The delightful Samantha Coates (Author of the Blitz Books series) gaves us a presentation on ‘The Inherited Student’.
She asked for input on the pros and cons of an ‘inherited student’ (a student who has come to you from either another teacher or a music school). There are all the usual types of cons:
- failure to be able to read music
- poor posture
- lack of aural skills
- lack of general musicality
- The feeling of having to justify everything to them
- The need to explain over and above to the parents to meet their expectations
- bad practice habits
etc.
There were a few groans heard around the room and nodding heads when Samantha started writing down what was being raised as the cons of teaching these students. For some reason I didn’t take notes down for this presentation.
The pros were interesting though as the ‘inherited student’ may not always be a bad thing:-
- Great musicality
- Well grounded in their previous musical training
- Wonderful motivator for the teacher to get themselves into gear
- New repertoire
- A fresher outlook
The conclusion was that it isn’t always a bad thing to have an ‘inherited student’. Keep in mind also that for a ‘bad’ inherited student, it can be a result of the former teacher not having done their work correctly, but also it could simply be the student not following instructions. These students could potentially be a disaster if the problems aren’t addressed. Alternatively, you could have a fantastic student who has been taught well and has been doing everything they are supposed to do. These students are an absolute delight 😀
Samantha went on to review some posture and some tips and tricks for teachers to help with their student’s posture:-
- There should be no tension
- Have supported feet (telephone books, foot stools etc)
- Sit with a straight back
- Sit in the middle of the piano stool
- Sit a good distance from the piano
Samantha introduced her ‘karate chop’ test. The kids need to karate chop just above their knees whilst seated. If they can chop in the correct spot, they are sitting where they should. If they are ‘chopping’ too high, they need to wiggle back and adjust where they sit on the stool.
“Pretend they have to share the stool with someone sitting behind them”.
Another handy piece of advice was “Practice it right more times than you do wrong”. If you think about it, practicing a piece incorrectly more times than you play it correctly is kind of silly.
