Not only teaching piano techniques,
I encourage children
and their parents to express themselves and
to communicate with each other through playing music.
Session style and
length vary depending on individual needs.
Below is two example of my class.
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1. Get connected to your
feelings when you play!
Jane, a mother of two, contacted me and asked
to give piano lessons for her 6 years-old daughter.
At the same time, she asked if she could
observe her daughter’s lesson with her 3 years old
son, who might disturb the teaching. Absolutely, I answered.
Next week, three of them came in. Naomi
was very shy, hiding behind her mother.
On the other hand, her younger brother Jon ran into the piano and started making
sounds by putting his hands on black
and white keys randomly. He looked very excited.
Looking at them, Jane and I discussed
what she expected from the lessons. Then, we decided to conduct
40 minutes lesson with Naomi, and 20 minutes with Jon.
Naomi had
previously taken piano lessons for 2 years. From my observation, she liked to play
very fast and she was very proud of
it. Subjectively, I felt her music to be mechanical. I wondered
where the space for her to feel the joy of creative process was.
Since she was playing a piece named “Festival,” I proposed to draw pictures about a festival. I invited Jon and Jane to draw the same theme. Their pictures looked very different. Naomi and
Jon started talking about their respective experience at festivals – Halloween,
Christmas, and school festivals. The more they talked,
the more their cheeks brushed up. Their memories were vividly
coming back. Jon started dancing, with
Jane and Naomi watching, smiling. The piano room was filled
with their pumping energies and full of excitement.
I started
improvising on the piano, taking their energy into the music, and proposed that Jane and Naomi join Jon’s dancing. For seconds they hesitated,
but they could not resist the power of music and
the mood in the room.
After we danced enough, I asked Naomi to play the piece “Festival.”
She was still sweating, the excitement remaining in her body. When she played the tune, her music was no longer square as it had
been. Her emotion had conveyed onto
the color of her tones, rhythms and dynamics.
Her mother June was impressed by Naomi’s playing saying, “I’ve never heard
that she was so free in playing the music.” And
that was the start of the sessions with Naomi and Jon.
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2. Aren't
you playing a character that you hated when you were little?
A mother May who was expecting
came with 5 years old daughter Nancy.
May stated in the first session that she's concerned
about Nancy, who always asked her permission. May wanted
Nancy to be more independent and self-assured.
After discussing,
we decided
the session length 40minutes since it seemed very difficult
for Nancy to focus for a long time.
Nancy was very shay and refused to play the piano in the very beginning of
the fist session. May interrupted the conversation between Nancy and I, saying "See, that's my concern. she (Nancy) acted
out wildly at home, but she became a different
person in front of people...Nancy! don't you hear what your teacher said to you? You should play."
Another day,
I proposed that we improvised
music together. Immediately, Nancy
turned her face with fear to May and
ask, "I cannot, right?" May talked to me for Nancy,
"she is scared of trying new thing. She is always afraid
of making mistake."
The other day
at the door, first May apologized that
she could have not make Nancy
to practice in the last week although I did
not assign anything. I told them it was totally fine if you did not want to practice. However, May's sense of guild
was not eased. Nancy
withdrew from me.
From these three sessions, I
saw May was unconsciously practicing a character that her mother had done in her childhood.
According to May, her mother was very strict and
did not allow her to JUST enjoy playing
the piano. Her mother (and piano teacher) insisted
May should spend more time to brush
up her technique.
May told
me that she did not want to act like
her mother to Nancy although I could easily observe
that May over controlled Nancy.
Since her husband was not at all supportive for child
caring, she needed to cling her child. Because she over identified
herself with a role "mother', she had to make sure she has a power over her child.
It takes many sessions for May
to realize that she has acted just like her mother, that stem from her childhood experience and
the relationship with her mother.
It was a shocking fact for she
had been a mother whom she hated.
Through working in music, she
gradually became to let herself enjoy music from the bottom of her heart while
Nancy came less fearful to try new things without asking
May's permission.
The dynamics of
family relationships certainly reflect on music making. You cannot hide yourself completely since music simply comes out from you. If you manipulate your
sound, music sounds not like you.
