The subtitle for today's blog could be "The Power of Love and Persistence".
I know that sometimes being a piano parent demands a great deal of patience, persistence, and commitment. There may even be long phases of frustration and wondering if the investment of time and money is even worth it.
Yesterday at a lesson I was reminded that, yes, it IS worth the effort, even when the rewards can be years in coming. One of my students, David (name changed), has been studying with me for nearly three years, and for much of the three years progress has been slow--from my conversations with the mom, I'm sure she would choose to call it excruciatingly and hair-pulling-out-ingly slow. There was a period of many months where neither I nor David's mom could quite figure out why there was so much lack of focus and concentration during piano practice time and lessons, so much wiggling and whining, and so little progress. I know there were times when quitting altogether was definitely considered.
Yet, both David's mom and I felt the right thing to do was to persist. I could see in David the potential to push through. I knew and the mom knew that music would be a huge asset and blessing in David's life. We didn't give up. I had to be very creative at times in my lessons to keep David engaged. The mom went through a lot of grueling practice experiences at home, pushing her patience to the limits, and beyond!
Yet, in the end, love and persistence won out.
About a month ago something started to click for David. He had some amazing breakthroughs in being able to finally conquer some songs hands together that had previously seemed insurmountable. To cap it off, just yesterday, I gave him a new 32-measure song to try, and he just sat and played through it entirely on his own, confidently, with almost no help from me. Just 6 months ago, I may have been lucky to get through 4 measures of a new song in a piano lesson. But yesterday, he pretty much blew me (and his mom) away.
Don't ever give up on the power of love and persistence. Those two combined will always win in the end.
Happy practicing!
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Joseph,
ReplyDeleteIf this is not about my son, I would be shocked :-) I'm actually sitting here crying while reading it. Thank you, thank you, for all your hard work, patience, guidance and support that has gotten us to this point. It is SO worth all the effort to see that "David" now has the confidence to continue and succeed.
Bonnie Davis
Another great moment happened in David's lesson just last week. After playing something for me, he seemed to feel like it wasn't his best, and so he requested in a surprisingly adult-like tone: "Would it be alright with you if I tried that again?" And then, as if to clarify himself, he added: "I really enjoy practicing."
ReplyDeleteInside my jaw was dropping a mile wide, but David said it so matter-of-factly that I didn't want to act surprised at his comment. So his mom and I simply shared a smile in each other's direction and the lesson continued. Great moment.