Currently, the #1 worry I hear parents express about starting piano lessons is, “I’m not sure if my child will like it.” As a consequence of that perspective, often as little money as possible is invested into an instrument and perhaps even the lessons. There is an assumption that there will be significant difficulty and dread except for the “talented” few. You are likely familiar with Stella Payton's statement, "Whatever you believe to be true, whether it is true or not; if you believe it, then to you it becomes the truth."

First of all, EVERYONE LOVES MUSIC! Don’t you? Did you or someone you know have a bad experience with piano lessons? Are you holding on to your personal bias?  Why?

If you’re that parent, please let me help you. Find the best teacher you can, with the best qualifications and a track record of success. Take the time to meet the teacher and honestly express all your concerns. Remember that the teacher likely knows other teachers, the best piano technicians, and will be an excellent resource when it comes to buying your first piano. Let your child get a good sense of the teacher. Maybe you can even talk to some students or parents of the teacher’s current students to find out a bit more about the overall experience. How long do the students stay in lessons? As a bench-mark, my students on average stay at least 10 years. On an aside, noteworthy is that exceptional girls are curiously the most likely to be pulled out of lessons. 

You might think, how hard can it be to teach a beginner. Won’t any nice piano teacher teaching beginners do until we find out if my child likes it? We just want our child to have fun! Are you looking for a music-loving baby-sitter or a teacher?

The most critical stage of learning is right at the start. This is when attitudes are formed and physical habits are developed. There is nothing more sad than seeing a child enter a studio that already has had a bad experience and is confused, poorly informed and has developed physical habits that now have to be re-conditioned to insure healthy playing is possible. At this point, an expert will be required for sure to sort out the issues. The longer it took to create the mess, the longer it will take to sort it out.

If you’re thinking that by “going cheap” you are going to save money just in case your child doesn’t like piano lessons, your game plan is actually expensive. It’s the issue of cheap versus quality.  What you will do "going cheap" is waste money paying for lessons that will set the stage for disaster. Perhaps you will even pull your child out of lessons out of frustration. Given that it takes many years to learn how to play, the likelihood of retention of any skills is nil. 

If you want to make a good investment, my recommendation is, consider your priorities. Perhaps re-balancing the allocation of your financial resources or waiting a year and saving your money until you are able to commit to providing valuable education that sets the stage for a lifetime of enjoyable, healthy piano playing is a better idea.

Learning how to play piano is SO much more than wiggling fingers, reading dots and symbols and making sound every day. Did you know that the students learn how to solve difficult problems; gain greater awareness of their bodies and control of their thoughts; develop skills which can be transferred to all other subjects; and learn empathy and other critical, highly desirable, sophisticated communication skills - that they learn to listen and hear? Most importantly, the piano teacher may be the only adult who actually truly listens to your child without distraction and makes them feel heard.

Yesterday, I went to visit an 84-year- old friend who had moved into a new condo. She struggles with a poor knee. One of the first things she showed me was her new Yamaha piano. Her piano will always be her best friend. She will never be alone. She is happy.

Happiness is the healthy piano player.

© Copyright 2018 by Heidi Peters, heidipetersmusic.com, Winnipeg, Canada. All rights reserved.
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This week one of my university students commented that she did not understand why although non-musicians parents would trust me to teach their children, some would not trust me to know about practicing. Perhaps further clarification is required.

The purpose behind music lessons is to give students the opportunity to gain confidence, to learn healthy ways of self-expression; to learn how to listen with patience and focus; to hear more and more clearly; to learn to hear the unspoken with compassion and empathy; to comprehend more deeply; to feel and express the full spectrum of emotion; to become more engaged in the soundscape of their environment; to have a better understanding of the complexity of the science of sound; to learn better communication skills; to explore their musical instrument; to find their voices; to learn to use music to heal themselves and others; to figure out how to overcome the obstacles that make music-making difficult; to transfer those skills to all other aspects of life; to acquire grit; to discover the endless connections between music and all other subjects; to learn how to work in solitude and as a team member; to become more in tune with themselves physically; mentally and spiritually; to stretch their creativity and  imagination; to learn to analyze with increasing sophistication; to become explorers; to become story-tellers; to learn to share; to learn how to find meaning and connection; to learn self-acceptance and therefore acceptance of others; to learn about other art forms; to love; to learn what it means to be a musician.
 
Indeed music is filled with endless patterns and combinations of patterns, rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic. Those patterns alone represent the Science of Music. To become masterful at playing these patterns, one needs to play a lot over many years, but not without meaning. Endless, meaningless repetition for the purpose of pleasing someone else is not music-making or art. It is turning what should be fascinating into a dreaded chore devoid of any artistic thought. That is not music. That is learning how to tune out and turn off. That is training robots. No one wants to be a robot. The fact is, although musicians practice a lot, even professionals don’t practice all the time. In fact, there are many ways of learning without touching the instrument. Sometimes that means going for a walk or writing a poem or in a journal or trying to catch a butterfly first.

So please don’t judge your child by how much she plays or what she plays. That does not nurture a musician. It does antagonize and break the trust of a teenager.

Copyright by Heidi Peters, heidipetersmusic.com, Winnipeg, Canada, May 2017. All rights reserved.
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Have you ever been really embarrassed? It suddenly dawned on me a couple of months ago that the reason I am so comfortable on stage, whether as a musician or public speaker, is because I have embarrassed myself so many times publicly that I have learned to trust that I will survive. The last time was as I walked out of a restaurant post a university student recital after-party trailing a train of toilet paper. My male colleague swiftly removed my train as my husband looked on in horror. Of course my colleague and I burst into hysterical laughter. 

I often hear​ students say the funniest things. For example, a young student exclaimed gleefully upon entering the studio, "This looks like a recording studio! This is going to be easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy." A young teenager stated, "I am really tired because I got up at six to prepare but I didn't." Another walked on stage and said, "Wait. Where is Middle C?" and another asked me which pedal to use. My favorite moment happened a while ago. A student walked up on stage, played an entire piece in the wrong mode as the result of starting on the wrong note. At the conclusion of the performance, the student came over to me and quietly said, "There's something wrong with that piano. It sounds BAD."

I often remember my mother's sage advice. "Never lose your child-like self; but childishness is never tolerated. Know the difference." Pouting, sulking, throwing temper tantrums, holding grudges, being spiteful or disrespectful was never tolerated by the adults in my childhood and much to the surprise and ultimate delight of some of my young students, it is also not tolerated in my studio. But a great sense of humour and a wild imagination are always welcomed. 

Honestly, we have all done things and said things that we would rather erase. In this day of instant social media, it is particularly important that we not take ourselves too seriously. In some cases, the humiliation could be considered crushing. To rise above the humiliation is the key. Know yourself. Be kind to yourself. Be passionate about what you do. And above all, please learn to laugh at yourself. Stay focused on your mission and remember you walk beside everyone else, not one step behind nor one step in front. 


Copyright by Heidi Peters, heidipetermusic.com, Winnipeg, Canada, July 2016. All Rights Reserved. 





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With the overwhelming evidence provided by scholarly reviewed research currently circulating in the academic community, I find it perplexing that music programming should be on the chopping block in any school division or school anywhere. It would seem that the decision makers are unaware of the latest trends in arts education and may lack the benefit of adequate exposure to music learning themselves. The Coalition for Music in Canada is an excellent resource with regards to current research for parents, students, educators and trustees alike.  
 
Neuroscientists have already determined that no other activity including sports engages so many parts of the brain simultaneously. To deny children adequate exposure to compulsory music programming in the school system in our society is irresponsible and elitist. Many students are not adequately privileged to have access to private music specialists such as me. This gives a specific demographic an unfair advantage in terms of enhanced scholastic aptitude, problem solving skills, emotional intelligence development, spatial mathematical reasoning, and true multi-tasking abilities unlike the linear thinking that is common place in other subjects. I recommend watching this excellent TED-ED video How Playing an Instrument Benefits your Brain by Anita Collins. 
 
The outcome of withholding compulsory music programming, is denying a specific demographic the opportunity to the develop the skills most revered by future employers. John Keiser, Executive Vice President and Provost at the New World Symphony discusses this in his article 10 Reason why Classical Musicians Make the Best Employees.  With regards to another spectrum of life, having briefly attended the Family Medicine Forum as a guest in Toronto in November 2015, involvement in music programming is of
increasing interest to the medical community in the studies of Alzheimer’s prevention, pain management strategy, mental health therapy and more.
 
In a world that focuses largely on visual stimulation, it is critical, in my opinion, that we teach our youth how to listen and communicate via a universal language. Music does that too.

© Copyright 2016 by Heidi Peters, heidipetersmusic.com, Winnipeg, Canada. All rights reserved

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A couple of years ago, I took two of my senior piano pedagogy students to a “Calming the Practice Monster” workshop conducted by Paul Coates. One of my students was finishing a B.Ed. degree and the other had a M.Sc. degree. The target audience was a combination of students, parents and piano teachers. The topic was obviously addressing the issue of practicing piano. My reason for taking my students was to give them an opportunity to observe the responses of the children, their parents and the teachers in response to the interactive workshop. Quite frankly, my students were shocked at the overwhelming, emotionally charged, negativity expressed by audience members when asked to utter the first word that came to mind in association with the word “practice.” Strikingly, only one Mom and daughter out of the entire audience said “Love it!” and “Fun!”

How many of you recall being told to practice or to practice more? How many of you have had conditions of practicing waved as an ultimatum in your face by either your teacher or parents or both? For the adults reading this blog, let me reinterpret these questions. How many of you have been asked whether you have done your job on the job by someone with a threatening voice? How many of you have supervisors hanging over your shoulders every time you start to work? How many of you are threatened by a supervisor on a daily basis? How many of you are required to go to a job evaluation meeting on a weekly basis to be told yet again to work harder or else? How motivated would you feel under this leadership? Would you like your job? Would you want to quit? What would it take to change your attitude towards your job?

Wow! Am I glad my Mom never told me to practice piano. I remember how my hackles raised though when on one occasion, one of my wonderful piano teachers wrote on a report card that more practice would be beneficial. Of course, he was right but to me that comment seemed unnecessary. In my mind, I was already practicing as much as I could in my busy teenage life. What eased the burn of that innocent statement was my Mom saying that she was proud of me; that when my parents had signed me up for lessons their only hope was that I would love making music because it was so beautiful. Mom often commented how they never imagined the outcome.

I am grateful for that memory as it set the foundation for my teaching career. As complex and challenging as learning can be, there has to be joy in the discovery process and as the teacher of a creative art, there must be time allotted to lots of experimentation. A full spectrum of emotion is welcomed in this rewarding process. That means tears, frustration, annoyance among many other emotions are part of the joyful process.

My challenge to all of you is to consider your attitude towards practicing. Attitudes are learned and therefore can be changed. One day a mother entered my studio expressing disbelief at the positive change in her child’s willingness to practice. With a beaming smile, her son interrupted her saying, “MAMMA,
I do not practice. I ONLY PLAY!” Apparently, some of us have the same attitude as the famous Wanda Landowska (1879-1959).

© Copyright 2014 by Heidi Peter. All rights reserved. Winnipeg, Canada. Contact me.                

One of the most useful pedagogical advantages of working with students on an individual basis is having the opportunity to really listen to them. Obviously students who choose to study music privately have a deep desire to learn to play their chosen instrument. They love music. At face value, one might think that with access to a good instrument and stellar instruction, becoming highly proficient at making music in a short time should be easy, especially for adult students.

Adult students come to lessons with a wide range of experience and expectations. In my case, some adult students are professional musicians looking for very specific assistance such as fingering, better tone production strategies, pedagogical advice, among other professional development opportunities; some are striving for Conservatory Associateship Diplomas, and potentially careers in the music industry; some have studied in the past and have returned to their old love; and some have embraced playing piano for the first time. My observations are that all the adults have already acquired a lifetime of experiences and have already established professional/workforce identities.

With all this acquired knowledge and an established self-image comes one potentially crippling phenomena: the fear of publicly displayed, humiliating failure. Can you feel yourself tense simply reading that statement? The consequent knee-jerk, powerful self-preserving, blood pressure raising, terrified response is commonly, “I ONLY play for myself!”

After years of puzzling over how to get past this learning barricade, a recent swan song article by the dying Winnipeg Free Press columnist, Ms. Lindor Reynolds, published on September 11, 2014, entitled “Thanks for letting me into your lives” gave me some valuable insight. In this article, Ms. Reynolds mentioned the success of her final fund-raising efforts in the last months of contemplating the meaning of life. She closed this recollection professing that her reasons were purely selfish stating, “I say an act of selfishness because I did it for me.” Perhaps this is the truth that my adult students need to hear.

Understanding intrinsic rewards are far more powerful than extrinsic has been pivotal to me. The core reason why I have spent decades endeavoring to help students on their musical journeys, to share my music on stage, and encourage even my youngest students to give themselves stickers on the "inside" rather than giving them paper stickers, is because I absolutely love the way it makes me feel and wish for them the same. Accepting with humility that I only play for me too, has made it is easy for me to be on stage, accept imperfections, rejection and learn without limitations. I wish you the same!

Stay tuned for my next BLOG: NO PRACTICING ALLOWED!

© Copyright 2014 by Heidi Peters. All rights reserved. Winnipeg, Canada.