I was thinking about this after a chat with a mum who has been comparing her son's progress to that of another child a few months older. The boy has just turned 8 and has been with me for almost 2 years and is about to sit LCM Step 1. This child has made slow but steady progress since beginning lessons. He's now getting bored (understandably, some of them have been on the go since April) with the exam pieces, and over the last few weeks I've given him a couple of similar level pieces to keep him going. Mother has now heard a child who is 6 months older and who started lessons around the same time play some grade 1 pieces and is wondering why her son isn't at that level.

So I was wondering, do any of you have a list of criteria that you can show/explain to parents with regard to meeting the requirements for each grade? After they had left I thought of other things I should have said to explain why her DS isn't at Grade 1 standard, and thought it would be a good idea to have something on paper that I could just hand out to parents when I get queries like this or even at the start of each school term.

I generally plan a term at a time for my pupils which includes a number of aims for each one. Sometimes I review it at half term and modify if necessary - usually I know whether any particular pupils are taking longer or are moving ahead more quickly than I expected.

On your specific point, children all learn in different ways and at a different pace. Teachers also work in different ways and you can't know what the other teacher/the other pupil has covered in the same time. Maybe the other child has practised more, maybe the teacher has pushed the other child more, you just don't know.

I would keep the focus on the parent's own child and explain what he/she has covered, what they have learned, what they are good at and what they find more challenging. I can also explain what is required at Grade 1 for example and relate what the child has covered which is relevant progress towards grade 1. Two years from 6-8 sounds like good progress to me and I wouldn't want to be pushing a child of this age into an exam unless they are keen to do it.

I find this comparison between children frustrating! Although I'm very lucky with my pupils/parents in this respect.

I find that many parents are unaware of the standard for Grade 1 piano - if they ask why their child is not up to Grade 1 yet (which can take 3 years for some children), I find the best illustration is for me to play them a Grade 1 piece. The usual response is "Oh goodness, that's looks hard - you really have to be able to actually "play" to pass Grade 1".

Mother stated that child is not challenged enough with the level of pieces - all I saw was a child making very slow progress, taking a good few weeks to learn some of the step 1 pieces.

So now I'm going to be a little naughty and play devil's advocate. Next lesson we will start on 1 octave similar motion scale, broken chord and arpeggio, all in Cmajor, along with one of the easier pieces and a choice of the most difficult grade 1 pieces (I won't tell her that of course ). I'll also let her know the full scale requirement (to include broken chords, etc), aural and viva voce for grade 1.

You never know, Mother may know best and I'll be pleasantly surprised at the following lesson.

Surely not challenged enough would be learning them in less than a week.....

Actually, that's one of the signs I look for to show that they are ready to move on.

I would counter by asking how much time the two children being compared actually spend practising, which is much more relevant to their comparative progress than time elapsed since their first lesson.

Secondly, experience has taught me that it's the tortoises who often out-do the hares in the longer term.

Thirdly I always mention that with a few exceptions I don't teach by targets, because having a time limit to get to a particular grade causes unnecessary stress to both pupil and teacher. The exceptions are where the pupil wants to set the target.

So true. I had a pupil who was practising for nearly an hour most nights, simply because she loved playing. She progressed very quickly, as you can imagine. She overtook some of my other regulars and it was noticed at my concerts.

I once explained to a parent that if it takes 3 hours to learn or do something, you will get it done quicker and move on if you do that 3 hours in a week as opposed to spreading the 3 hours over a month. Simples!

Of course you need to be musical aswell, and thats where a problem lies if one pupil simply finds things easier than another.

I think another important thing , which has been mentioned is that children do learn at different rates. They are not all robots. If a child excels at rhythm they may be still struggling with musicality in respect of expression and suchlike.Another maybe a good 'note reader' but struggling still with rhythm.

I would stick to your guns, otherwise mum will think she can dictate the pace and the child will just fail. She is paying you as the expert to use your experience to make informed judgements - no harm in trying one scale to prove a point but I wouldn't do the pieces yet if child isn't ready.

If he isnt ready then do you think that is fair on him to send him home with all that lot in a week? Poor kid will probably give up. I think you should consider addressing your communication with mother instead. Maybe she has info that you need just as much as she needs your expert opinion laid out professionally and calmly. Like how much work he does and what sort of work is it...and why she feels he is under challenged when you do not get that impression. And tell her why you get that impression. It may not only be that he hasnt kept up with bozo down the road that is concerning her? Of course, if it turns out that is the only thing worrying her then she is pretty stupid and you are going to have to be very clear and simple in your explanations....

Maybe something like, "here is the list of technical work for grade 1. Many pupils take 3 years to get to this stage. Especially if they are not practising daily effectively. How about we aim for two things per week from it to be learnt and see how he goes. And we will start work on the aural tests too if you are very keen for him to do the exam. Meanwhile, shall I play you a few grade 1 pieces? He would find them rather tricky at present until he improves in these areas............... Perhaps he could start his grade 1 pieces once his scales and bcs and areas of weakness are more secure?

She may just need to know that you have a plan.

On second thoughts, maybe that would be a bit unprofessional of me, although that little devil is still on my shoulder egging me on

I have a child with learning difficulties and this competitive attitude between parents really annoys me. Every little step is an achievement for my son and I really don't care if little Johnny is sitting his A level maths in year 4 (an exaggeration, but you know what I mean) or if, like my son, he's just plodding along at his own achievable pace.

As an afterthought, the pupil has recently started guitar lessons with a private teacher, and I'm wondering if a comment made by the guitar teacher is what has set this whole thing off (I happen to know the guitar teacher also teaches piano). Hmmm.....

Thats interesting isn't it? I know what you mean about comparisons. But it is actually equally irritating to hear how talented your child must be just cos they have overtaken someone who has been playing much longer. What about the fact they practise 3 times more at least....and almost certainly way more than that. I really have to bite my tongue when i hear that not to mention that hard work is way more important than talent and i expect teqchers to back me up on that if they hear that sort of thing.

I would be quite concerned about a second instrument slowing down whatever efforts he puts in currently for you which is probably not a lot anyway. Never mind what mr guitar is saying! 2 instruments at that starter level is not easy unless you are pretty disciplined or your mother is very disciplined.....

All the more reason to really nut out with him and mother what a realistic plan for each week looks like. And what he wants of course. Is he keen on grade 1 or is that all her? Not saying that you dont already of course but my long experience with many music teachers is that a few lines scribbled in a book does not make for effective use of time during the week. You need to be very specific about what the aims are so that you are all on the same page. Something like, your aim for this piece is to play each hand correctly by itself at x speed 3 times in a row without a mistake. Tick this box and date it when you achieve this. Then repeat 3 times each day after that and put hands together slowly 2bars per day. Aim for this scale is.......etc, etc.....then mother can "help" him by asking what got ticked off today....and you can see what goes on each week. And you can all see what he can and cant actually do.

Sorry, hobby horse of mine! Area that some teachers need to look at much more carefully imho.