Time out!

How many times have we heard, "I didn't have time to practice my scales" and "I didn't have time to do my theory assignment this week"? Our student's lives are filled to capacity with school, sports, music and a busy social life. As teachers, we know how frustrating it is to hear the words, "I didn't have time to practice," and we are forced to fill lesson time with practice that should have been done at home during the week.

But aren't we just as guilty as our students? How often have we told our students that we didn't have time to look for that other edition of Beethoven Sonatas we had promised to show them? How often do we commiserate with other teachers about how little lesson time there is to teach technique and repertoire, let alone cover aural skills, sight reading and theory? With so much material to cover, festivals for which to prepare and exams to take, I believe we occasionally lose touch with the most important component of the lesson--our students. Maybe we need to take a step back and find the time that has gotten so far away from us. And maybe, along the way, we can even reawaken the joy of music in our students and ourselves.

Time to Listen

So much emphasis is placed on the development of hand position, finger technique and arm weight that we often forget to develop one of the most important factors in our musical education--the ear. Although some students are naturally gifted with perfect pitch or an ability to play by ear, most students need guidance learning how to recognize sounds. We do take time for aural training, especially if it is a requirement of an exam series, but do we ever take the time just to listen to music with our students? We often ask our students to listen to recordings of the pieces they are playing but cannot guarantee they will be able to find an appropriate recording let alone actually do the listening we suggest. And if they are listening to the piece, how many distractions are facing them at the time? Is the phone ringing? Are siblings in and out of the room? Are they doing homework at the same time? By sitting with the student, we have the ability to bring a higher level of awareness to the music they are hearing. Our students are bombarded every day with music on television, radio and MP3 players but do not think about form, key, modulation or different interpretations. Giving them the critical skills needed to think intelligently about their music is not only a benefit when listening to pieces they are currently practicing but a skill that will stay with them long after their piano lessons have ended.

As teachers, it is also important to present to our students music other than that written for the keyboard. I often hear students say things such as, "I don't like opera" or "Baroque music is boring." Have they ever been exposed to the emotional depth of Tosca or the beautiful textures of the Brandenburg Concerti? Using lesson time to listen with your students will open up a world of new sounds and sensations for exploration. Just a few minutes each lesson is all it takes to bring an awareness of different genres to an entirely new level. In most cases, we are not training future concert pianists, but we are training the future of music appreciation and support. Where would we be as performers and educators if there were no one to listen?

Time to Create

Composition takes a back seat to technique and repertoire when time runs short. Are your students going to play a self-composed piece with half-filled measures and accidentals on the wrong side of the notes on the recital, or are they going to play the Chopin Waltz you've been working on for months? Studying the master composers and learning every subtle nuance and gesture takes a lot of diligent practice, but it is important for a student to discover his or her inner composer. Introducing elements of creative expression in piano study can turn students on to musical aspects they never knew existed.

The art of composition gives students a lot of insight into form, meter and phrase structure. Students who have played numerous sonatinas may not fully understand the harmonic function of the exposition, development and recapitulation until they are asked to compose their own. Then, with the proper guidance, they will truly comprehend how each section works in conjunction with the next to create a classical form and how that form can be manipulated to create something truly unique. This may not come easily and not every student may enjoy creating at the piano, but it is eye-opening for those who do wish to compose. Mozart makes the composition of four-bar phrases with antecedent/consequence structure look easy but, in reality, it is not as easy as Mozart makes it sound. An appreciation of compositional skill will be more fully grasped when the student tries to replicate the beauty of a Clementi Sonatina or Bach Invention.

Encouraging your students to create their own music not only serves to develop a better understanding of form, but also allows them to delve deeper into the world of contemporary music. Much of the music being written today and even since the early 1900s has been considered too radical for our 21st-century ears. If you look at any orchestral program, the standard composers will appear: Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff to name a few. Audiences are not exposed to as much Schoenberg, Berio, and Reich because many lack the understanding to fully appreciate it. We want tonality. By giving our students the opportunity to create their own modern work, we are giving them the skills needed to appreciate this music. Twelve-tone music may be foreign and harsh to our students when first heard, but can be fun and challenging when the student becomes the composer. We can open minds to new sounds and forms and create an audience who will hear the beauty in music considered too dissonant by many.

Improvisation is another area we should allow our students to explore. Beginning students perceive the piano as an instrument that can create new sounds and ideas without restriction. In the early years of study, the "musts" of piano playing--the technical and musical rules we teach--have not yet overtaken the "wants" the child first brings to their lessons. Many first-year students excitedly play their own versions of pieces being studied in the lessons just because they think it will be fun to hear how it sounds a different way. Whether this means making it minor, playing in a different register on the piano or incorporating new rhythms, the student is using his or her imagination to create a piece similar to the original but completely their own. As the student nears junior high, self-consciousness takes over that prohibits being "different" and making music into something creative and unique. Unique is not something to be embraced during these trying teen years. By encouraging improvisation, we can teach many of the same basics we would in theory and composition, but we're also giving our students something greater: a sense of ease and confidence to explore at the piano.

Time to Heal

As musicians, we understand the importance of body awareness in maintaining a healthy approach to the keyboard. Whether you consider physical injury from playing a misuse or an overuse of certain muscles, I think we can all agree that an injury can only be healed with time away from practice. With the pressure of competitions, festivals, college auditions and recitals, students can be tempted to continue to play with the injured hand because they believe time off will result in a less than stellar performance. More harm than good will come from this as muscles and tendons will heal over time. Continuing to aggravate the situation may end in many years without piano practice instead of weeks or months. In addition to common musical injuries, we also have to deal with the challenges of teaching your typical child--challenges that may include scraped hands, sprained wrists and broken arms.

Taking time out for injury does not mean we have to completely suspend lessons. Our students don't have to be advanced enough to play the Ravel or Prokofiev Piano Concerti for Left Hand to explore the world of one-hand repertoire. Many materials have been written over the years to cater to those with injuries to one hand. You need only hear the Prelude for Left Hand Op. 9, No. 1 and Nocturne for Left Hand Op. 9, No. 2 by Scriabin to realize that one-hand repertoire contains just as much depth and harmonic richness as two-hand repertoire. In fact, many performers program pieces for one hand due to its musical beauty, despite their ability to play with both hands.

One-handed playing can also lead to more focus on technique with the hand that is able to play. Playing scales and arpeggios with one hand will expose weaknesses being hidden by hands-together playing. This is especially true in the case of the left hand. Scales seem even and balanced, but take out the right hand, and the left hand seems to forget how to play. Coordination between the hands is important, but each hand must also have its own strength to perform intricate passages and shape soaring phrases. The time it takes one hand to heal could lead to a heightened awareness of technical issues in the other. The added attention given to the healthy hand will allow those technical problems to become strengths.

Time to Stop

I'm certain we've all had the student who repeatedly reminds us that he or she is only taking piano lessons at the insistence of the parents. It may even drive us to the point that we dread the student's lessons just as much as they do. Knowing they will come into the studio with a bad attitude, a lack of practice time and an unwillingness to learn leaves us with a hope that, by some miracle, they will either have a complete change of heart or the parents will finally allow the student to quit. Having students with this attitude makes us question our role as teachers. What are we doing wrong that we're being met with so much resistance by this one particular student?

Not every student is going to appreciate the musical education they are receiving at the exact time they are taking lessons. A lack of interest can be blamed on no one person. Students are faced with social and academic pressures that seem to get more and more daunting every year. Although it may not be the right time for lessons, we can give the student a solid musical foundation that can be built upon in the future. Given time, he or she will realize what a wonderful gift they have been given. I've had countless adults tell me how much they wished they had continued lessons and, upon continuing lessons in adulthood build on the strong foundation they had been given as a child. Just a few short weeks of reviewing note values, the staff and finger technique, and the adult student will find a passion that never existed when they were studying at a young age.

Music needs to be a pleasure, not a burden. It's disheartening to see anyone with a musical instrument--an instrument that can bring about feelings of elation, mourning, anger, and passion all in the span of one composition--feeling a sense of dread when it is time to practice. Finding the joy in music may take time, but allowing our students to decide when and how they make music can be the difference between tolerating and embracing music.

Time to Enjoy

Mid-December at Oberlin College means many things to students and faculty. It is a stressful time of year with last-minute recitals, final exams, juries and packing for holiday break, but it also brings about a flurry of excitement for two of the year's most anticipated concerts: Marimba Christmas and Bassoon Christmas. Granted, the concerts, given by the percussion and bassoon studios in the conservatory lounge every December are by no means the cultural events of the year. The Beethoven and Mahler Symphony excerpts, Mozart String Quartets and Barber Sonata passages heard throughout the conservatory practice rooms on a day-to-day basis are much more demanding of the student's time and talent. However, these holiday concerts bring a sense of ease and light-heartedness that isn't normally present in their everyday performing lives. It's fun to watch the students relax and enjoy a stress-flee performance.

I've always found that even the most uninterested student will get excited when it comes time to pull out their Christmas books. Even in my college piano classes, the energy level rises when holiday ensemble reading replaces their normal sight reading for a day. Arrangements of popular themes in three-part ensembles are a welcome break from the ordinary. Although this is considered "fun" music and not the serious literature they are used to studying, students are still learning a great deal about listening, sight reading without stopping and balance. There will be plenty of time for the great composers. Sometimes you have to make time to let go and watch your students enjoy using all the skills you've given them.

Setting aside time is not an easy thing to do. Both teacher and student are constantly running from one activity to the next, many times not even stopping to ask how each other's day has been. I believe it is our duty to stop this cycle of rushing and really focus on what will make the student into a well-rounded musician. Maybe taking time is just the thing we need to do to ensure that the future of music is in good hands and heard by appreciative and educated listeners.

Andrea McAlistser is assistant professor of piano pedagogy at Oberlin College. McAlister has previously taught at Capital University and Ohio Wesleyan University, and has given numerous performances and pedagogical workshops throughout the country.