Kids Piano!

How my Live Class Program is Different (For people who really like behind-the-scenes details and philosophy!)

If you imagine piano lessons like "doing scales and being corrected on which fingers to use..." this isn't that!

In fact, in a world where private lessons are usually considered the norm, in my experience, they are actually one of the main reasons young beginners want to quit piano. Here's why.

The Problem with Private Lessons

When a young beginner is working with an adult-expert one-on-one for a half-hour, it's usually:

• too long for how intensely focused it is
• too high-pressure
• focuses more on reading notes than playing songs
• covers too much content to practice well
• usually focuses on songs kids don't know or want to learn
• is a social mismatch (adult-expert with child-beginner)
• is socially isolated (where are the other kids?!)
• and overall, is more expensive than it's worth

In short, I believe the proper place for private lessons is for students with enough experience to get value from one on one time with an expert.  

But if private lessons aren't good for beginners, what is?

The Benefits of Group Classes

I've spent years dedicated full-time to making the best possible program for my students. Here are just a few things I do drastically differently that align with what kids like and with what works best!

#1. Kids really enjoy getting to learn together with other kids in a lower-pressure social learning environment. When kids are together with other kids, fun just always seems to happen!

#2. When it's a group of kids getting together to bond over a shared interest - like learning music - they find it exciting to see what other students are learning (Oh! She's playing something from Moana! Oh, look! He's playing Minecraft music!)

#3. It's actually encouraging to see other students struggling sometimes, just like them! In private lessons, this never happens because it always looks so easy when the teacher plays, and that can feel confusing and discouraging. But when kids learn together with other kids who are both more advanced and less advanced than them, it's encouraging to see what's ahead (Oh, that looks hard! I wonder if I'll ever get there!), and encouraging to see the progress they've made because they remember when they see another student working on something they once worked on themselves! (Wow, I remember when I learned that! Wow, that seems like so long ago!)  

The Problems with Traditional Group Classes

Traditional group classes aren't ideal for any students because they move at a fixed-pace, making them too slow for some students, or too fast for others. 

And, there's not much choice in the content students learn.

What's worse, since mastery isn't required to advance, students rarely achieve their personal potential, and the long-term effect of this is that they become conditioned to show up to class as "passive learners" because it's never up to them to initiate the learning. Most students go through their entire educational experience like this and become adults who never experienced the joy of learning. In my opinion, failing to become actively engaged learners is one of the biggest missed opportunities in traditional learning environments. 

The Best of Both Private Lessons and Group Classes

#1. Can a group learning environment be the ideal pace for every student? Yes!

For each student to learn at the ideal pace requires working with each student individually; keeping precise records of exactly what has been mastered versus what's in-progress; and making it fast and easy to set clear, focused, achievable goals for that student.

#2. Can students have choice over the content they learn? Yes!

For each student to have a lot of choice in the content they learn requires having a lot of resources at their level to learn from, which I do. In my experience, the most successful students are ones who are given a lot of freedom to choose what they learn. That's why in my program, choice is essential, and making choices about what we learn and how well we learn it before moving on is a "soft" skill we practice every time we show up to class.

#3. Can students learn how to show up as active instead of passive learners? Yes!

Learning to show up as "an active learner" is one of the first major shifts we tackle when joining. It requires me to teach differently by following certain rules about how I teach, like asking students questions instead of giving direct answers; In addition to teaching music, I teach my students how to self-evaluate which aspects of their progress are correct and which aspects need the most improvement so they learn to make good choices about what makes the most sense to fix first. In this way, they learn to become great at practicing, which is where almost all of their personal progress comes from. and for parents as helpers to learn certain rules about the kind of help that's helpful versus support strategies that might accidentally undermine the student's journey toward greater educational autonomy. 

These are just some of the most central aspects of how my program is different from most. In practice, making it all come together is a bit like conducting a symphony. But, that's what I do. After all, if there's any kind of teacher who should think of their class like conducting a symphony, it's a music teacher!

When it works, the rewards are

• a really unique educational environment full of happy, successful students working on music that's both personally motivating and at the ideal level of challenge;
• where it's impossible for the class to ever go too fast to be frustrating or too slow to be boring;
• and where their personal success is directly proportional to their own personal efforts.

In these classes, we literally learn the definition of "confidence." That's why with a learning environment that's this carefully structured, students usually make BETTER progress than private lessons, and with less pressure, less cost, and more fun!

If that sounds like a program you'd like for your son or daughter, I hope you'll join us!