It happened again yesterday while giving a piano lesson to one of my seven year-old students. Jenna was beaming with pride, and all of us were reminded once again how joyful piano lessons can be. The performance not only created a wonderful instant memory, it provoked a whole conversation about piano study and how lessons can be so motivating, rewarding and fun. It also inspired one of the otherwise shy cousins to sit down and share another musical performance. The teacher in me became immediately energized by the prospect of teaching as well as having students learn and perform these pieces over the next several years.
Students are especially motivated to practice music they already know and love.
Furthermore, the enthusiasm of parents, siblings, relatives and friends to hear these pieces provides students with an added incentive to perform. Well-known popular pieces are often associated with movies and television, and thus are connected to a rich array of stories, visual images and emotional meanings. Stella, one of my teenage students whose interpretations of sonatinas have tended to be rather flat, has profited greatly from playing my Level 3 arrangement of The Unbirthday Song as it brings to life one of her favorite scenes from the Disney animated film Alice in Wonderland. Stella plays the arrangement with a spirit and imagination that we have now been able to translate to her sonatina performances. This development has not only made her a better pianist, it has illuminated a whole teaching process that I believe should be tapped into more often.