Most Piano Students NEVER Make it to Level 4 (Intermediate) | Piano Teacher Tips #pianoteachers

have you ever had a piano student whip through level one level two and then they get about halfway through level three and it's like they've hit a wall why does this happen and how can we support our students through this time hey if you're new here I'm Phoenix and I'm the tattooed piano teacher after 20 years of teaching piano I've come up with a theory about what exactly is happening in this level three to level four time period in this video I'll go over why this is a crucial Coming of Age period in a piano student's Journey what challenges come up and how to turn those challenges into wins and make this a magical turning point in their piano Journey stick around to the end I've got some free sheet music that goes along with this whole turning challenges into wins so let's talk about the coming of age time period so this usually happens around level three going into level four what's really happening here is students are coming out of the elementary level and they're emerging into the intermediate level often times for the average student this is kind of coming about in their middle school years lots of changes in their personality in their bodies Friends School activities everything else is going on this Piano Thing they've been doing for years and years all of a sudden has brand new challenges that they might not be expecting so that is why I refer to this as the level 34 Bridge because it's like they come to the edge of a cliff they can see a bridge but it looks really hard to cross they weren't expecting it they thought the whole journey was going to be all rainbows and unicorns and from their perspective they might not be able to see what's on the other side of this bridge so here are some of the challenges that come up at this time period level three is when they really start to see these out of position reading where there really is no position I'm not talking about like changing positions or unique positions I'm talking about like an entire song where there really isn't a position this going to be really disorienting because it really is a whole new mindset for them they're also for the first time in years having to deal with some new notes on the staff when they're introduced to these outer Ledger line notes or inner Ledger lines it's like oh I can't remember how hard it was to learn the notes on the staff because they've known all the notes on the staff for so long and now we're throwing these new ones that break all the rules at the same time they usually have a change of taste in their music as well the songs that excited them when they were little are not really that interested any anymore they're looking for some depth and as a result their method books that they might have liked a couple years ago have lost a little of their flavor because their songs are getting longer and more challenging they need a practice strategy so up until now their songs were onepage two page at most and they might have gotten away with just kind of playing them through a couple times maybe three times a week and they were good to go for their lesson that's not going to cut it anymore and they might not have the tools for at home practice they might not know what to do when they sit down at the piano because what they used to do for years is not going to work anymore in addition to that there's a bigger time commitment so if they want to learn the songs they can't play through them in 30 seconds anymore they need to sit down at the piano for a longer period of time they don't know what to do they don't know how long to be there and they don't maybe even have the time to practice as much as they need to they might have been in the same piano method series for a long time they might be getting bored of the same old books the same old style the same old pictures the same old fonts and piano lessons in general it's not a new thing anymore it's old hat it's not exciting anymore so these are some of the challenges that come up during the level 34 Bridge so hopefully you can kind of understand where they're coming from why they're getting so discouraged and when they get to that cliff and why so many of them just don't make it across this bridge but the good news is as piano teachers you really can make a huge difference in this part of their musical Journey so before I share how to make these challenges into wins be sure to hit that like button to let me know that you want to see more more piano teacher tips and content like this all right so suggestion number one acknowledge that they are coming up on a bridge they might not understand what's happening in their minds it might be like black and white like this piano used to be fun now it's boring piano used to be easy now it's hard or the most devastating one I used to be good at piano now I suck that's not the case and they need to know that they might not even say anything out loud right they're middle schoolers they're not going to talk about their struggles with you so let them know that they've come up on this bridge that they're on the bridge so that they can understand where they are in their Journey they can get the big picture view like oh okay maybe even share some of your experiences from your bridge where maybe you wanted to quit and you kept going and how it got you to where you are now number two find their style the songs they used to like are no longer interesting and their personality is sort of developing and they're finding themselves so help them find their style what do they like what do they like to play ask them what they listen to see what lights up their face sometimes you have a really quiet or introverted student you might actually have to go through a bunch of different songs sometimes I will hop on YouTube and I will play every genre known to man and just watch my students face they might not even say anything if they're a really quiet student they cannot hide it if you play a song that they love they will not be able to hide it but it might take some research and some patience on your part but find their style number three along with that find a passion project that they can work on are they all about that anime life what's their favorite series what's the theme song from it let's figure out how to play it okay do they love Star Wars okay let's play that do they love K-pop do they love what what is their passion project have they always wanted to write their own song but you you've never taken the time to do that jazz classical whatever it is find their passion project again they might not be able to tell you with words what they want to do so it is not enough to say do you want to work on something fun besides your method books sure do you have any ideas no that's not don't move on at that point okay you can't give up on them they might not be able to articulate what they want to do it's your job to just give them the buffet of choices every week show them new things talk about new things try new things you'll know when their face lights up they won't be able to hide it when you find something that really lights them up okay so find it number four you might want to consider switching methods just all together like out with the old in with the new it doesn't mean that their old method books were bad but they might have gotten too comfortable you might have gotten too comfortable they might just be getting old they might need a fresh start it might be something that ignites them to start practicing again one that is really working for me is um some students that are just really not into classical music they don't like folk tunes and so like if they're in the favor piano Adventures they kind of start to fall off they don't they're not practicing that anymore I will start to introduce the Wonder Keys intermediate level one if they are up for that like from a technical standpoint and if they're into that type of music that is like a whole different setup for a method book series that could be something that's like oh W this I've never tried this before find something something new even if it's not your cup of tea remember it's not about you it's about finding what they need so try another method book number five practice strategy practice goals you need to help them we are not born knowing how to practice a piano nobody knows how to practice a piano we have to either figure it out for ourselves which is a painful process that takes many many years or we need a mentor to help us it is not a waste of time to go over how to practice in the lessons write stuff down what are our goals like practice is going to need to be more efficient because they have these long songs these difficult passages and they don't know what to do with them the if the only tool they have is I play it from beginning to end that's not going to cut it anymore and you need to help them their time is taken up by so many other activities they're going to need to be efficient in their piano practice go right to the spot and know what to to do with it and that's where you come in I started using these little books that I created that are goal oriented so every quarter they come up with a goal and there's also a reward so I talking about like giving my students a Starbucks gift card giving them their favorite candy bar handing them a $5 bill heck whatever it takes but we write down what is our goal we want to play this song we want to practice for this many minutes this many days a week whatever the goal is and then they keep track every single week and this this has really worked well so if you're interested there's a link to this little book in the description it lasts a full year my kids really get into it so the big kids that really works well number six make Theory fun make Theory fun we usually stop playing games at a certain point the little kids were playing the games they getting the dice out little board games being kids need fun Theory too again sorry unplugging things that I've created but it just works so this is a game that I've been using l lately it's February right now as I'm recording this so we are using this with my big kids to go over key signatures because that is one of the hardest things for them to get into the thought process of knowing what the key of a song is and so I've got this little board game yes it's a little juvenile honestly they like it and it challenges their brain but you find some fun worksheets go on TPT you can look at my store I got some stuff you can look at other people's stores they need to review chords make it fun don't just write on a piece of scrap paper on the margin of their books find a fun way to teach theory if you get them excited about the sounds the patterns Behind the Music a they're going to be better site readers better players b they're going to be more excited to practice and C the music is going to come to life for them find a way to get them excited about Theory I've got two more for you number seven chill out on the assignments chill out as a teacher okay as piano teachers sometimes we can be a little tightly wound you know you know what I'm talking about we're not like the Loosey Goosey guitar teachers if you're a guitar teacher watching this you guys are so cool how are you guys so cool piano teachers were like today like I don't know what it is it just it seems like that's just our personality type anyways chill with your tween and teens okay don't give them 85 different things to practice if they've got soccer and theater and homework and everything else just narrow it down okay throw a book out if you need to get rid of just okay chill out they'll appreciate it and it will be like they'll be like refreshed they'll be like wait you just want me to play these two songs at home just these two songs you be like yeah just those two songs oh I can do that and then also chill out in the lesson okay just it's okay preaching to the choir there okay the last tip for you is to just get small wins whatever that looks like for them okay so just think about that next time you're with a bridge student as I call them just sit back in the lesson just think about okay what's our small win for today you got the intro you haven't oh yeah uh I can tell that you spent in your mind you're thinking yeah you probably just actually spent 30 seconds on it finally and got the intro right great they got the intro right super so just go for small ones all right now to the freebie that I have for you I wrote this original piano solo for a going into level four this year student of mine a bridge student okay he is like maybe half of the way across the bridge he was getting really interested in like these left-hand patterns that I was showing him for a lead sheet he was working on for church so I wrote an entire song for him this song includes like some of those left-hand patterns that they're really going to need going into level four like the octave fifth octave in the left hand and then the crossover so octave fifth octave cross a step cross step those little patterns you know that just like level up the sound of the left hand they've been playing blockor for so long you can download that for free it's uh I would say it's a level four piece but it's something to spark their interest in a certain Sound of Music in a certain left-hand pattern sad pop song progression anyways it's called love for a moment and I hope that you can have some fun with that piece of music with one of your students if you just need to take a break from the method books for a while I mentioned Wonder Keys intermediate books and I have a video all about the Wonder Keys series from start to finish so if you've never heard the word Wonder Keys before or you're interested in more information about that check out that review next and good luck with your students good luck with teaching this week I will see you on the next one

Channel: TheTattooedPianoTeacher

Views: 46,973

Keywords: piano teaching, piano teacher, piano pedagogy, piano adventures, piano adventures level 3a, piano adventures level 3b, piano adventures level 4, piano teacher tips, teaching piano, teaching piano lessons, teaching elementary piano, teaching intermediate piano, wunderkeys, wunderkeys intermediate, wunderkeys intermediate pop studies for piano 1, piano students quit, piano students, being a piano teacher, piano teacher life, the tattooed piano teacher, piano teach, teach piano

Id: enm26fF363Y

Length: 13min 25sec (805 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2024