Polyphony: Pitfalls to Avoid.

The end of the spring semester has come and gone. Commencement has come and gone. I watched a number of students graduate and know they are now beginning their teaching careers. I have so many things I would like to tell them about the future, but know they could not fully process it yet. They really will not know what I am talking about until time and experience, success and mistakes take them from new teacher status to seasoned music teacher. I would like to give them a letter enclosed in an envelope that says "Open in 2015." I'd say something like, "After a decade of your teaching, I want you to open this letter, read the contents and reflect upon these last years' teaching."

Below is part of what I would say. It is a compilation of some Pitfalls to Avoid in teaching.

So, now, at the beginning of the new teaching year, we encounter new beginnings and a time that one might determine to make changes. Here, I share with you a list of teaching pitfalls to avoid:

1. Not assigning, working out and building adequate technique. Students sometimes move through performance literature, but the hand position, tone control, wrist flexibility and so on do not grow proportionately. Most students need both technical exercises (usually found in technique books) and pure technique (playing of scales, arpeggios, chords in all keys); a flexible and creative teacher usually can find ways to entice most students to work in this area. Teachers who expect more in the realm of technique usually get those results, and the students benefit from the teacher's expectations. Most importantly, it is essential that the student play all technical material musically.

2. Moving ahead from too many pieces before the student is ready. Sometimes, teachers allow students to leave pieces when they are still played too slowly, too lethargically or without character. The result is that the student increases the repertoire level quickly, but the aural awareness and technique do not keep pace. The pieces may become even more difficult for the student to play as time passes, and the student's best effort becomes less and less satisfactory. How can we tell if this is happening? Does a single student never seem to be able to play with fluency, energy, accuracy and musicality, and does the assigned piece always seem just a bit too hard for him?

3. Not teaching a sufficient number of pieces at a specific level before moving the student to a higher one. This can occur whether the student is playing classical repertoire or method book pieces. It is important to know when to make lateral moves to fill in the literature at a level and to take steps to do just that. There is no need to tell the student that we are doing this, but rather assign appropriate music and let it happen. It is better to play well than to play "hard pieces." Easy pieces played well sound difficult. How often have you said or thought, "Those pieces seem to be awfully difficult for the student," as opposed to thinking, "Those pieces seem to be too easy for the student"? The latter almost never comes to mind.

4. Inadvertently allowing a lack of rhythmic surety and security in the playing. Often this becomes evident in a piano student's second through fourth years, although it is not confined to these periods of study. A teacher can continue rhythm drills and activities longer than perhaps the first or second years and two or three rhythmic activities can become short segments in each lesson. The most intuitive teachers will work on the student's internal pulse throughout her entire time of study. Hearing a pulse internally, then reproducing a passage at that specific tempo and then at another tempo, can be helpful to many students.

5. Teaching just a few very difficult pieces, often to advanced or talented students, and spending as long as a year on several pieces alone. Students need variety and continuously refreshing material to keep them interested. Students sometimes become bored with the same musical material if it is kept for too long, and they also lose the keenness of their practice skills if the literature is so difficult they cannot move on in a respectable time period. Even a Thai food lover would get tired of it eating the same thing nine days in a row.

6. Over-praising students. With talented students, teachers sometimes over-praise them, pleased to hear someone with natural ability. What these teachers might do instead is perceive what this particular student can achieve through their own musical intuition, and then teach to that student's top ability. It is important to balance the lesson with affirmation and also with work on the piece, as a natural outgrowth of the process of moving to the next stage, step, or level in learning fully a piece of music.

7. Not having students memorize pieces for performance early enough before important performances. If university music majors are asked to have pieces memorized at least four weeks before a performance, imagine what should be asked of pre-college or non-piano major students!

8. Accepting a performance level from students that is too low. Most students will play just as well as we ask them.

9. Assigning literature without respect for the performance level of a student, without matching all the pieces assigned consciously to the student's proper level. If students suddenly are assigned difficult pieces for which they are not prepared, they lose enthusiasm, believe it is their fault they cannot play the piece rather than thinking it could be too difficult for them and then enthusiasm wanes. Assigning music at the proper level is difficult, but one of the most important issues in a student's study. And a teacher can become more and more adept at this.

10. Not reinforcing sight reading adequately in the lessons. It is imperative that we secure reading skills for students as a part of every lesson, and that we continue to build sight reading abilities of students throughout their entire realm of study. This, in large part, is what allows a student to continue to learn music after they cease taking lessons. Sight reading must be built, stage by stage, just as playing needs to be built.

11. Not following one's dream. It is never too late nor is one too old to try something new or make certain changes. It was enriching to watch two young teachers create a new piano method themselves, not concerned at this point with a publisher, but rather with putting down what they consider is needed when teaching beginners. They are idealistic and on the mark in so many ways. It is their dream, and they are testing and retesting their work. They also are growing immensely as teachers and musicians, trying new ideas, finding what works and discovering ways to motivate their students.

So often, we are given ideas or suggestions by individuals around us. I like to notice who accepts the suggestions and grows through trying new ideas and experiences, and who resists change no matter what. We know those kinds of people, too through our teaching. And it is our role to help individuals move out of those rigid places and try new ideas.

12. Becoming defensive without realizing it. Not wanting our students to attend music camps when they so desire or when they seek different musical experiences from those we set up could be such indications. The more leeway we give students to grow and develop in all different realms of music, the more solid their musical preparation will be.

13. Losing one's creativity. Perhaps what I want to say most to the university students who were leaving for teaching careers is this: avoid becoming so busy in your life that you lose your creativity. Avoid becoming so wrapped up in doing things that you forget to dream, that you become stagnant and have trouble finding new ideas for your teaching and your musical life. Teaching slightly fewer students could give one space to keep alive the musical and creative sparks that keep us going. Music is comprised in part of rhythm and rests. What if we never had rests in a piece of music? We humans need rest too.

Send Us Your Questions

Do you have a teaching question you would like to have answered? Perhaps you have a practice tip for students you would like to share or a studio idea you are trying differently this year. Questions and other items may be sent to: American Music Teacher, Attn: Polyphony; 441 Vine St., Ste. 505, Cincinnati, OH 45202-2811; fax [phone]; or e-mail to [e-mail].

Jane Magrath, NCTM, is internationally known as a pianist, author, clinician and teacher. She is professor and director of piano pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.