I have recently begun to teach a young boy to play the piano. He seems to understand the theory, and gets just about all my questions correct.
BUT when it comes to playing a piece, he seems not to be able to play past one bar without stopping, making some excuse and totally losing his concentration. I bring him back almost immediatelly, but by the third bar...here we go again.
Not sure what to do here. He is allegedely the same at school.
Any thoughts?

Hi,

If he is like this at school I'm sure they are looking into whether he has any medical problems that could be causing it. Having said that 7 is still quite young, especially for a boy, to concentrate on something like reading music.

I think the best way forward is to do lots of improvising, aural etc with him in the lesson, and continue to plug away at the pieces. How long are the pieces you are trying with him? I think this probably will get better as he matures, but you may be in for a long period of short 4 bar pieces.

Its could also be an optical problem, if his eye muscles aren't working well it can cause a delay in focusing, even though optically the eye may be fine, the eye may also have problems tracking (again muscle related), so unable to follow a straight line of vision, both of these things can cause the brain to get confused.

Good luck

I have a student who is quite similar...a girl of 8 who started last year. She is very very bright and has no real problem understanding, but her concentration is terrible! We do lots of different things in lessons and avoid playing pieces over and over for too long.

She enjoys puzzles (I write out notes that she knows to spell a word, she has to name them and play them), writing in bar lines and counting on rhythms I write for her. When it comes to playing however, I just had to be a bit strict and tell her that she wasn't too talk while she was playing. If she managed it she got a sticker! She no longer does it (or not too often anyway...)

Sometimes younger kids just need to slow down and get on with things. The girl I teach just seems to have a lot going through her mind (working things out in her own way, thinking about school, or about me and what I do (she asks some very personal questions!!!!)) Maybe the boy will grow out of it.

Good luck.