Why does my child 'forget' what we worked on at home?

 You and your child practiced everyday at home this week. You go to your piano lesson excited to show your teacher significant progress only to have your child make silly mistakes and seemingly forget everything you worked so hard on. Why is this happening? Doesn't practice make perfect?

 This happens to the best students, and I remember when it happened to me as a student. There are a few reasons for this happening, but the most important thing to remember is that your teacher should still see progress even if the student has not reached perfection.

 So, why doesn't your child play as well in lessons as at home?

 Whatever environment is the most comfortable for you is where you'll play the best. Home > lessons > performances. If you think about this logically, in order to play perfectly in lessons you must always and easily play perfectly at home, and thusly to play perfectly in performances. Reversing the logic, if you sometimes play perfectly at home and have a good lesson, kudos! The same goes for performing.

 Note: I use the term 'perfectly' loosely, since musical performances are rarely, if ever, perfect... unfortunately.

 Progression at home usually takes longer to appear in lessons. If your teacher is good, she will still see progress despite small imperfections. Keep your chin up! Just because your child seems to forget things in a lesson does NOT mean the teacher feels your work is inadequate at home!

 The last thing that may be happening is that in a lesson the teacher may ask the student to think specifically about something that you may not have been addressing yet at home. "This time try to keep your wrists straight the whole time," or "when you get to the ending, show me a beautiful ending by slowing and getting softer." Anything, even the smallest change, will add to what your child is thinking about, and typically when this happens the most recent or hardest part of the song that you've worked on becomes much more difficult. That doesn't mean you didn't work on it correctly - imagine if you had not spent so much time working on that 3rd line of Au Clair! Then in a lesson we would still be working on notes. When learning any song, first we learn notes and which fingers to use, then we work on technique and lastly musicality and performance.

 If you feel frustrated about this topic or feel that your child is not progressing always talk to your teacher about it. Having open communication is key in your child's success and unless your teacher is aware of what's going on at home, she may not know how to help you in lessons.

 As always, if you have questions or comments regarding this or any other topic, feel free to contact me!

Sandra L.
dunkirksuzuki@gmail.com