I am much more confident about this piano teacher. Last year Nick was paired up with a kid who liked playing and composing, but who didn't have a lot of experience with children. And Nicholas isn't exactly a focused customer.
But this new woman has had years of experience. She is full of funny little quips, like "You only have to practice on the days that you eat."
She told Nick that, because he was seven, he had to play his little piece 7 times when he practiced. Nick's eyes flew open wide. "That's going to take a long time," he said. His teacher smiled. "Look at how old I am! It takes me a very long time. I have to play everything 107 times!"
The other thing that's different this year is that Nathan is taking lessons. Because he's never really taken lessons, she is using a program she developed for young children. He colors in keys on printed keyboards and writes his own rhythms to practice. He is learning which fingers are 1, 2, 3, etc, and he is learning to find CDE on the keyboard. And that's as far as she's let him go. He is very frustrated.
Meanwhile, there are some days I am having a hard time finding practice time for Nicholas. I think I'm going to have to let go of that sacred after-dinner time.
1 comment:
Good luck with that! It will be worth it for you if at least one of them learns to play well, but it will always be worth it to them (from an educational and experiential standpoint) even if they don't, which again makes it worth it to you!
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