Tags
being yourself, change, goals, inspire, Jane Butler, Jane Paffenbarger Butler, joy, listening, piano, piano lessons, play, teacher
Today one of my piano students, my most physically active student, dove in headfirst. I feel like it is important to follow the lead of a student like this, one who is tough to engage at times because he wants to stand on the bench, or play too many keys at once, and not necessarily do what I have in mind. Lots of days I cannot get him to join me in the pursuit of learning piano for more than a few minutes at a time, me regularly saying, “let’s slow it all down and try it again”. So when I see him assign himself the task of labeling all the notes of a new piece, I sit back and wait to be needed.
Today he did just that. He started writing the names of each note below them in the Ice Cream Boogie just because that’s what he wanted to do. He had just said to me when I opened the book to this new piece, “I could never play that.” He knows me well enough to realize it was time to remind me to write that down in his assignment book. So after “Ice Cream Boogie p. 18”, I wrote, “I could never play that.” We both know that it is a challenge I am presenting when I repeat back his own words as if they are gospel, us also both knowing full well they will soon be eaten. And that’s what happened. I feel that because he was in the mood to name the notes and was ready to see them in a new way, that he was ready to learn this piece mostly without me. And that’s what he did. Once he’d named all the notes, and believe me that took a while, I even wondered if it was a good use of our time, he just sat and played the thing. We smiled and laughed at how silly we can be to claim such things as “I could never play that”. Then I crossed all that out to remind us how quickly and easily we can change our minds.
My Own Personal Sky 
You are clearly an amazing teacher — getting into your students’ heads to figure out what each one needs!
Beth, Sometimes I wish my dance instructor would see into our heads and notice that Mike and I don’t know what to do when he says ‘reverse turn’. He’s got to use some different words!!! Thank you for reading and commenting.
Jane
And by the way, I don’t think I mention too much about the kids I do not manage to connect with…like the little boy I stopped teaching because he never progressed at all, forgetting everything we ever worked on!
What REALLY impresses me about this snapshot is that you clearly value learning from your students about what they need. Taking the cues (subtle or obvious) they send you, integrate them with your intuition, experience and knowledge, to come up with some awesome ‘dance’.
You always have very thoughtful and complimentary comments. Thank you for reading my post and remarking on it.
How about a workshop/talk where teachers (teachers from all sorts of age-ranges, those who teach the very young, through those who teach old bastards like myself) are invited to learn from you, and to engage in a discussion, about listening to our students? I’ve learned much from the “Listening to Prozac” book and same such, about the process of strategically listening to ALL experiences. Thanks Jane, great topic!