Posted by John Thirtyman on June 18, 2002 at 23:57:39:
In Reply to: Teaching woes posted by Annoyed on June 18, 2002 at 22:13:11:
I couldn't tell from your post, but if this student is young, than maybe its just something you can chalk up to musical immaturity. I just graduated from high school, and it wasn't until my junior year that the connection between the practice room and performing became evident for me. For a long time, the results of practicing never showed up, and the only reason I had to practice was to keep my teacher from scolding me.
I always thought that much of the lesson material is pretty boring, and I'm not sure you can convince her to practice more, I think that really has to come from her. I remember when it starting hitting me and I started seeing how much I improved and how much more fun I had when I practiced. I didn't always practice lesson book stuff, but I would play whatever was fun for me (often dorky solos or pep band music). I started seeing that over the weekends, without practice, my playing ability would suffer. By Fridays, however, I would be great, so I started practicing over weekends and after school and with that my playing ability took off--it was great.
I'm not sure if any teacher could have motivated me, it was just a love for making good music that eventually got me practicing. If music doesn't mean much to her, she'll probably give up playing eventually, and that is understandable. Otherwise, I'm sure some day she'll realize that there really is a lot of worth to practicing.
John T