Inspiring Students

Inspiring Students

Connecting music to children’s lives and feelings

Xiaole Li

“I hope every student comes away from lessons excited to learn. Every student is different and needs a different approach. If you inspire them to love music, even a little bit, you have accomplished a lot.”[1]

Lang Lang’s words not only tell his hope, but also point the way for piano teachers and students to find inspiration in piano lessons. Students are looking for music that they like to play. Piano teachers, as a source of inspiration, must provide music that is interesting and exciting, suitable for each student and each lesson. To accomplish this is not easy.  No single answer can work for everyone.  Different individuals with various backgrounds and learning paces need different approaches.

To inspire a student to play the piano, a teacher needs to interview the student with the parent in order to learn about the student:

• The reason a student wants to take piano lessons,
• a student’s characteristics (such as physically active, loves to play fast pieces or song-like pieces), including hobbies and background,
• the student’s preferences and parents’ ideas of music (classical or popular music for example),
• the student’s ability and potential in technique and musicality,
• his /her willingness to work on challenges. 

Based on the knowledge of each student, a teacher can use many ways to motivate students. I have used the following methods to inspire students:

1.      Playing appropriate music that sounds interesting to a student. Teaching beginner and elementary students to play familiar tunes and traditional songs; playing piano pieces with game-like drills, such as a grace note and cross-hand patterns for them.

2.       Encouraging parents to bring their children to concerts, sing songs, and tap their feet with music.[2] Directing students to listen to CDs, recitals, and YouTube performances.

3.       Giving a student rhythmic and energetic pieces. Students at the ages 7-9 like strong rhythmic pieces. Tango, rag, and tarantella rhythms may turn on students’ interest.

4.      Using newly composed pieces based on the teacher’s cultural /music experience; let students relate themselves to the activities expressed in the music. For example, I composed “Mountain Song” and “Piñata.”  Teach students the pieces and let students imagine that she/he is singing a mountain song or in a Piñata game. 

5.      Using imagery and analogies,[3] such as the words: march band, skate, ski, ocean wave, and surfing to help play piano techniques. Using news events to inspire students to express the meanings of the music. For example, a piece “Consolation” can be a consolation for people fighting Japan’s tsunami.

6.      Encouraging students to compose music or improvise pieces.  Appreciate their creativity by giving them opportunity to play their pieces.

           Daniel Jones, a six-old boy from my Joie Studio, performed his first piece “The          Agents in Danger” in a Composers Today recital in May 2011.

7.      Assigning song-like pieces to teenagers, especially some girl students, who love to play romantic style pieces. Chopin’s waltzes and nocturnes can be favorite pieces to help express her/his feelings.

8.      Helping students play schoolteachers’ assignments for graduation or ceremonial activities. Direct them to learn popular website pieces circulated among intermediate and high school students, such as “Kiss the Rainbow” and “River flows in you” by Yiruma,  

9.      Using fun-making pieces, including spooky pieces for Halloween and “Jingle Bells” for Christmas. Students may want to play particular pieces, e.g., “Let it Snow.” A teacher needs to have holiday and event pieces for students’ activities and entertainment.

10.  Selecting piano music for competitions for talented students to show off their accomplishment. (Only send talented students to competitions and help them perform successfully).[4] Make sure the level of a challenging piece will make a student strive to succeed.

11.  Using YouTube as a forum to show students’ performance recordings, encouraging them to play their best and share their talent with others.

12.  Preparing certificate performance can be stressful, but also can be a motivation for high school students to practice more, if a fine selection of repertoire pieces is in various historical styles.

The methods above are relatively effective, depending on the student’s age, family, and peers’ influences. Some methods or pieces can be a good motivation for certain students; however, they might become a turnoff to others. Keeping relativity in mind, a teacher will assign pieces carefully to students.  They will work together closely to achieve the best result of teaching and learning.   In today’s multicultural environment, new methods and opportunities are around the communities and organizations. A teacher should always find new techniques and ways to develop students’ piano study all year round.