What Parents Need to Know about Piano Lessons - With dr. j. mitzi kolar - Part 4

Kevin Kao: So, you've obviously been teaching for a long time, and I'm wondering what changes have you seen in piano students from when you first started teaching and piano students now? Dr. J. Mitzi Kolar: Well, and we're talking about San Diego in Southern California, but I hear from teachers all over the United States, and I don't think I've had a recent conversation with somebody in Europe. But here in the United States, and particularly since you and I are in Southern California, where the students are becoming even more involved in so many activities, and the academic push for achievement that many of them are striving for is beginning to make practice at a reasonable hour, and, in the right conditions, more difficult. And, in fact, this past weekend, at the music teacher Sonatina Festival here in San Diego, certainly Jane Bastien, the chair of the event, and I had quite a discussion about what kinds of changes we were seeing in our students. But, they're very heavily involved, and so, the biggest challenge, I think, that current piano teachers are going to have is, first of all, getting those students to the lessons on a regular basis where they aren't in band concerts or swimming or soccer, you name it. And that the students, their time is - they're competing for many minutes in a day, with many different activities. So that's, I think, the biggest change. Students still present the same kinds of practice issues. I've had wonderful students throughout my career, very bright students. Others, more challenging, that come with emotional issues. I think that's changed so much because students are also, I think, involved in so much, sometimes, just as we are, as adults, are a little more scattered. Because we have our iPods and our telephones, our cell phones chiming at us all the time, that it's easy to become very distracted. And so, sometimes, I find the challenge of even developing the concentration that's needed has changed a little bit because we are just bombarded with just so many different things coming at us. Kevin: So, you've actually seen a change in children's ability to concentrate from when you first started teaching to now? Dr. Kolar: Not for all students, but, in general, yes. And also with college students, who are even more distracted by texting than high school students. Certainly, I think you would see that university professors would tell you that when students can come in with a computer that they're much more easily distracted by checking their email than listening to the lecture, so that you start seeing that the students are a little more scattered. So yes, I'd say that. Does that mean the student can't learn to concentrate? I think that's one of the beauties of piano instruction. In fact, a parent tonight was telling the student that was with me, you can't lie when you come for piano teaching. It should become very apparent if the student has been able to concentrate and have good practice at home. And certainly, the discipline of practice and concentration that we must have when we are studying piano is a very important element. So, I have students who develop it very well, and certainly that's another thing, as a piano teacher, we have to be aware of is how to keep our students involved in their lesson. My first lesson this afternoon was with a student who is a first grader, and mom was asking how much time the student should practice. And I said, well, when she's not with me in a lesson - because this student takes a 45-minute lesson, and she's right with me the entire time, but the lesson is designed so we're moving through a lot of different activities. We're interacting, we're answering questions, we're looking at ideas about our music, so that she has wonderful concentration for those forty-five minutes. It's really right there all the time. But, her mom says, when she's home alone practicing, that it's a little hard, so one of the things I suggest to do is breaking it into smaller segments where she can keep Kevin: What are some misconceptions that you feel are out there her concentration for longer. about piano lessons? Dr. Kolar: Well, and I have major colleagues across the country who may disagree with what I'm going to say, that, first of all, that it's all just fun. And yes, fun can be important, and yes, one must enjoy what they're doing. When they come to lesson, I think everybody's philosophy should be that the student should start the day, and end the day, finding the joy in music. A lot of parents say, I just want them to experience this. So, that's one thing. Generally, what I have found that a parent means when they say, I just want my student to experience having music, it means being able to play a piece and have a little bit of fun. And, what parents oftentimes don't recognize is that to become good at anything, whether it's the next great Michael Phelps swimming, or the next Gabby Douglas as a gymnast, or the next Lang Lang as a classical pianist, or even the next best mathematician or physicist, that it takes hard work. That we would not say, I just want them to have fun with their math. That, obviously, you have to have a strong grounding and move forward in anything in life. And so, I think, too, oftentimes parents don't understand the importance of practice, that becoming good at anything takes a little bit of dedication. And, sometimes that means that, even though mom and dad are really tired at night, that it may mean finding that extra energy to help the student and supervise the student in their practice. A lot of times it's just, if a teacher has had a couple of years, we can study down the street with Suzy because she did piano for two years, so now she can teach my son or daughter. I think, certainly, you wouldn't want to put your son or daughter into an elementary classroom with somebody who has only got two years of mathematical experience to teach them mathematics. Yes, it can help with the practice at home, but that's, I think, sometimes it's also parents knowing who they're looking for to find as a qualified teacher. Kevin: Actually, that goes well into the next question. What are some misconceptions that you know about, that you hear about piano teachers? Dr. Kolar: Well, the largest thing - and one of your colleagues actually did a thesis study for me, and I was quite disappointed with the statistics that she gathered in her study, to see that teachers weren't changing. I would, like most of my colleagues across the country who have pedagogy programs who are very devoted to improving the teaching of piano, would be very discouraged to hear that a lot of piano teaching is still done by people who don't have degrees in music, who maybe don't know their repertoire very well and haven't taken time to look at how to teach piano well. And it was also discouraging in Katie's study to see that a lot of people, you were saying how you now go home and think about your lessons, that too many people teach a lesson, don't come prepared. They don't have a lesson plan, write the lesson in the thirty minutes that they're sent the student out, and that there isn't a desire to try to help the student expand their knowledge and really grow in many ways, musically. And so, what Katie was finding in her study is that too many of the people teaching piano were not participating in workshops or going to conferences where they could learn a little bit more. So, hopefully, as we get more online resources that you and I have talked about, that more of the people who are teaching will take some time to - like you going home and thinking about your lessons, saying how could I do this better, that the bigger field of piano teachers are constantly evaluating their skills and trying to improve. The whole idea is to make it better for the child who is studying music, and whom we want to develop a love of the instrument, and of the music that they're playing. Kevin: Now, you mentioned that the piano teaching part of it. And, I ask this question because I have the same misconception where, as an undergrad, and I've shared this with you before, that getting my bachelor's in piano performance, I figured, I play decent, I'm a nice person, I'm good with kids, I'm good with parents, I'm kind of funny sometimes. So I thought, I'm a good piano teacher, give me some students right now. But, then, when I went to get my master's and started taking all the pedagogy courses, that's when I really realized that there's so much to piano teaching than just being able to play piano. Everything that we've talked about, so far, about pedagogy, it's just so much information. And, going through the program, it's one thing like, okay, I've got all this knowledge about pedagogy, I'm good. Instead, now I'm thinking, wow there's so much more to learn. And, you talk about the workshops, the classes. Now, it's like, okay, I need to go to these things and learn even more about how to teach as opposed to just relying on whatever I knew before or how I was taught, if I could remember how I was taught, and just being able to play. So, I think that's one thing that was a big eye-opener for myself going to a pedagogy program. Okay, so, do you have anything to add to that? Dr. Kolar: Well, in fact, there is so much to know, and anyone who works for children or advancing students - and college-age students - has to understand their processes of learning. Which, as someone who hasn't had any educational background, apart from even just music, who hasn't looked at how students learn, what are the psychological issues in their development that support their success in music? Being aware of what their support systems are in the home and with the parents. Then, in going back to our initial discussions about, okay, what is it that we teach, why do we teach methods, and what is it that we're trying to project in those methods, how do we organize our teaching materials? All the literature and, as you know from pedagogy class, one semester in intermediate pedagogy class does not cover all of the repertoire that's available. Whether the material has been written by our wonderful pedagogical composers across this country and around the world, or whether it's the standard repertoire, we have so much music, and we have jazz, and we have duets. We have so much that we can do, and each one presents activities, problems that we have to solve with the student. So, no, that all can't be learned by just learning how to play the piano yourself. Kevin: Some more personal questions. If you have to recommend some books for either parents or piano teachers, piano in general, what are some books that are your favorites, and that you go back to and reference? Dr. Kolar: Oh, my, okay. And I need to update some of these. In terms of just knowing the repertoire, we have so many wonderful books now that teach us about - that are important to my library, whether it's Maurice Hinson's Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire or Jane Magrath's teaching repertoire. Cathy Albergo and Reid Alexander's intermediate rep guide, all of those materials are vital to me. In fact, my Maurice Hinson is sitting next to my computer right now because I'm beginning to prepare students for certificate of merit. So, there's those types of books. Then, I have my favorites on teaching. So, certainly, some of the books we looked at were Robert Duke's books, the University of Texas professor, his are wonderful books about teaching. Of course, going back to cognitive development, I'm a strong advocate for Bruner and all of the cyclic and sequential-type learning. Then, if you start launching into all the special books on each individual composer, whether it's books on how Chopin taught, or there's all these wonderful books, the list goes on and on. Just like the teaching, one can read for the rest of their life. Kevin: Could I check out your library after the interview and see what kind of books you have? Dr. Kolar: Actually, most of it is in my storage closet because I haven't been able to bring it to my house yet, along with all my piano literature from San U State. So, it's still in the storage closet because I've got to organize what I've got to do because it's all coming here. Kevin: Okay, I'll take a look after this interview. Captions by GetTranscribed.com