UK Piano Page Piano Forum

i have been teaching piano for a few years and have 1 student who is causing me huge frustration. she is 11 years old and has been having lessons for about a year and a half now. at first she was fantastic, very keen, listened to everything i said and showed good progress through her tutor book. but recently we have pretty much ground to a halt. her concentration and commitment have gone downhill and now she appears to have forgotten how to read music. this has put me into a panic that i didn't teach her properly in the first place. she insists that she does not want to give up but sometimes i find it really hard to get her to do anything. there is one 8-bar piece that we first looked at last december and she still can't play it. every time we come to it she admits she hasnt practised it cos 'it's hard' (which it isn't - she has played more difficult ones) and she guesses at the notes, then gives up and says she can't read them. but i know she can cos she has played easy sight-reading exercises and these notes are in the same range. i have tried revising the basics of reading, and she knows all the the F-A-C-E, All Cows Eat Grass etc. reminders but doesn't seem to be able to apply them.
this is really worrying me as i have another student who is not keen on reading the music, but the difference is he makes the effort so we still make some progress. he has a fantastic memory so we also learn some pieces by ear but i am worried that there is a limit to how long this should go on.
could it be something that i have done wrong?
any suggestions would be gratefully received.
thanks,
Becky.

If ability is not the issue, as a rule of thumb, effort and motivation have to be the next port-of-call when deciding on the progress of a pupil.

I remember someone asking about motivating children in an earlier post. You can click here to follow the discussions and ideas:

http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-forums/vi ... php?t=5628


Laziness is becoming a bigger issue in the public education sector. It sounds like someone just can't be bothered. Try the positive reinforcement ideas suggested in the link and if things don't improve, a word with mum would not go amiss.

This may be a function of her age and all the changes going on in her life. After several years working in a primary school I'm well aware of how much kids can change in their final year there and how hard it can be to motivate them in the second half of the year - especially after SATS are over and they just want to move on. They become much more interested in their social life than they are in work: and of course girls have physical changes to contend with too at this age. If she's already in year 7 much of the same still applies; and peer pressure kicks in even more strongly at high school, so if her friends don't do music or it's not seen as cool this could account for her lack of enthusiasm.

Ask her if her friends play any instruments and what sort of music they're into. If this is the problem I'm not quite sure how you tackle it. Maybe trying a different style of music? eg jazz or popular pieces? She's old enough to have a serious discussion with you about exactly what she hopes to get out of learning the piano.

thank you both for your suggestions.
i have spoken to her mum before about her concentration and behaviour and things improved briefly after that.
i have a selection of music books with me every lesson and i have shown her a couple of these and played her a few of the tunes but she says they look too hard. i'm sure she could do them if she put her mind to it but i don't know how to persuade her that she can.
i have also asked her before what she wants to play and as far as i remember the answer was 'dunno i just want to play' or something similar. i might try asking again! and then go music shopping.
thank you again,
becky.