on the page so it is easier for the student to find their hand position and play the song. That might work for kids who have a strong visual memory but certainly not for those with dominant muscle or audio memory. What such students essentially do is create a finger choreography following a map of patterns. When those patterns are easy enough, they can recreate it in the matter of a few tries. That does not… I repeat… it does NOT teach them how to read notes.
   
   What it does, is give the student a false sense of accomplishment and pride which allows them to coast through the initial levels with ease. However, when they reach a point where patterns are trickier and they are faced with a more complex theory they hit a level of stagnation, which turns their drive off and often results in them quitting all-together.
   
   Every student is completely different. It is up to the teacher to find their strengths and weaknesses and focus on the later. Through exercises, repetition, and yes… making the student do a few frustrating tasks (like name every single note the first time they play the song), a teacher can have an incredible impact on their development. This is especially true if the teacher also works on making their approach more inclusive and focuses on growth.
   
2. Play the song for the student before they begin to learn it.
   
   Many students have told me that their previous teachers played the songs before to show them what they are supposed to sound like. I have always been suspicious of this method. Mainly because the majority of these students also showed difficulty sightreading and understanding basic theory concepts.
   
   Now, don’t get me wrong. Every student is different and for those with impeccable sightreading, this method might be ok. However, as I argued in the previous point many students rely on muscle memory. In other words, instead of reading the notes, they memorize the finger patterns. Often such students are also very likely to have a strong audio memory. As a result, they prefer to go faster and restart the song from the beginning when they make mistakes. This allows them to piece the song together one pattern at a time and learn the song by listening to the melody and not by reading the notes.
   
   If the purpose is to teach the student a song fast then playing it in advance will give them a blueprint and help them double-check it when they are not correct.
   
   However, if the purpose is to improve on the student’s ability to sightread, create independence, enhance their problem-solving skills then playing the song for them will not help. As I mentioned before what it does is make them feel good about learning the song quickly. However, that will not provide them with the tools to be able to tackle more complex musical pieces and will most likely result in their confidence plummeting when they advance to harder levels.
   
   Does that mean that you should never play the song to the student? Of course not! Hearing a flawless version of the musical piece is a must when they enter phase 2 of the learning process. (see Learn How To Perfect A Song Faster… for more reference). It will help them hear the dynamics, phrases, the whole picture, and in many instances motivate them. However, that has to happen only after they have shown a full understanding of the melody and rhythm and can play the song fairly steady at a slow pace.
   
3. Hold every student to the same standard
   When I started teaching, I fell back on my past experiences with my tutors and drew from their methods. I held all of my students up to the same standard. I expected everyone to practice every day and as for those who didn’t, I thought it was due to laziness. I kept insisting on getting each song to recital quality even after the student had lost interest in it, and many more.
   
   I realized that something wasn’t right when I started noticing that children’s attention faltered when I was most demanding. I was a product of my Eastern European musical tutoring, which was no rainbows and sunshine, I can assure you. It was results-driven instead of focusing on personal growth. It was intimidating instead of inclusive. It focused on striving for excellence as opposed to learning from and embracing one’s mistakes.
   
   I saw that my students’ success was linked to their satisfaction and that it varied from student to student. I started noticing how differently their brains worked, from how they absorbed information to how they expressed their own learning styles. Because of that, I made an effort to enter into a unique kind of partnership with every single student and embrace their uniqueness.
   
   I now use various strategies for every student and as a result, I have better communication and trust with them and they are more likely to practice and follow my instructions. For example, for those who lose interest after a few minutes of practicing, we focus on doing the hard bits during our lessons and devise a plan to practice daily for a short period. For those who refuse to practice altogether, we split the lessons into smaller ones and work on learning the songs a few measures at a time. And of course, for those with strong concentration levels, we focus on creating a routine that will develop every skill in a parallel fashion.
   
   I am a loud supporter of adopting an individual approach with every student. Understanding their personalities, abilities, skills, and providing a safe place where they can learn to embrace their mistakes and learn from them is the best gift a teacher can leave behind, in my opinion.
   
4. Rushing students through the learning process
   It seems like a simple enough idea but you will be surprised to know how many of us lose track of our patience when we see students not paying attention or are being silly. When I started teaching I found it hard to maintain my cool when I knew that a student is perfectly capable of doing a specific task but are sabotaging the process. I also noticed that the more demanding I became, the more they lacked focus. Their reactions were all too familiar to me and I knew that I had to change my whole demeanour and tactic.
   
   So…
   * I stopped rushing them.
   * Instead of telling them what to do, I made suggestions.
   * Instead of counting the beats out loud while they were playing, I asked them what they thought was wrong after they finished playing and how we can fix it.
   * Instead of asserting authority, I made them know that we are partners and are figuring it out together.
   
   When I was younger, almost every single piano tutor of mine exhibited impatience during our lessons. They would become more assertive, make tapping noises with the pencil on the page to get me to play a note faster, raise their voices, and even go as far as pushing my fingers aggressively on the piano when I wasn’t moving fast enough. To be fair, I wasn’t a phenomenal student by any means, something I discovered later in life to be attributed to having ADHD. It wasn’t until I was in high school and switched teachers that I discovered the influence a compassionate, caring and a patient tutor can have on a student. For the first time, I was given a safe space to try and figure out a specific hard part on my own, without constant inputs and interruptions. With her, I was allowed to fail and try again. She understood my struggles. We spoke about them openly and non-judgmentally. As a result, I wanted to do better, I wanted to not let her and myself down and I showed up more prepared.
   
   After I changed my tactics and gave my students more space and time to figure things out, with me being more of guidance rather than an authoritative voice, I noticed a positive change in their outputs. The change was substantial especially with the children who had a hard time focusing and following instructions.
   
   As teachers, we all have agendas and checklists with items that need to be taught during a specific class. I do however want to propose to make this checklist more of a suggestion, a list of items we would like to accomplish without making it a necessity. If there is anything I can encourage is to: listen to your students; give them space even if that means that they spend a third of the class “figuring out” two lines of the song; be there to navigate them gently through the pitfalls, and teach them to recognize and savour the minor wins. And who knows, you just might find yourself pleasantly surprised with the results.
   
5. Make teaching how to learn songs the main goal
   It took me a long time. A long, long time before I realized that the main goal is not to teach the student how to play the song. It is rather a process that is far more complex than that. It is:
   
   1. Helping them figure out their strengths and weaknesses
   2. Figuring out ways to help them work on those weaknesses
   3. Providing a safe space where the student can embrace their failures and learn from their mistakes
   4. Showing them the importance of project management and teaching them how to break down information so they do not overwhelm themselves.
   5. Providing them with space where they can learn to be curious about the way they learn and how their brain works.
   6. Helping them figure out strategies to tackle unpleasant tasks and make them more manageable.

The reality is that everyone who has basic knowledge in music and piano will be able to learn a song (depending on the level of complexity, of course). With enough practicing and drilling everyone can figure it out, more or less. In addition, very rarely do students remember songs they have played in previous levels. The question then becomes, why are we so focused on drilling every song to perfection? Could it be that there is a higher goal behind the process of learning song after song?

Maybe instead of preparing students to be recital ready with every piece, the focus should be on their overall development like their self-confidence, independence, concentration, analytical thinking, creativity and many more.

Those who want to learn music well and play competitively can easily be taught that way. The majority of people who play the piano, however, do not want to reach the highest level of musical education. They want to become musically literate and access the wonderful benefits for the brain that playing an instrument provides you with. So maybe, just maybe, focusing on overall development through the secrets of music might just reap higher rewards for that group. I know it has been the case in my 10+ years of teaching.

Some might say that focusing on perfecting a song will do exactly that. I will argue that focusing on the overall development requires a certain form of flexibility that the other method cannot provide. For example, not everyone will benefit equally from perfecting all scales, arpeggios and other drills. That will be especially true if exerting pressure to perfect them might create dissatisfaction with the instrument and lead to them quitting (something I have seen way too often). In this case, it will defeat the purpose.

To finalize everything I said with a few words would be to:
Be flexible
Be compassionate
Be understanding
And never cease to question and evolve your methods.

!!!Good luck!!!

In other words, I began to care more about their mental growth and as a result, their playing and commitment grew.