It is always such a joy to discover the progress that each student makes.
Sometimes it could be about the technique progress, and other times it is totally unexpected and may not be directly connected to such “pianistic/technical” progress, but somehow could be a very fruitful factor to nurture his/her musicality.
It may be up to the student that makes this improvement, but I believe it is extremely important that the teacher brings out their maximum possibilities. It takes a lot of patience and experience, since we have to watch closely to each student’s interest, characteristics, other than the general pianistic capacity. It is not easy, but when I find something shiny from them, I feel rewarded.
Recently, I started teaching a 6 years old boy. He has had some musical background before and likes to sing. His smile is priceless. One of the kids I really enjoy look forward to seeing every week.
Last week, we were looking at one song of a piano course book and suddenly he came up with a story all on his own.
First I listened to him developing the story. After he was done, I thought I would write it down, simply the story was quite well organized and fun, and so that his mother or other family members could read it afterwards. * I am sorry for my scribbles. I needed to write it down as he went.
Quite impressively, he clearly remembered the order and story to tell me for the second time. He has so much vocabulary and ability to organize what happens in the story. He just started the elementary school this fall.
1)There were tiny “blue” people ( like Smurfs! I thought) from Pluto. (I was amused to hear that rather than the famous Mars)
2)Plutonian wanted check out the planet called Earth, so they piled up on top of each other to make a bridge to come over to the earth.
3)Sometimes they needed to swim in the space ( wow. )
4)When Plutonian reached the earth, they were so exhausted and ( maybe they were knocked out on the ground) one boy picked them up.
5)Since they looked so cute to the boy, he put them on the window sill.
6)One day, Plutonian jumped out of the window and took another journey to Mars and the Sun
7)It was very very hot close to the Sun, but they survived!
8)Then Plutonian continued to stroll across the world ( he might have meant the space)
The end!
Based on the story, I came up some improvisatory chords or melody and asked him if it sounded matching to his idea or needed to revise.
We had so much fun.
By introduce this activity for some students, I hope to help them understand how to express their thoughts musically. Those skills may not mature instantly, but rather much later, but if it is fun and engaging, why not try it?
