“How Long Will It Take for Me to Play Well?”
Adults are a completely different animal than kids when it comes to anything learning related. Of course, the core pedagogy is the same, the theory concepts are the same, the technique required to play well is the same…but the dynamic of an adult to adult learning relationship is a completely different ballgame. The mindset of a child versus an adult when it comes to education is also different. Children are immersed in education every day and it is a way of life. As adults, our method and expectation of learning changes. Rather than education being the everyday experience, it becomes an event to accomplish through six week courses, day-long workshops, week-long trainings, semester long classes, four year degrees! All of these educational formats have a clear goal to be accomplished with a set time in which to accomplish that specific goal. We become accustomed to set finish lines and due dates. So it only makes sense when brand new adult students come to lessons with this mindset. The problem is, it’s one thing to learn music, but it is entirely another thing to master it.
I remember my first adult student. I was fresh out of college with a brand new shiny music education degree. I had no clue how to gain traction as a private music teacher, so I decided to become a teacher for a company that would find me students as long as I would travel for an hourly rate (**taking a big sip of my drink**). ANYWAY…it was through this service that I was given a student twice my age. I was nervous because I had never actually taught an adult and obviously the methods books that I used for my younger students would not do, they were filled with cartoons and silly lyrics. So I went to the local music store, picked up an adult method book and headed out to teach.
Upon arrival we introduced ourselves, talked about his prior experience with music and what knowledge that he had about the piano. Then I asked if he had any specific questions or expectations before we began. Cue the title quote. This is such a loaded question! First of all: play what well? A specific song? A specific composer? Every piece of music on the planet? Second of all: play well how? By ear? By chord chart? By reading full fledged 20th century scores? Thirdly:……by whose standard?
Of course, this being my first adult student and my first year of REAL teaching, these things did not come to mind. Instead, my response was… “well, I’ve been playing for fifteen years and I’m still learning.” This was not the response he was looking for. He was looking for a concrete answer, but unfortunately his question was too broad. I think that I intrinsicly knew that at the time but I didn’t have enough teaching experience to address it. This student did continue lessons with me for a few years, even after I went forward with teaching completely independently. However, this question continued to resurface, especially when it was apparent that he had not practiced between lessons. We were never able to truly focus in on specific goals, just his idea of being able to play “well”, and in this goal he was never truly satisfied because even when he would be able to perform a piece proficiently, there was always another new song that needed more work. Thanks to him, I now approach a lot of things differently.
The art of studying an instrument and music in general is such a vast undertaking, it is quite impossible for a teacher to be able to predict when a student will be “finished.” As someone whose life is centered on music, I don’t feel that I will ever be finished learning. However, if you-can create narrow, focused goals it is certainly much easier to quantify how long it will take you to reach them. Of course that all depends upon how much effort you are willing to put toward that goal!
In the studio , there are now two separate tracks for students: Exploratory and Achievement. The majority of my students (of all ages) begin lessons as exploratory students. This gives them the chance to explore music through their given instrument and learn for the sake of music learning. I set educational goals behind the scenes and give the student the chance to discover. It’ a good option for anyone that is wanting to add music into their lives without worrying about their specific “when will I be good” moment. Students that come with specific, concrete goals for the lessons can join the achievement track where goals are set, timelines are followed, benchmarks are created and dreams come true!....well, that might be taking it a little far, but maybe not!
In music there really is no finish line nor should there be an end date. We have finish lines with every small goal we make and much like a race that finish line becomes the start of the next goal. What will YOU do with your music? What goals will YOU attain?
