Every week I spend time with my piano students during their lessons listening to their concerns, questions, and problems. Approximately half of my current students are adults while the majority of the other half is made up of children 9 and under, but practically all my students fall into the beginner to early intermediate category. Something I’ve found not terribly surprising and a little amusing, is that when demonstrating the songs they’ve been practicing all week, ninety-eight percent of the children think that they’ve played it correctly, while ninety-eight percent of the adults think that they’ve played it incorrectly (or poorly). Now, we all know about the psychological hang-ups and insecurities that we develop as adults, but I think that the problem runs deeper than this. I think that part of the problem lies with adult students setting their expectations too high. And so I’d like to take some time to talk a little bit about what, in my experience as a piano teacher, constitutes “realistic” expectations for adult beginner students.
Learning to play the piano (or any instrument) is all about building skill sets. A skill set is essentially a musical concept, idea or pattern that, once learned properly, the student should be able to apply to other pieces of music. For beginners, skill sets that need to be learned will be general and simple, and as the student progresses towards intermediate and advanced levels, the skill sets get more specific and complex. For example, a few skill sets that beginners must learn include: tying one small musical idea to another (ie. not leaving “spaces” between bars); being able to differentiate between, by ear or on the page, basic rhythmic units such as quarter and half notes; and being able to play with both legato and detached articulation. If a student lacks certain skill sets, or has the inability to recognize a previously learned skill set and how to apply it to a new piece of music being learned, then they will begin to feel frustrated and that they are constantly “stuck at the same level”. Now, often students are making progress but still feel this way, and this can be for a number of reasons, one of which I’m personally guilty of – which is to introduce a new piece with a new skill set as soon as a previous one has been learned. Why, as teachers, do we do this? Well, I think it is in part because we are happy to see our students advance to more and more difficult pieces of music, but I think there are a few subconscious factors coming into play. We know that adults are (mostly) impatient learners and that if they get too frustrated or bored, they might quit. [Just for the record – this is of course true for children too, but since children are enrolled in lessons by their parents, not only do they rarely get to decide when to quit, but they frequently have more support at home whereas adults usually don’t.]
“OK Claire, you’re getting off topic” (I hear you saying), and maybe I am a little bit, but it’ll all tie in together, I promise!
So there are a couple valuable lessons to be learned here for both the student and teacher. For teachers: know what your students’ skill sets are, and try as often as possible to stay with one skill set at a time until they are mastering it. If you flip flop back and forth between skill sets all the time it will take longer for the student to master and integrate them. Furthermore, don’t let your students dominate the lessons, especially with regard to repertoire. You are their teacher for a reason and they understand this. Don’t allow them to be constantly playing music higher than their actual skill level. Students will feel better about themselves if they can master a piece in a few lessons (as opposed to a few months.) Of course, having an occasional “challenge piece” can be beneficial for many adults as it gives them something they feel they can work toward. For students: please try to be patient! Both with yourselves, and with your teachers. If they are choosing music for you that you don’t particularly like, it is usually only to teach you a particular musical element. That said, if they are constantly picking music for you that you don’t like, speak up! Teachers are not mind readers and they don’t know what kind of music you like unless you tell them. [Another side note here: if you know you are picky about music, try to be as specific as possible with your teachers from the very beginning. Saying that you like “popular” or “classical” music is extremely vague, since most people have a clear preference when given the choice between playing Leonard Cohen or Miley Cyrus; Bach or Bartók.]
So, what are “normal” self-expectations for adult beginners? First, expect that you will likely learn one or two skill sets in a single piece of music, and depending on the individual and the skill set being learned, you may require one or two more pieces to really solidify that skill set. As you progress to more difficult tasks, skill building will move at an even slower pace. I know that that might be a little annoying to some beginners, but it is extremely important to think in these terms rather than comparing progress with time passed. Why? Because everyone is different, and more importantly, everyone knows that a student’s rate of progress is directly correlated to the amount of practice they put in (this shouldn’t be news to anyone.) Second, try to realize that some skills in music take years to master, and that you are not “slow” or “stupid” for not being able to master them in your first year or two of playing. Take, for example, the concept of sight-reading. The reason it takes years upon years to master sight-reading is because it is actually the accumulation of many, many, many skill sets and being able to execute them simultaneously. You have to be able to read the different rhythms in each hand and how they interact, read the notes accurately, know your key signatures well enough that you remember to play the correct sharps and flats, quickly discern between many different possible intervals, be able to “look ahead” in the score to anticipate hand movement, understand various expression markings, dynamics, articulation, tempi… I could go on. So part of having realistic expectations as a beginner student entails assessing what your current skill sets are, and recognizing the new ones being learned in your new pieces. If something feels “hard”, chances are that you’re learning a new skill set – or multiple skill sets. If the latter is the case, try to break it down. If you can’t, that’s where your teacher should be able to help out. And remember: learning is a lifelong journey, and it’s the journey, not the destination, that counts the most.
