Today, I Confess: Sometimes, What’s “Easy” Feels Hard.
📢 SALE ALERT: I have a zinger of a confession for you today but be sure to read to the end since I have a BIG discount to share on my newest resource: Building Better Music Readers!
Fans of Stephen Sondheim will know he once penned the lyrics, “What’s hard is simple. What’s natural comes hard.”
I think about those words often, because they repeatedly prove true in my life. Not in the poetic ways Sondheim envisioned, but in everyday responsibilities.
I can’t tell you how many times I complete difficult parts of a task but end up ignoring something simple to complete it.
For instance: I’ll write someone a heartfelt message in a card, address the envelope, put a stamp on it… and then it sits on my desk for a month. 🤦🏻♀️
Similarly, I have spent HOURS writing multiple Piano Teacher Confessions to you the last few weeks, only to leave them sitting in my drafts folder. Why have I dropped the ball on just sending the things? Who knows…
If you’re reading this, I guess I can celebrate that one of them finally saw the light of day. 😆
My own idiosyncrasies aside, I think there are many Teacher Truths rooted in this idea of “what’s natural comes hard“.
For instance: keeping a relaxed hand shape at the piano. 👋🏻 It takes so much EFFORT for students to allow the body to do what it is designed to do by default.
The same thing goes for singing. Singing comes naturally to us… until we’re aware other people can hear us. 😅 Then it becomes a whole thing…
It’s easy to lose touch with the fact that the lesson experience is riddled with mental hurdles that are unique to each student. Requests we view as simple are often perceived as “hard”.
This is especially apparent in introducing students to staff notation. As teachers, we are inevitably de-sensitized to the challenges our students face in early navigations of the reading process.
These challenges cannot be detected by a method book. That’s our job. 😊
I’ve been teaching for 30+ years and I’ve explored a lot of methods. I’ve concluded – with confidence – that no single printed resource can provide students with everything they need to become fluid readers.
Instead, I’ve spent a lot of energy deconstructing the reading process into a series of micro-steps. My students work through each step, only moving forward when they have demonstrated clear mastery over time.
(Maybe this sounds like what all of us do, but my micro-steps are smaller than most of what you’ll encounter in traditional methods)
In doing so, I no longer send them home with practice assignments that feel confusing. Their music doesn’t immediately get reduced to “C-C-C….” drivel once the staff enters the picture.
Most importantly, they learn how the visual aspects of the staff connect with their ears, their voices, their fingers, and the keyboard.
Spoiler alert: those are all separate aspects we should address before piecing them together.
I hope I’ve given you some things to think about today and inspired you to reconsider what’s natural, what’s easy, and what’s hard.
If you’re interested in learning more about my micro-step process that works in conjunction with any method series out there, I’d love for you to check out Building Better Music Readers.
I’ve spent the last few months walking 50 teachers through the Building Better Music Readers curriculum. This is a 12-week series, designed to release slowly over time so you have the opportunity to implement each step before moving onto the next. Work at your own pace (but please don’t let this one sit in your inbox unused. It’s a game-changer).
BBMR has been a real labor of love, and to celebrate its official release to the world, I’m offering $20 off with coupon code podcast20.
That code will only work through Sunday, 04.26, so think quickly!
This is your last opportunity to score BBMR for under $100 for the foreseeable future.
Want to save EVEN MORE?
SuperFriends on Patreon currently have a code to save $30 off BBMR.
You can currently become a SuperFriend for $5 or $9. If you plan to purchase BBMR, the larger discount basically pays for your membership this month AND scores you an invite to Teachers Teaching Teachers on Friday morning (04.24) at 11am eastern.
I know I’m biased, but Teachers Teaching Teachers is THE BEST piano teacher meetup on the internet. Join us as we ask questions, share victories and grievances, and study terrific repertoire.
This month, we’re looking at one of my favorite pieces for Early Intermediates: Sea Otter Slide, by Jeanne Costello. We’ll study its pedagogical merits, how to introduce it, and more.
SuperFriends membership at the $9 level buys you access to TTT as well as the (extensive!) video archives. The amount of benefit housed in these collections blows my mind.
…I know that was a lot of SALES talk, friends. I’m so proud of Building Better Music Readers, you’ll inevitably hear me talking about it in the weeks to come. Rest assured, I always aim to provide valuable insights alongside any advertisement, so there’s plenty here for everyone – even if you never spend a dime. 🎵
🥂 May we stay diligent to look past our OWN perceptions of what seems “easy”, instead looking for evidence of mastery in our students’ work. 🥂
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