Adult Piano Study
Brenda Dillon, Editor
Although teachers of adult students usually have many positive comments about this category of student, we do hear teachers expressing concerns about adults missing lessons and practice being at the bottom their "do list." However, our topic for this issue usually ranks as the leading concern for those of us who teach adults.
I maintain that the best way we as teachers can understand what the adult piano student is experiencing is to go learn something new ourselves, particularly something for which we seem to have no particularly affinity. I can still break out in something resembling hives when I reflect on a statistics course I took a few years back. I know I have reasonable intelligence and have a history of being pretty good as a learner. Why did I think this instructor was speaking another language besides English? Why did my brain seem to grind to a halt with my life passing before my eyes? If anyone in that class had read my thoughts, someone would surely have dialed 9-1-1. Paramedics, get here fast!
Cheryl Everett and Pam Pike obviously teach adult piano students as they recognize all the symptoms and offer excellent suggestions. What I most appreciate about them is their willingness to work in the "land of the discomfort" and encourage these adults to continue making music at the piano.
from Cheryl Everett's article
Goals must be reasonable and expectations realistic
An overly-analytical adult piano student is obsessed or preoccupied with rationalizations. Teachers may help such a student by removing the obstacles the adult student perceives as justifiable rationalizations for lack of success at the keyboard.
The rationalizations presented to the teacher will vary depending on the playing proficiency of the student. Beginning adult students have a different set of circumstances than adults who took lessons in their younger years and who are now eager to continue music study. Because many adult piano students are successful in their vocations, they find it frustrating when they are not immediately successful at the keyboard. In today's society, time is our most precious commodity. Adult students almost always are balancing other commitments, and they feel the pressure of wisely managing their time more strongly than younger students. This often makes them overly concerned with their rate of progress.
My first challenge in dealing with the adult student is to create a set of reasonable goals and realistic expectations. My adult students have uttered phases such as "I'm so discouraged," or "I'm frustrated," or "Why can't I do this? I tried all week!" My aim as their teacher is to give them an honest answer with a word of encouragement.
Some true stories-only the names have been changed to protect the ambitious! . . .
Cheryl Everett has an active career as teacher, solo recitalist, accompanist and church organist. She has performed in recitals and master classes in conjunction with the International Workshops in Canada and throughout Europe. Ms. Everett is the accompanist for the Wabash College Glee Club and Organist/Choral Director at Wabash Ave. Presbyterian Church in Crawfordsville, Indiana. She is on the Executive Board of the Indiana Music Teachers Association, and serves as Ensemble Concert Chair. The IMTA honored Ms. Everett as "Teacher of the Year" in 1999. She is currently studying with Dr. Louis Nagel at the University of Michigan
from Pam Pike's article
Bridging the gap between intellectual understanding and technical finesse at the keyboard
For me, one of the joys of working with adult piano students is that we can engage in intelligent dialogue about an analysis of music and music-making at the keyboard. Non-traditional aged students often have sophisticated methods of reasoning, possess a keen understanding of how they learn new concepts, have a refined sense of musical style, exhibit highly developed verbal abilities, and they bring a lifetime of experiences to their piano studies. However, it can be frustrating for many highly motivated, intelligent adults to bridge the gap between their intellectual understanding of music and their inability to coordinate their physical gestures at the keyboard with finesse. Many of these individuals who are used to functioning competently in the professional arena suddenly feel disoriented when they find themselves stumbling along as novices at the keyboard.
Thus, many of my highly motivated adult students engage in identifying what they discern to be obstructions to successful keyboard study. These very qualities of perception and analysis that I value in my adult students, can cripple and even paralyze certain pupils to the point where they no longer enjoy making music and seem unable to make significant progress at the piano. I try to recognize the early symptoms of the overly-analytical student and intercede. By redirecting a student's attention toward other musical details, I can guide the pupil away from the pitfalls of over analyzing, thus thwarting the aforementioned problems. . .
Dr. Pamela Pike is an Assistant Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Class Piano Program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She particularly enjoys working with her "3rd-Age Piano Class and MIDI Ensemble" for retired adults in the central Arkansas region.
For the other Samplers from this issue
