Music

Teaching piano lessons to your own child: The teachers have it better

~ Christie ~ 3 Comments

 

photo credit
photo credit

If you haven’t seen it already, check out the first post in this series: The Name Game.

If you were to ask me as a piano teacher, “What is the one common denominator among happy, successful beginning piano students?”

The answer would be easy: “Parents who are involved with the child as they practice.”

It took about two weeks of being Hope’s piano teacher and her mom to realize, “Wow! This being the mom of a child taking piano lessons is hard work! The teachers have it way easier.”

My hat (that one that everyone carries around for the sole purpose of saluting) immediately went off to all the parents of my past students. They had been the ones responsible for their children’s accomplishments. With that little mental ceremony over, it was time to face reality: I wasn’t just a teacher any more, now I was a mom.

And with my sweet little Hope taking piano lessons, it was my job to help her practice.

Being your child’s teacher does not exclude you from being their mom during the week.

I now have to live up to the expectations that I placed on parents:

*Help your child practice every day

*Make sure they closely follow their given assignment

*Assist them with any theory work

*Be there to answer questions and give common sense guidance

It takes work to build a daily practice time into your already busy schedule. It was quite a challenge for me during those first few weeks. I would think, “I already did the lesson, now we have to practice, too?” Yes, you spoiled person; just like you made all those other people, now you have to practice, too.

Currently, she’s dying to practice every second of the day, so that makes things a little easier. I do try to not just put her off when it’s not a good time, but explain that we will do it later and then follow through with what I’ve said. Most of the time, practice happens while the little girls nap, and I sit right with her. Sometimes it happens when the others are awake, and I’m just barely supervising her work, and sometimes I let her practice by herself while the little girls get baths.

It’s quite the juggling act, but we’re determined to make it work.

And one more thing, it is hard to not jump back into that teacher mode during the week. I have discovered a few things that have been helpful, and I’ll share them next time!

Until then, thanks for reading!

lyrics i love

~ Christie ~ Leave a comment

These are some of my favorites from the days of College Choir.

We Shall See God

There’s a glory in creation that testifies of One,

Who’s splendor is beyond the world we see.

The words of the prophets, though eloquent and true,

Cannot describe all that He will be;

And our minds can only dream of what our eyes have never seen

As our hearts keep running onward to that day.

What a wonderful surprise

The day we look into His eyes,

And at least behold the beauty of His face!

We shall see God

In all of His glory.

We shall see God

As we bow on our knees and cry, “Holy!”

Of everything heaven is promised to be, 

The greatest sight of eternity

Will be the moment that we shall see God.

Picture a vision arrayed in purest white,

What wonder and what joy we’ll feel within.

God is there before us, a blaze of holy light.

What a glorious sight when we see Him.

What a wonderful surprise

The day we look into His eyes,

And at least behold the beauty of His face!

We shall see God

In all of His glory.

We shall see God

As we bow on our knees and cry, “Holy!”

Of everything heaven is promised to be, 

The greatest sight of eternity

Will be the moment that we shall see God.

(I found a “We Shall See God” by John Coates on sheetmusicplus.com, but it was currently unavailable. I’m not sure if these are the same songs, but here is the link: We Shall See God)

Teaching piano lessons to your own child: The Name Game

~ Christie ~ 13 Comments
Hope's first and only piano lesson from Daddy
Hope’s first and only piano lesson from Daddy

For a few years I’ve put off teaching my oldest daughter piano lessons because I didn’t want to do a bad job. The stereotype seems to be that most piano teachers do not have success with their own children. It’s challenging to play the role of parent and teacher simultaneously.

However, I also dearly love teaching children and am extremely picky passionate about how they are taught. I haven’t really run in the piano teacher circles since our move, so I didn’t have any good choices that I knew of for Hope. Besides that, right now, it would be best to have a teacher that was free.

A few months before Hopey turned five, I knew it was time to stop stalling. People had been asking for years when I was going to start teaching her and she had begun asking to play constantly. We decided that this would be one of her birthday presents; I ordered the books online before I could change my mind.

My piano pedagogy professor in college went through all the reasons why it’s not wise to teach your own children the piano. I do remember him saying something like, “The only person I ever knew it worked for would make her girls go out the door, walk around the block, and come back in for their lesson. They were required to call her Mrs. Swaim.”

This idea stuck with me, and I decided to try it. Since I had everything else going against me, I figured this was my only chance.

I told Hope that she would have to go out the door, and then knock to come in for her lesson. She would have to call her teacher Mrs. Mylastname and that she was to be very well-behaved. Her eyes lit up as she caught on.

Not quite knowing what to expect, imagine my pleasure when she walked in the door with the most adorable smile on her face and twinkle in her eye, “Hello, Mrs. ________.”

This little game has actually helped me a lot. I’ve been able to look at her like any other student. It’s been so fun to realize, Wow, she’s just like other kids; doing cute things, annoying things, childish things… she’s just my piano student for that hour.

After her lesson, I send her out the door again. When she comes back in, I ask her how her lesson was and she tells me all about it and shows me what she has to do for that week.

We’ve been going for at least two months now, and it’s been great. The name game has really helped.

Obviously, there’s still a long road ahead filled with many challenges. But since we’re on the way, I figured why not blog about it.

Hope you enjoy! Next time I’ll talk about why teachers really have it better.

Don’t want to miss this series? Follow my blog if you’re on WordPress, or sign up to receive posts through email. Do you have any experiences teaching your own children music lessons? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments! Thanks so much for reading and have a lovely day.