Beyond The Piano: What is Learned in Private Lessons

Beyond The Piano: What is Learned in Private Lessons

Beyond The Piano: What is Learned in Private Lessons

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I have the best job in the world. Teaching children about music and watching their eyes light up as they make an inanimate object sing, it’s something I never grow tired of. It’s especially touching when they master a song for the first time, or excitedly show me that they still remember how to play a song we haven’t touched in months. The sheer joy a child has when they proudly demonstrate to their parents what they’ve learned is rewarding. 

But if all I’ve done is teach students how to play their songs, I have failed at my job. 

Music lessons are not about learning pony tricks to impress friends at parties. It’s not even about the music alone. What I try to teach my students goes far beyond the piano. 

I’m talking about the bigger picture. Piano lessons are finite; no teacher and student will be together forever. So at the end of the day, when we each move on with our lives and no longer cross paths on a routine basis, what impact have I made on a child’s life? In what ways are they different, what can they do now that they couldn’t do before? 

Our time together will eventually come to a close, but I want the payoff to outlast my lifetime. I want to plant seeds so deep in these children that long after my name is forgotten, the world is still becoming better by the contributions I’ve made, in the investments of these children. 

Results like that don’t occur from regurgitating songs that were learned note-by-note. 

You see, the matrix of learning is flawed. The education system is organized around subjects, but the skills we need in life are not subject specific. I know that most of my students will not become concert pianists or world-renowned singers. So to me, focusing on the subject is not benign. Teaching skills to master the subject is. 

Mindfulness. Problem solving. Creativity. Analysis. These are all skills that prove to be more beneficial than teaching obedience. “No, play it like this” will never teach a student how to be self sufficient.  

They need the freedom to make mistakes and learn how to solve them without being given the answer. They need to observe how things sound different and alike to make judgements on their own about how to play a passage. They need a safe place to learn, outside the “sit down and do what you’re told” model, to explore their own minds and push the boundaries that have been bestowed on them. 

That is what piano lessons are for. 

Is it harder than rote-teaching? Gosh, yes. It can be exhausting, leading a little one to discover an answer when it would be quicker to just tell them. But life doesn’t hand out free answers, so neither will I. I will push my students intellectually and creatively. They will not live inside a box. 

At the end of each lesson, I ask myself, “if that was their last lesson, have I done enough? With the time we’ve been given, have I given them the tools to succeed without me?” Passion can only get someone so far. There comes a point where one will need to rely on the skills they’ve developed, accompanied by hard work and discipline, to get them farther. 

So yes, it does give me joy to watch a student’s eyes light up as they make an inanimate object sing. But it is a hundred times more exciting to see their problem solving skills evolve, their creativity explode, their mindfulness strengthen. As soon as a student can teach themselves a new song, I know I have done my job. That’s when I know that if anything ever happens to me, they can go on making this world a more beautiful place; not only with their ability to make music, but to use their independence as an enhancement of life.