| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: motivation others (students) | |
| mstore -- 02/15/2007, 15:11:34 -- #33082 | |
| hello! I´m studying to be pop/jazz piano teacher. i have a few students per week as "testpilots" for my teaching. I find it very difficult to motivate a particular student (singer who wants to play piano as well) The guy is a fast learner, but he won´t get anything done in a week. It seems to me that he wants to play but dont want to practise...anyone have any tips? he says he dont know what to practise even though ivé given tons of things to do,,, please help | |
| Jazz+ -- 02/15/2007, 15:23:28 -- #33082 | |
| Give him one thing to practice (maybe two). Maybe too many things on his plate is overwhelming and prevents him from doing anything at all. I beleive students really need to be self-motivated and the teacher is merely an expert guide. | |
| Jazz+ -- 02/15/2007, 15:24:08 -- #33082 | |
| what do you have him working over the past week? | |
| jazzwee -- 02/15/2007, 22:05:44 -- #33082 | |
| Yes I agree. Some people need a limited plate. Keep limiting it until it is doable. | |
| mstore -- 02/16/2007, 09:01:06 -- #33082 | |
| i had my student to play beautiful love using the A and B position dominant 13 chords on every possible chord, E-7b5 (C13/E) A7+9+5 (Eb13/A) and so on... The student has played the AB voicings 251 in every key... | |
| cflat -- 02/22/2007, 13:52:01 -- #33082 | |
| Some people (like myself) may not be motivated to routine practice like doing AB voicings on every possible key. They may be more motivated to learn a song that contains 251 turnarounds (and there are many), then practicing the song in different keys. Or perhaps learning a new song with a 251 in a second key...until they learn 12 songs, each with a 251 in a different key (you may have to transpose some leadsheets to get songs in the keys uncommon to Jazz...although many pop or rock songs are in these keys, and may also contain 251 turnarounds). By that time, they will know more songs, as well as AB voicings for the 251 in each key, and may be more motivated if they like the songs they are learning. (then again, I'm not a teacher, and not very much of a musician either...but I think I know what would motivate me to learn) | |
| cflat -- 02/22/2007, 13:54:20 -- #33082 | |
| Oh, obviously, per Jazz+ and jazzwee's advice, only give them 1 or 2 songs a week to work on (or whatever rate they can handle without being overloaded) | |
| Whacky -- 02/23/2007, 08:16:57 -- #33082 | |
| It's been my experience that most people will practice what they want to practice, and that is usually determined by curiosity or relevance. The trick as an instructor is to find what interests them or convince them that what you are prescribing is a stepping stone to where they want to be. In the case of vocalists who are learning to play piano, usually the goal is to accompany themselves. With these folks I focus on developing a repertoire of tunes they can sing and play out on gigs. Hopefully this will in turn give them the confidence needed to get gigs - which is where the real learning begins. At that point your job becomes easier in that you can become more of an "expert guide" as Jazz+ suggested. | |
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