Teaching teens can feel overwhelming. It can make you feel like you’re back in high school, trying desperately to impress the popular kids (unless you were one – kudos!) But piano lessons with teenage students don’t have to be like that. Choose one of your teenage students and ask yourself these five questions.
Teaching teens can feel overwhelming. It can make you feel like you’re back in high school, trying desperately to impress the popular kids (unless you were one – kudos!)
But piano lessons with teenage students don’t have to be like that.
Choose one of your teenage students and ask yourself these five questions. You’ll start to understand what it takes to be a successful piano teacher of teenagers.
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If you’re teaching a teenage student and you don’t know why they’re learning, stop. Normal lessons should not resume until you know if they’re
Why is this important?
Because, when you know the why you can figure out the how.
Do they want to be able to play the latest Taylor Swift song to impress their mates? Great! Let’s help them figure out songs by ear.
Or do they want to learn how to compose a film score? Cool! Let’s start by finding scores they’re inspired by and unpack why they like them.
That’s exactly what I did with one of my teenage students. I discovered he was a keen filmmaker by getting to know him and asking questions about what he gets up to outside of school. He’d been trying to work out how to score one of the short films he’d created. I asked if he wanted help and he was thrilled!
This only happened because I asked questions and learned something about him.
Having a good connection with your students goes a long way. Find out about their hobbies and appreciate them.
Teenagers love nothing more than when you remember that they had a dance show on the weekend and you ask how it went. Or how did their cricket match go?
Find out what they listen to. One of the first questions I’ll ask, and I’ll continue to ask regularly throughout the year, is what they are enjoying listening to at the moment.
Ask them to show you their playlist (most teenagers love sharing what they’re listening to!) You might be surprised to see what’s made the list – maybe there are some old Beatles songs that their parents listen to that they like, too.
If there’s music you’ve never heard of, take time to ask about it and listen to it. Again, you’re sharing things with your students and building a relationship.
If they like you on a personal level, they’ll feel more comfortable asking questions. They’ll also want to work harder to impress you!
Related: Top Pop Songs for Piano Students
Teaching teens doesn’t work the same way as teaching young kids. Teenagers aren’t going to fit into the structures that you use to teach seven or eight-year-olds.
I reckon there are three categories of musical teenagers:
The composers.
They’ll just naturally make things up on the piano. Some things will sound good. Others will sound bad. But it doesn’t matter because they’re curious and will explore sounds. They’ll come back each lesson with some amazing things.
They might not have practiced what you asked them to, but they’ve composed this great new piece.
As hard as it is not to tell them off, you’ve got to encourage their creativity.
The YouTubers.
These students can play pretty complex stuff, but they have no idea what they’re playing.
They can’t read music or tell you anything about the piece they’re playing.
They just learn by copying someone on YouTube.
The Readers.
They’re desperate to be able to read music and play classical pieces.
Maybe they’ve even started trying to teach themselves.
Whatever the type, you’ve got to cater to them.
Be flexible and willing to change your plans.
If you’ve got a composer, don’t spend all their lesson time forcing them to read music.
Allocate composition time every lesson, even if it’s just to hear them play and commend them on what they’ve created.
If you have a YouTuber and you ban them from playing YouTube stuff…Well, they’re going to do it anyway! Find a YouTube video together and then show them the written music for it so they can compare how it sounds, how it feels to play, and what it looks like written down.
If you try to stop them from doing what they want to do, two things will happen:
Be flexible and work with them.
If something’s not working, change the activity. And change it fast.
There’s nothing wrong with holding your hand up and saying, “You know what? I don’t think this is working. Let’s try something else.”
They’ll respect you for that.
Okay, “cool” is possibly the wrong way to describe it.
What I mean is, are you down to earth? Reasonable? Do you have a sense of humour? Are you keeping up to date with current music? Build rapport with your students and learn to laugh at yourself.
Students learn from teachers they like (this goes for boys in particular)
Be the type of teacher that encourages your students to play what they want from time to time.
Don’t blacklist any music just because you don’t like it or don’t think there’s merit in it.
It might be too hard for them, and it might be something you don’t like. Too bad! Get on and do it because they’re going to love the fact you’re helping them out.
Support and encourage any musical interest they have. They’re far more likely to then go and do what you want them to do (e.g. note reading or rhythm work)
Wrong!
Age doesn’t matter. I’ve met very cool and trendy teachers in their 60s and quite dull and boring teachers in their 20s. It’s not an age-related thing at all.
Make a connection with your students and be a fun and reasonable but still respected teacher.
Teenage students also love it when you share some of your life with them. Let them know about the kind of music you like. Some of my students have discovered new music because of songs I’ve told them I like.
Do you have any interesting hobbies? Do you like sports or video games? Share them with them because they might have something in common. It’ll create a fantastic connection.
Teaching one-to-one is one of the most exhausting forms of teaching I’ve ever done. But even if you’re tired at the end of the day, keep your humour up as much as possible and ensure you’re still inspiring and enthusiastic. It’ll make such a difference for your students.
Even if your student isn’t giving you anything back, despite your efforts to be incredibly inspiring and motivational, keep at it. You’ll be amazed at what happens when you make the effort. You might find that suddenly, a couple years down the track, they’ll turn the corner.
Connect with your students’ lives.
For example, if you know a student plays tennis, you can make a clear and relatable metaphor between practice and sports.
Talk about being on the court, facing a ball machine, and practicing the forehand technique over and over, then swapping to the backhand technique. Tennis players single out techniques and exercises to strengthen their overall game. Pianists single out techniques and exercises to strengthen their overall playing. Playing a match is the equivalent of playing a piece of music from the start to the end.
Making the connection between sports and music works fantastically for teenagers.
When it comes to technical exercises, I love asking students why they’re doing them. Can they tell me why I’m getting them to play a scale?
This is fantastic when they drag their heels when it comes to scales and you can provide them with a convincing argument for why they should play them.
Explain how it’s to help…
When they understand the relevance and the connection, they’re more likely to do it.
Not everyone’s going to be instantly inspired by teaching teenagers.
Be authentic to yourself and do what you’d like to do.
Sometimes it’s great to push yourself and see how you go teaching older students. You might find that you have fun and you’re actually fantastic at teaching them.
The important thing is to be yourself, look after yourself, and make sure you’re having fun.
A happy teacher creates happy students!
For more information about teaching teens, download the free eBook: Teen Teaching Toolkit.
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