Spotlight on Students-Adult Returners
This week I am focusing on adult students, adult returners in particular.
I value all of my students, and each have something uniquely musical to offer, every journey is important. When an adult returns to the piano, however, there is often quite a deep emotional connection they have had with the piano which has been left ‘incomplete’ for so many different reasons. Not that any journey at the piano is ever ‘complete’, even as professionals we hope and love to keep learning and to keep improving; as the Cellist Pablo Casals famously said when asked why he still practised for several hours a day at the age of 80, ‘because I think I am making progress.’ I think we can all relate to this. With adult returners however, there is often a sense of revisiting a relationship with the piano which was often quite abruptly ended for a number of reasons, sometimes it is as simple as having to prioritise school work and studies at the time, financial constraints, not being able to house a piano, or juggling young children and work, for others there has been and ending which was not of their choice, sometimes a very abrupt one which has left the student with regrets and ‘what ifs’.
‘One of my adult students, Kathy Hindle says: ‘’I bought a keyboard, and tried for a year to play without the benefits of a teacher. Then I met Lorraine at the REC in Bedford. Since taking lessons from Lorraine, she has taught me how to practise effectively, even when time is short. It is very important to eradicate mistakes by practising individual bars and tying them back into the musical narrative. I had the experience of repeating mistakes endlessly until Lorraine showed me how to change. I feel an immense sense of satisfaction at mastering a piece of music after regular and repeated practice. Playing music really forces me to ‘live in the moment’ and takes me away from my day-to-day problems. I have had lessons from Lorraine since September 2023 (16 months) and I feel I have made much progress in that time. She has helped me to find enjoyable repertoire at a comfortable level, and some of her suggestions – even down to changing fingering – have been transformative. I realise her breadth of knowledge saves me a lot of effort. I have rediscovered BBC Radio 3, where all the programmes are digitised and may be re-played through BBC Sounds. Now that I know how much effort it takes to play music well, I have a fresh appreciation of live music and our musical tradition in UK.’
Some of my adult students have returned because their children started to have lessons, and they want to share the joy of music with them. This is the case with husband-and-wife Neil and Nellie who both have very demanding careers and for them their piano lessons and practice are a way of being part of their children’s musical journey, enjoying music as a whole family, and also of immersing themselves in their own practise and playing which gives them a wonderful creative outlet and escape from their careers.
The wonderful thing about teaching adult returners at any level, is that they are always having lessons because THEY want to, not because they HAVE to, this is always closely related to their motivation, as is the fact that they are self-funding of course. I really do love teaching adult returners and will write more on this topic in another blog post as there is so much to explore; it really is an absolute pleasure to be part of their return journey to the piano.
