Hi there,

I have two pupils in this category

Pupil A.

Adult piano. Did her grade 1 piano about 18 months ago. Very intelligent. But, is severely regressing in her piano playing. She is really stuggling with even the most simple pieces, and I doubt she'd pass grade 1 again anytime soon. We've talked about it, she seems to mainly be lacking in confidence. I've tried going right back to basics, but she's very discouraged. She still wants to play, but doesn't have much time to practice. What should I do?

Pupil B.

Probably a bit more of a familiar story. 15 years old, flute. She did her grade 4 also about 18 months ago. To be honest, she only just scraped through, but she really loved her pieces. Again, she hardly practices. If that's not enough, she is VERY lazy in lessons. I give her a piece to play, she'll play what she thinks it sounds like. She doesn't ever stop to work out rhythms, pays no attention to the articulation or dynamics, and seems totally unaware when she plays wrong notes. She just keeps on going! I don't even think she'd pass grade 3 now. With her too, I try to break everything right down, so I get her to tell me the names of all the notes, then get her to play those in 'free' time (not the written rhythm), then get her to clap the rhythm, play it all on one note etc etc, but it's so frustrating!!

I've talked to her parents about it, and they know well that she needs to practice more and are very supportive of me, but sturggling with her too. I think the problem is her age, and that, for her, playing an instrument isn't cool enough to spend her time on it. Having said that, she's doing GCSE music, so has to keep on playing, and when she rarely does crack a piece, it sounds fab and she enjoys it. Ironically enough, she has a great natural tone (sigh, if only some of my more motivated pupils could!). I've tried being quite firm with her, but she's at that stage where I think she thinks all adults are against her so I don't want to alienate her even more. How do I inspire passion and motivation without becoming yet another nagging adult
and turning her off completely?



On a completely different note, I have a couple of pupils who are really struggling with middle octave tone (hissy) and top octave notes (very loud and screechy!) Please can you advise?

Thank you!!

For pupil A, could you get her to choose her own pieces for a while - perhaps pieces where she knows the tunes, which might give her a head start in playing them, and build up her confidence a bit? And discuss practice with her - five or ten minutes here and there all builds up! For a change, you might also try some simple duets with her, getting her to learn them in small chunks and taking time to really get to know them well.

For pupil B, I think you have diagnosed the problem very accurately yourself. I am not a flute teacher, but some of the same tactics might work - a change of tack with duets, self-chosen pieces, etc, just for a while, so that she realises you're really not just another nagging adult and have her interests at heart. You could also try doing the lesson in a different order (or perhaps you do that anyway). But if she's determined not to practise, sadly there is no teacher in the world who can make her!

I can't really offer advice about the hissy middle octave or screechy top notes. I am looking at Grade 5 flute pieces and struggling with top octave notes myself. The advice of my teacher is just to keep trying to refine them, playing long notes and experimenting with sound and embouchre. I have also just begun working through Trevor Wye's Practice Books for Flute, which have a section on tone, and find them really useful. I'm sure you've thought of all this already, but just a few thoughts.

Good luck!

Pupil A: I agree with what everybody else says - no miracle is going to take place without practice, sadly.

Pupil B: How about something completely different, like the jazz syllabus? I sometimes find a complete change of repertoire can make a huge difference, especially if it's to something they perceive as 'cooler', like pop, rock, jazz, world music or even folk. There are some great books with backing CDs for violin called 'Cool Beats' or something like that - I think they do them for other instruments as well. Mention 'backing CDs' and ears tend to prick up, especially amongst moody, somewhat disenchanted teenagers.

The hissy middle octave tone could be a result of playing with the lips too close together. This seems to afflict a lot of my mid-late teenagers, and is incredibly difficult to eradicate. I think a lot of them are afraid of being heard.