On my first lesson with my present teacher a year ago, as I sat on the stool to play her a piece she said very loudly "wow you're tall, well better to sit a bit higher than lower". At that point I realised that even though she'd been teaching for over 40 years she was probably more used to teaching young children (I'm hardly 7f...a normal 5'7" !!!)
But yesterday was the funniest one...I had just finished playing a piece when she shouted "good girl"!!!! I'm 43!!!!! She apologised profusely straight away saying it just came out. I couldn't stop laughing I told her not to apologise and to carry on complimenting my playing in that way as it's just so funny!!!! I was still laughing on my way home!!
Has your teacher ever said anything unexpected??

My teacher is familiar with teaching adults as much as children but one day she said "You don't need a star do you?" when I'd played a piece well. I said "I'd like one please" and then was so proud of myself. I then asked her another time if I could get a star when I'd achieved a good standard on another piece.

I think there's a little of the child in each of us and we like it nurturing whatever age we are.

I quite often end up in the pub over the road for a beer with my teacher after my lesson. I'm fairly certain that doesn't happen with his younger students!

As a teacher who only has three adults, I find it very difficult to say "Get the finger out" to them. Have any of you adult learners here ever had this said to you in a way that worked without causing offence?

I tend to make a joke of it if my adult pupils play abysmally and tell them it was terrible!

Yes. But only because I know my teacher well, and I'm having lessons because I want to improve my playing and I'm prepared to work hard at it, rather than because I want to play just for fun. Not that there's anything wrong with playing just for fun, but it's a different mindset.

The questions my teacher asked in my first lesson with him included "How much time are you prepared to put into practising" and "Of that time how much of it are you prepared to spend working hard and how much of it do you want to spend just playing?" He stressed that there were no right or wrong answers to the questions, he just wanted to get an idea of how much to push me. I should stress that I already knew him pretty well at this stage, having had group lessons with him for a few years - this was my first one-to-one lesson. I can imagine it being a bit of an intimidating set of questions from a teacher you've only just met. I think the principle of trying to find out where on the fun/hard-work spectrum your student sits before deciding how far and how to push them is probably a good idea though.

My teacher hasn't actually said "get the finger out" but when she doesn't like something she definitely is not shy to tell me!!! "NO, NO, NO, you're playing the notes, but this is not music! start again and we'll redo it until you get it right!" or "get out of the way" at which point she nearly pushes me off the seat so she can sit herself and show me how it should be done!!!
But I could never take offence. I know the only reason she is doing this is because she is so passionate about music and is trying to help me! I wouldn't have it any other way. I really respect her for being honest and I could never take anything she says as rude as rudeness is not in her!

I think it does depend on what the individual wants.
If someone wants to be pushed to be as good as they can then that's ok as long as it's appropriate (sometimes lack of progress doesn't = lack of effort).
You probably do need a good, trusting teacher/student relationship though.

I have built up an excellent relationship with my flute teacher who is roughly half my age. When I first went to see her, she told me she had 4 or 5 adults and they have lessons once a fortnight - so I asked for lessons once a week on the grounds that I wanted to go as quickly as possible. I also made it very clear from the outset that although I was an adult with lots of years of piano playing, I was a total novice at flute playing and asked her to treat me just like a new younger pupil. She very soon realised that I was prepared to put in the practice required, and so has been keeping me pushed at the level I need and like.

In answer to the question, one day (fairly early on, I hasten to add) she gave me a new piece to try out. I got about half way through it and she stopped me and asked "Are you going to be one of those flute players who puts the articulation in after you have learned the piece?"

There was no doubt from the look on her face that she didn't appreciate me not even attempting the slurs! I felt well and truly told off .

But I made her laugh just recently when I received a "That was excellent" from her and asked for a gold star!

I am surprised how child like I often feel in lessons which means I am thrilled when I receive praise, however it is expressed - my teacher is fond of clapping and saying 'goody goody' when I get something right and always beam broadly However, we do also have a good gossip over a bottle of wine fairly regularly when I revert to grown up mode!

Yes, I remember having one teacher who said that to me and I'm sure some of the others have. also my doctor has been known to say that to me!! sometimes it's nice to let the little child out to play.

If I'm making a mess of something my teacher plays along with me and drowns me out so it doesn't really matter what sort of a noise I'm making because at least neither of us can hear me

I find I play my best when my teacher plays along with me. Because I want to keep up with her and play as well as she is playing the piece, when she plays along with me I dare to try things I would not have dared playing myself! For example, I had been playing a piece a lot more slowly than it was supposed to be played, and I think my teacher knew I was capable of playing it fast but just didn't have the guts to, so she played it with me, and was driving the piece along at (what I thought was) a crazy pace, but amazingly I found I could actually keep up!

And I completely agree about enjoying being treated like a child sometimes! I get stickers at the end of my lessons just like the babies do! And this week I got a badge saying "excellent practise" and was told it was the highest honour she awarded, and I was as proud of it as I would have been had I been a child of six!

I am as pleased as any child when given a "smiley face" after a long struggle to get a piece to an acceptable standard. My piano teacher will say "well done" but... can we have more dynamics/staccato/articulation now. So I am pleased and try that much harder with praise. I have to earn it though !!
I am 68 yrs old too.
I still get nervous playing in front of my teacher, as she is the only one who hears me play.
I said to my teacher who is only just younger than me that my friends think I am mad to struggle on. To my amazement she said you are, anyone who does music must be. WHY IS IT SO HARD.

Yes, me too! Humour is a very useful tool.

My recorder teacher teaches upstairs, while downstairs his wife teaches piano. I heard her awarding stickers to her student when I was there...now I wonder if the recorder teacher awards stickers, and if so, whether I will be eligible for them I bought myself a nice notebook to use, so I can write down what I need to practise each week when I'm at my lessons. My husband offered to sign it to say I'd done my homework for me but really it's there ready to have stickers awarded should I ever deserve them and not be considered too old for them.

I don't see why we should have to be grown-up all the time. It's like suddenly we're not supposed to be proud of our achievements. Well, I spend a large chunk of every week day behaving like a sensible grown-up, there are times it is nice not to...and also, why is it that something is an achievement if you do it for the first time when you are a child, but if you do it for the first time as an adult then it's unremarkable?

(The other week we were at Ikea, and I saw a gorgeous polar bear stuffed toy. So I bought one, but in between picking him up and till, I wouldn't put him down I was carrying him and my husband smiled and I said everybody else was just jealous because they wouldn't carry a stuffy around with them now they had to be grown ups).

I must admit to being very careful when awarding stickers to children, in case they think they are too old for them. But recently, when a 13-year-old played something very well, I said that if he was a few years younger, I would give him a gold star. He suddenly looked really excited, and asked "could I have one anyway?"

(Having said that, I don't think I am too old!)

I love having a mixed practice of adults and children as the differences are what makes it so fun.

I can use driving references with the adults, whereas, unless I'm teaching a car crazy teenage boy, they just don't work on children at all.

I've never had an adult asked for their notebook to have stickers in them before!

They could just be too embarrassed to
I'd never object - especially if they were gold stars!!!!!!

Having read this, I soo need gold stars!!!!!

I'm not very grown up at all.
Does anyone ever grow up? I mean really?

What?! I'm missing out on stickers and gold stars too! No fair!

I don't plan on ever growing up (certainly not if it means no stickers!)

maybe we're all just big kids!

I sometimes say to 'older' children ' tell me when you get too grown up for stickers' and they nearly always say 'oh no I love stickers' .

My teacher only ever praises me when I've actually played well, and is quite critical the rest of the time, but I think that's great. I feel as though I know exactly where I stand, and when she does say "well done" I feel as though I've really achieved something.

I don't have gold stars, but I do have gold and metallic quavers and some of them are beamed.

Everytime I run low, I go to the shop I originally purchased them from and buy another two packets.

Even though the ISM recommends I write termly reports, somehow for the adults it feels odd. Who should I address it to, the pupil or their husband/wife?

I've always written praise - "Brilliant!" or "Perfect" or just a big tick and a smiley face - but now I'll buy some stickers - gold stars if I can find them - and ALL my pupils are adults.

As I've said on other threads (and been 'got at' by some people for it ), I give ALL my students stickers, regardless of age.

I'm well-known for saying, 'Oooo, I feel a sticker moment coming on!'

She does as well!

The lack of a singing voice for much of the early part of this year has meant I haven't had many sticker moments of late...

See? I speak the truth!!!

Baz, we'll see what we can do about your dearth of sticker moments on Tuesday...

I still have a sticker I was given at a primary school a couple of weeks ago. I am amazingly proud of it!

*makes note to make sure next teacher is aware of the merits of sticker-giving*