Piano Lesson

Today I met with Sueli to give her a piano lesson.  I had a lot of fun and so did she.  I was actually surprised at how much she enjoyed the lesson and playing piano.  Even though she had said she really wanted to learn to play, I figured she would either get bored with the material or become confused by my teaching.  After our hour meeting she wanted to keep playing.  I felt bad because I had to go!  I found out she lives in Waits, and there is a piano in the lobby.  She took on one of my books to practice with during the week and also asked me to make her a study sheet.  I wrote down important terms and drew pictures of the notes and their positions.  It will be interesting to see if she actually practices during the week.

The lesson was a great learning experience for me.   I had never taught piano to anyone before.  Considering how long I have taken lessons, I figured teaching would be a breeze.  However, it was challenging.  I had to keep reminding myself to stick to the basics and teach slowly.  I eventually got the hang of it.  We did a lot of repetition and played games to help her learn the information.  She got frustrated with herself a couple of times, so I had to keep encouraging her.  She was able to play a 6 bar song today, which is really impressive!!

 Language was a slight barrier today.  She knew music notes in her native language, but not in English.  Also, sayings like Elvis’ Guitar Broke Down Friday, meant nothing to her.  I kept saying things like “See, it’s like this” or “See, you do it this way” and she thought I meant “C” on the piano instead of “see”.  Another funny moment occurred when I got up to check the time.  I still had twenty minutes before I had to get to my meeting so I asked her if she wanted to keep playing.  She said “No no no” kind of loud.  This was awkward for me because I thought she meant she didn’t want to play anymore.  I started thinking maybe I was a really bad teacher.  I also felt bad because I thought I had made someone hate piano after only 30 minutes of playing.  I said okay and started packing up the music and she started saying “no” again.  It turns out she did not want to quit practicing and had said no about leaving.  Our communication mix-ups caused lots of laughing! 

It was a great meeting and I can’t wait until next week.  We are going to start working on rhythm and I am going to teach her about the different types of notes.