I have been teaching an adult piano pupil now for about 6 months. She did Grade 3 about 5 years ago and hasn't really played much in the interim. Trouble is, she now seems barely able to master even the simplist of pieces (even ones which I would consider to be pre-grade 1). I am loathed to take her right back to the beginning with tutor books etc. I am sure that part of it is confidence. She really seems to struggle with chords, yet can give a near perfect peformance of Satie's Gymnopedie.

Any suggests for a way forward? She's very keen and quite musical.

David

Eeek, sounds like me last time I tried to learn. Started off learning grade 6 pieces then by the end was about grade 3... But I didn't practise except for 15 mins before my weekly lessons. There's a moral there somewhere...

What about composition or playing by ear for a while, mixed with some well known pieces in a style that she enjoys?

Just a thought, but is she confident on notation and basic rhythm patterns? I have found that where students are struggling with a new piece they are unable to recognise notation immediately, so progress is painfully slow. For reluctant note-learners I have devised a Notation Challenge - sample below.



There is a page each for treble lines, treble spaces, bass lines and bass spaces. Each line has more of one note than another, so that the student is constantly reinforcing a particular note. They take these home, together with a crib sheet, and after being able to identify the notes with reasonable confidence they time themselves and try to beat their own best time, thus working towards reading ahead. I tell them to aim for 1 note per second, but they often get a lot faster than this.

For rhythm patterns I use flash cards (the Hal Leonard ones are good)