|
|
|
|
Do you remember the movie, Groundhog Day? In this wonderful movie, TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) relives the same day - Groundhog Day, over and over and over again. No matter what he does, he wakes up the next morning and it is once again Groundhog Day. This continues until he decides to learn and grow. Only after he begins focusing his efforts on helping others instead of concentrating on himself does he move forward and awaken to a new day.
Groundhog Day Syndrome (or GDS) is the term I use for students who want to continue to play the same song or the same few songs over and over instead of moving forward and learning new skills and songs.
While all students develop favorite songs that they love to play, others get stuck. For most students, this is a temporary thing, and just represents a beautiful song that they have learned from memory. When these students sit down at a piano in a friend's house or at their grandparents, they play their favorite piece to impress their friends and relatives. A lot of students, for example, learn to play Beethoven's Fur Elise, which is a wonderful song. They play it over and over, but they are also willing to move forward and play and enjoy new pieces of music. A student who truly has GDS, however, will want to only continue to play their most favorite piece in the whole world, which they have worked very hard to learn to play! They will want to only keep playing it no matter how much other music is presented to them.
There are three stages of GDS, which varies from mild to severe.
Mild: A parent brings a music book to their child's piano teacher that contains the parent's or the child's favorite kind of music. They ask the teacher to use this book, which the parent also wants to learn to play. The parent then supports the teacher in their child's lessons and encourages their child to let the teacher use their experience and expertise to guide them on their musical journey. Here the parent is just being human. They are excited about piano and want to share this with their child as well as their favorite style of music. Most of us have a mild case GDS. Therefore this stage is actually pretty close to normal.
Moderate: A parent brings a stack of music books to their child's piano teacher and insists that the teacher use these and only these materials. Sometimes this happens because the parent doesn't want to purchase new books. However, the books often aren't appropriate to the child's skills and abilities. This practice puts a huge limitation on what the teacher can accomplish. It is like insisting that a child only check out the same three books from the public library each week. Like using the full library, allowing piano teachers to choose the full range of materials appropriate to a student that are available avoids GDS and helps them progress much faster.
Severe: A parent brings an older child to a new studio for lessons because they are not happy with their previous teacher. The parent insists that the new teacher use a specific music book that often isn't appropriate for the child's skill level. At times, this happens because the parent really likes this music book and is learning to play these pieces themselves; other times it happens because the child has managed, with great difficulty, to learn one of the songs in the book. The song is impressive and the student played it in their last recital, and they want to play it again in this year's recital. However, the student hasn't mastered more basic techniques and resists learning newer material. This GDS can be a huge impediment to learning, as the child (and parent) can miss key skills and concepts needed to make true progress.
"I would never do anything that stupid!"
Now you're probably thinking, "Well, I wouldn't do anything like that!" Well the truth is, we all get stuck from time to time. We just can't see it ourselves because GDS comes with myopia. Like the little groundhog tunneling its way through the ground but running into a rock, we can focus so intently on a false goal that we really don't get anywhere, but instead only end up getting stuck and having the illusion of accomplishment. Sometimes we can imagine a finish line that really isn't there and end up wasting a lot of time we could have used wisely. This is where piano teachers can help, by focusing students on a daily, step-by-step learning process that achieves consistent long-term learning growth. In this way, children can make true music progress that will last them a lifetime and enable them to share their gifts with their children and grandchildren!
It is important for parents to remember that the real goal in piano (and life) is to learn something new every day! All you need to do is to help and support your child build a strong foundation upon which to grow and move ahead independently. The goal of the piano teacher is to help children grow into a confident, independent learner.
Copyright 2005, Cynthia Marie VanLandingham
Cynthia VanLandingham is the owner of TallyPiano & Keyboard Studio in Tallahassee, Florida where she has been teaching piano for 20 years. She is a member of the American College of Musicians, the National Guild of Piano Teachers, a graduate of the Florida State University College of Education, and President of TallyPiano Enterprises, LLC. You can visit her website and download her original compositions free at http://www.tallypiano.com
Cynthia is also an author of a series of exciting books for children, with the mission of Using Music, Art, Science and Literature to Help Children Achieve their Dreams. Her illustrated series for piano students is called, Little Bear's Piano Adventures!TM These stories take young piano students on a Musical Adventure to find out what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that children can easily understand.
For more information about these wonderful books E-mail Cynthia at cindy@tallypiano.com, where you can also subscribe to her free internet newsletter, Piano Matters!
TallyPiano Studio: (850) 386-2425
Hotline: (850) 264-7232
 Canada.com | Classical music hits YouTube smudailycampus.com, TX - Dun, best known for his Grammy Award winning scores for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and more recently the official music for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, ... Introducing YouTube's orchestra... paidContent.org - Broadband Content Bits: YouTube Goes Classical ... YouTube orchestrates cyber symphony with Carnegie Hall aspirations |
 Xinhua | Grammy nominations a snooze San Francisco Chronicle, USA - So-called illegal downloads may no longer be the gravest danger faced by the imperiled recording industry: Just plain bad music may be what ultimately does ... The LA Times music blog Grammy nominations hit prime-time with TV special Grammy organizers are clueless |
Shazam adds 2 million tracks to music library CNET News, CA - Mobile-music discovery provider Shazam announced on Thursday that it has increased its music database from 6 million tracks to 8 million tracks, ... Shazam: eight million songs of the eternal Now Shazam Amplifies Music Database by a Third Adding Another 2 Million Songs, Shazam Grows Database by 30% |
Classical Music/Opera Listings New York Times, United States - The program also takes advantage of Mr. Levine’s passion for playing piano chamber music: it begins with Mr. Levine and Mr. Barenboim playing Schubert’s F ... |
 New York Times | ‘Tis the Music for Being Cautiously Optimistic New York Times, United States - Consciously or not, much of this year’s new holiday music expresses some anxiety about whether the old modes of merriment still matter. ... Tune to sounds of the season Connick, Crow highlight new holiday releases |
 MTV UK | My music life PSU The Clock, NH - A documentary educates the viewer, "Britney: For the Record" is more like a "reality" show to help a struggling music artist make a comeback. ... Exclusive: ET's Extended Preview of Britney Spears' Music Video ... The Shuffle: Baby, one more time? A generation says goodbye |
 guardian.co.uk | Folk music, civil rights legend Odetta dies at 77 The Associated Press - First coming to prominence in the 1950s, she influenced Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and other superstars of the folk music boom. ... Odetta Holmes dies at 77; folk singer championed black history ... Inspirational Folk Music Legend Odetta Dies at 77 Odetta left message of hope |
 Telegraph.co.uk | The LA Times music blog Los Angeles Times, CA - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss didn't just make extraordinary music when they teamed for their "Raising Sand" album. They also gave Grammy voters everything ... Farber: Music sales won this year's Grammy nominations NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Grammy Nominations Acknowledge Country Music ... Blog: Music Beat |
 AFP | Plans for Salzburg Sound of Music hotel hit sour note AFP - VIENNA (AFP) — The former home of the Trapp family, made famous by the 1965 film "The Sound of Music," will not re-open as a hotel after all following ... Austria's Salzburg resists "Sound of Music" hotel London's Sound of Music to Close in February 2009 Plan for 'Sound of Music' hotel blocked in Austria |
 MTV UK | Music revs up this 'Cadillac' USA Today - By Eric Liebowitz, Sony TriStar Pictures, via AP By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY Though the music in Cadillac Records hums along powerfully, the film could use a ... 'Cadillac Records—: Good music, shaky history In 'Cadillac Records,' the music's electrifying but the details ... 'Cadillac Records:' Watch it for the music -- and then the stars ... |
| Top of Page home Bookmark Us Now ctrl+d 1st 4 Music, shopping via 1st4music cost no more than going direct and can often save you money with special offers. with questions or comments about this website |