Having taught piano to a plethora of kids from ages 4-11, I’m used to it all. Kids come in fuming after a fight with their sibling or tired from school. They come nervous, they come shy, they sometimes come excited, they come with gifts, and they come with requests for games or snacks. I’ve learned to adapt to anything, whether the lesson has to be a strict-and-structured half hour of exercises and songs, or if I need to take a chunk of time to address the kid’s prior needs if they need to talk or a break, even if it takes away some playing time. From teaching these kids, I’ve been able to learn all kinds of unexpected skills.
When one of my students burst through my door in a rush, brandishing an open Chromebook and a plastic bag with a colorful squishy object inside instead of her usual piano notes, demanding that I help her upload a photo, I dutifully complied.
We spent the next 10 minutes figuring out how to access her account that she’d lost her password to, then figuring out the website she needed to use.
“What is this even for?” I realized that I hadn’t asked her yet or bugged her about wasting time that could have been spent on piano exercises.
“I want to put a picture with you and my Peep for my presentation!” She exclaimed.
I carefully positioned the Chromebook to snap a photo of us at the piano with her Peep, and then transitioned into our lesson. The following week, she came back and told me that she got to show her whole class the picture of us and felt excited.
It’s moments like these that remind me why I enjoy teaching: seeing the kids enjoy learning, while being someone who they can have in their corner. Even though I am still a kid myself, I get to assume a role of guidance for them.
When I was asked to teach my neighbor piano two years ago, I thought it would be a one-time thing. Two years later, I’ve now taught more than a dozen kids, with nine students on my current roster.
When I began teaching piano, I would constantly think about what I could teach the kids. Remembering notes, beats, musical terms, hand placements, and sight reading, my mind would race with everything I thought they needed to know. It wasn’t always easy to have back-to-back-to-back lessons, spending hours sitting on my chair next to the piano, explaining concepts over and over to each different person. But now, I find the lessons flying by, enjoying the time spent with each kid. I’ve made up games to play, started traditions, kept note of their likes and dislikes, and tracked their progress, silently and loudly celebrating with them at each milestone. Tapping into my creative side with fun lessons and celebrations not only makes me a better teacher, but also helps me understand what motivates each one of my students.
I’ve also found my teaching style: a mix of things I’ve learned from my own teacher and from finding out what works with each different kid. I’ve learned the precise mix of “good cop” and “bad cop” that works for each student. Some respond better to more structure and hands-on help, while others work better with patience, letting them have time to recognize that they’ve made a mistake and self-correct.
I’ve gotten creative with making up games that keep students engaged and entertained while still relating to what they’re learning, like playing “sharp-sharp-flat,” a version of tic-tac-toe that incorporates practicing drawing musical symbols, or a rock-paper-scissors tournament where we play a round after each song played, motivating students to complete more songs.
Learning how to understand and help each kid with different needs, skills, and attention spans has helped me become more patient and thoughtful. It can be easy to get frustrated when someone doesn’t execute something that seems simple, but from teaching, I’ve understood that people come in not knowing anything, and everything they learn is a new thing that they have to remember. You have to meticulously go over and explain each small detail, and that’s okay.
When kids occasionally come in with an attitude, at first it was easy to feel frustrated. Taking the time to listen instead of becoming upset has proven to be much more successful for me. By becoming a safe place where kids can trust me to confide their problems in or count on me to help them feel better with a quick game of 20 questions or a minute to just chat and get into a better headspace, I hope to add good to their day instead of bad. I like to give them motivating talks and advice, and remind them that at our lesson, it is just them, me, and the piano: a different headspace. Because I know how much I benefit from having spaces to leave my problems behind and focus on something else, I hope that I can give my students a place for that too.
While it can be annoying sometimes to have kids coming in and demanding snacks, or games, or feeling comfortable enough to ask questions to my family members, I have come to realize that they do so because I have created a safe environment for them where they feel comfortable.
I also enjoy just creating relationships and learning about kids’ interests. They tell me about their hobbies or school, and I feel like we really get to bond. I feel the same way when students make me cards or gifts for holidays, or bring back souvenirs from vacations.
Going into teaching, I focused completely on what I could do for the kids: what hand placement and memorization techniques, names of all musical symbols, how to read music, and how to play. Two years later, I have realized the effect that teaching has had on me, and how it has made me grow both as a teacher and a person through being both a teacher and a student to the kids at the same time; they’ve taught me empathy, patience, and helped me tap into my creative side.
