Dealing with Unmotivated Piano Students

[@ColourfulKeys]

If your students are struggling with motivation, take our free piano practice mini-course: colourfulkeys.ie/betterpractice. I'd love to hear about how you light that spark in your unmotivated music students? Let me know in the comments.

[@pianotips2623]

I feel like reason number 1 is the biggest problem. My biggest challenge is teens who are forced to take lessons by their parents but have no interest in piano. I teach a lot of Asian families where all three kids take piano lessons. One of them might really like it but the other two are forced to do it. I regularly talk to the parents and suggest stopping lessons or not doing exams because it's pointless but I feel that all they care about is the status quo, that is, they can tell their friends that their kid is taking Grade exam level X. The kids all tell me they don't want to have lessons but the problem is that in most of these cases, even if I give them something 'fun' like Disney or other tunes, they won't practise them. What is even worse, is that parents keep pushing the exams even though they never tell the kids to sit down and practise, they just assume that by paying for the lessons, the exams will magically happen without any work.

[@ColourfulKeys]

This is where I just put my foot down, to be honest. I decide when students can do an exam, not the parents. And I don’t let students start if I think the parent is making them do it. I know it’s tough though if you need to keep the students financially!

[@lksxxtodin]

This is a amazing video! Thank you ❤

[@ColourfulKeys]

You’re welcome ☺️

[@sarahhancock848]

I totally have that exact student that you're describing. His parents are insisting that he take piano. He used to like it, but now he'd rather spend all his free time with soccer. We've already had the "leveling" talk. And I've introduced some extra pieces (outside of the "normal" repertoire) for him to learn... BUT!, I think your idea of giving him a BUNCH of different things to listen to and choose from, as a new genre entirely, for him to learn from sounds really hopeful. Do you have lists of "method-type" books from different genres on your site? I could definitely use some help in that area.

[@ColourfulKeys]

Take a look at the Recommended Repertoire library! You can level it using the menus at the top. :)