Guest Post – Piano Lessons for GenZ
For the first time in my piano teaching career I’m seeing a new breed of piano students come through my studio door. No, these kids haven’t grown any extra fingers, but they are coming to piano lessons with a new set of expectations. Meet GenZ, the digital student.
One teen came to her lesson last week and after eight lessons she decided she didn’t need her books anymore – she just wanted to learn how to “sit down at the piano and play.” Another student performed a Taylor Swift piece she learned from a YouTube tutorial followed by one of her own compositions, complete with vocals – a vast improvement over her performance of her assigned lesson material. Another boy worked on his Halloween improv and asked for ways to make it more “scary.”
These students are typical of the new generation. They’ve never known a world without the Internet, instant messaging, and email. They believe everyone has a shot at fame in a world where TV is “reality TV” and one YouTube video can bring instant “stardom.” They are easily bored because they are accustomed to what Mark Prensky refers to as the “twitch-speed” of video games and its instant rewards. They have no patience for lectures. They know exactly what they want to learn and tune out anything they feel is irrelevant. In fact, the bottom line is that their brains are different than ours. Studies in neuro-plasticity show that students of the digital generation have become parallel processors rather than linear processors.
I’ve learned that if I want to keep my roster of students, I’ve got to be quick-thinking, flexible and open-minded. Czerny and Hanon have been shelved for now. My finger exercises are simple patterns using the first five notes of the major and minor scales. Polishing repertoire has been replaced by an emphasis on sight-reading. Free improvisation has replaced written composition. Ear training and music theory are more important than ever. And lessons have become collaborations between student and mentor where the goal is for the students to be able to teach themselves, become musically independent, and ultimately, confident creative musicians.
Written by Cathy Shefski, of the All Piano Website.
I hear you clearly with the “new breed of piano students.” At age 58, this teacher is scrambling to keep pace! I have to share a couple of fun things I’m doing. One of my high school students asked me to get a Gary Stadler New Age piece, “Whispers.” My wonderful friend, DeAnn Diller, searched for the music and we finally decided it was non-existent at this point. SOOO- I ordered the CD from Amazon and after a brief listening lesson, I sent the CD home with her to begin “mapping” the bass line. She was most intrigued with this project. Next, we will formulate some rhythmic structure, figure out what the chordal structure is and work on the right hand melody.
Another high school student wanted to purchase “I Can Only Imagine” (Mercy Me). I happened on a YouTube tutorial that is actually pretty good so I facebook’d her the link and we’re going to learn it that way instead of actually getting the music and learning it in the traditional way.
“And lessons have become collaborations between student and mentor where the goal is for the students to be able to teach themselves, become musically independent, and ultimately, confident creative musicians.”
Should this not be the goal of lessons in any case? I don’t think that new technology has changed my view on that.
From my own experience I can’t say I have particularly noticed a new breed of student. For me each and every student is different – I teach, set exercises and find things of interest for that student. Typically these are based upon them, their lives and what they want from lessons.
I think this post does have a valid theme – that of not doing the same tired old Czerny for every student – that is lazy teaching. It is not however specific to GenZ. As teachers we need to be open to new ideas, be adaptable and yes, keep learning ourselves.
I think to a certain extent we need to adapt our curriculum and methods to fit this generation. But on another level, learning to play an instrument may be one of the first real disciplines that these kids learn.
Mary – Sounds like we’re going through the same things with our students. I have three students composing their own pieces now and I had to laugh today when one little one showed me how she sets up her video camera on her piano to film herself playing her own pieces.
Mike – Teaching Czerny to every student seems more like “hard labor” than “lazy teaching” to me! LOL!
Stengel99 – I agree. That’s why, even though my students might be learning tunes from YouTube, I still insist on developing sightreading skills, technique and a strong foundation in music theory.
You guys have the right idea!!! I am a student who wants to become a teacher one day, and I smile as I read this post. My piano teacher gave me a great, new appreciation of classical music, but also taught me theory and worked with me on aural skills from the beginning so that I could use these skills to my own ends. He liked it when I would bring him something that I either arranged, or began to learn on my own. Shouldn’t our main goal be to help them make music a meaningful part of their lives? IMO, this is the best way to do it!