The Challenge

So this morning I went over to my "student"'s house for her piano tutoring. She was not really in a good mood, considering she had to practice piano so early in the morning (at 8:30 am). Anyway, I told her to practice the scales first. She replied "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY IT." But I knew she was just saying it because she didn't want to play it. As the strict tutor, I insisted on playing the scale. But she was like "IDONTKNOWIDONTKNOW" So I was like, "Okay, fine then, I will TEACH YOU HAND BY HAND" She thought about it for a sec, then gave up and played the scale.

We moved onto the next piece of music. It was a rather large piece for her level. At the beginning she played it nicely, but got stuck in the middle. THAT PART was like the main difficulty of the piece. She got kinda irritated and wanted to skip that part, but I was being so serious and stern I made her play it. She pulled out that IDONTKNOWHOWTOPLAYTHIS saying so I told her that if she doesn't know how to play it I shall teach her hand by hand note by note so she had to follow the rules. The hour went by pretty fast and there were a lot of struggle and irritation...the last minute her mom came in and the girl was quiet and played the piece as I wished. Afterward I told her mom to come in next class and stay with us for the tutoring. She agreed, and said that it's nice to have a strict teacher (because a lot of Chinese parents love strict teachers).

That was a big accomplishment, you know, getting her mom to stay with us for the next lesson next Saturday. My strictness can only have the best effect if the mother is with us so that the little girl would behave. I remember when I was 6 I had a very strict teacher and my mom stayed by my side EVERY class. It's weird: my mom doesn't know how to play the piano, but she makes a great critic. When I was a bit older I got a tutor who was also verrrrry strict. One class was not enough for one single piece of music, because she was so strict she made me play every note with extra care and understanding. Now that I think of it, I am really thankful for these two strict teacher and tutor of mine. I kinda want to test their teacher method out on the little girl, because it worked for me. But who knows...maybe it will not work on her as good as I expect it will be. I still have so much to learn...