- Distracted
- Fidgeting & Squirming
- Lacking focus
- Complaining
- Resisting
Rather than proding your child to give it a try, or even encouraging with "You can do it!", try adjusting the level of challenge to help your child feel like s/he can accomplish the task. Remember, more important than what your child can do is what your child thinks s/he can do. The trick is to make the challenge feel easy enough so that the child has the confidence and courage to tackle it. Here are a few ways to DECREASE the level of challenge if you suspect that your child feels a bit overwhelmed:
- Break things into "bite size" pieces. Children don't always know how to take a big, overwhelming task and break it into smaller, more manageable tasks. Sometimes for young children this might mean just tackling 2 notes hands together. For older children, maybe it will just be one or two measures. Mastering those two notes or two measures might be all you do that day. Enjoy the success!
- Slow it down. Slowing down can be hard for some fast-paced children who like to rush through things, but it is a great way to decrease challenge. For older children, assigning a very slow metronome speed to stick with can help.
- "Zero in" on the problem spot. If the challenge is fixing one wrong note or one wrong chord, begin by playing only the one note (or chord) using the correct finger, then stop. Next try adding just one note before, and see if you can play those two notes 3 times perfect. Now add one more note before, and again try to get 3 times perfect. Continue in this way to add more notes until you have the problem solved.
- Simplify. Rather than working on notes and rhythms and dynamics and phrasing and articulations all at once, choose just one musical element at a time to focus on. If rhythm is the problem, stop playing all together, and just clap the rhythm while counting out loud. Once you can do that, try playing any single note on the piano (C, C, C, C, etc.) in rhythm while counting out loud. Finally, play the actual notes while counting and see if the rhythm is solved.
The whole point of decreasing challenge is to boost confidence that a child can succeed at the task at hand. So, be sure to celebrate successes and know when it is time to quit. It is even OK to spend more than one day on the exact same notes/issues, if that is what is necessary for a child to feel confident.
The other side of the coin is when things are too easy for a child, and they need MORE challenge. To learn more about this, be sure to check out my blog next week: Not too hard...Not too easy, Part II!
Happy practicing!
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Great thoughts, Joseph! I have a hard time convincing my little pianists that it will help them to isolate a single problem measure and play it several times before trying the whole piece again. They tend to want to start at the beginning and play on until the end. This is even though they hear me practicing the same measure over and over when I'm trying to learn something. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteIt is very common for students to complain about not wanting to start in the middle of a song. However, this is such an important, time-saving practice skill, that it is well-worth the effort to learn how to do it! If a student complains about it being hard, I usually smile and say, "You're right, it is hard. Now let's do it!"
ReplyDeleteOr, I may ask them to consider two piano students, Slow Poke Steve and Super Slick Sally, each learning the same song, and each one has a problem in measure 11. Slow Poke Steve only likes to start at the beginning of the song, so in order to practice measure 11 just one time, he has to play measures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 first. (Make a big deal and point to each measure while counting.) Meanwhile, Super Slick Sally has already had time to play measure 11 TEN TIMES! Who will be able to fix the problem faster? Who is the smarter student? Which is the easiest way to fix a problem?