REPORT ON PARENT MEETINGS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009
Following on from the series of parent meetings that took place over the first few Saturdays of last Autumn term I am now listing the feedback from parents about these. I received many helpful, appreciative and encouraging comments which I have included in this posting. I found the chance to meet with parents in an informal setting helpful to highlight any issues and challenges that were being faced as well as hearing good news. These occasions helped both myself and parents to find solutions and also to allay fears that any difficulties were not exclusive but shared by others. It was also useful to have set some preliminary 'homework' for parents, which involved choosing blog postings of special interest which were then discussed. Our main theme of 'motivation' also sparked off some interesting thoughts. Altogether the meetings were a good way to start the new teaching year and I plan to follow a similar format next autumn.
"It was good to meet parents with children of similar ages to my own. The discussion of how to motivate was extremely useful and it was good to hear how other parents encouraged their children to practise."
"I must say I found the whole experience very worthwhile. Simply sharing with other parents their experiences and their concerns was really useful. Also, the document I read before my meeting gave us some information about your own family and musical history which I found very interesting. So thank you Marie for making all of that possible."
"I found it very helpful to hear the experience of other parents of boys learning piano. from the summer concert, stories of former pupils and the preponderance of male pianists in the professional world, it is clear that some boys apply themselves to the repertoire and to practice to become very accomplished. From the group I learnt that proportion of boys struggle with the repertoire and move on to other things. Also, that you as a teacher respond to their learning needs. I think that it is a great idea to have a boys only group and I am hoping that 'x' will be inspired by his peers."
"For me it was good to get together with some other Suzuki parents and to hear their comments. It is always comforting to hear that other people have struggles as well and that we can't take it for granted that the children are going to be happy to practise regularly."
"In previous parent sessions I was always struck by the realisation that everyone faces similar problems with motivation and how to think of ways to encourage practice. However, in the recent session I was struck more by differences in the children. One had a highly motivated child, another was at the opposite extreme and could not get their child to practise at all. I thought it was interesting to realise how different can be in their attitude, regardless of their ability. we also discussed the idea of getting the children to take more responsibility for initiating and doing their own practice - they have maybe become too reliant on being led by the parent and as they get older there is a need to shift the balance more."
"I thought the group was useful to hear that there is an alternative to the "Suzuki" set route which sometimes gives the pupils a break from the classics - I sometimes wonder whether 'x' would like to "play" with other styles for a bit of fun."
"Thank you Marie. I enjoyed the evening meeting. It is always good to hear how other parents are going about the project of getting children involved in music. I found it particularly encouraging to hear that despite difficulties along the way a positive attitude to learning can make such a difference."
"We enjoyed a lovely evening at Marie's meeting up with other parents from our children's groups. It was interesting to note how many of the parents, when asked to select an item of interest from Marie's blog, chose something about practice, clearly a subject very close to all our hearts. No matter how long you have been a Suzuki parent for, it seems, reviewing the basic principles encapsulated in "Nourished by Music"
and the discussion following it, seemed helpful for everyone.
We went on to discuss how unhelpful the word "practice" was for many families. So many of our children enjoy playing and could easily come up with favourite tunes and fun pieces but are instantly turned off by the idea of practice. I've decided to try and ban it from our house and concentrate instead on playing fun tunes, easy tunes, new tunes and challenges instead! I'll let you know how we get on.
"As a new family to the method of Suzuki piano training, it was good to meet other parents who were able to share their experiences on how the process develops over time. Your postings on the blog with the top ten tips is worth a read for all parents."
"There were a couple of messages I took from the blog, with the intention of applying them in practice. The first was the reinforcing, for me, of the aspect of Suzuki, which you emphasise yourself - the importance of listening to the Cd and to a range of music. There was some practical tips on how to do this. The second was to consider whether the morning was a better time for practice than the evening, when younger children, especially were tired.
From the group discussion, the analogy of music is best learnt, with aural learning producing an instinctive fluency and understanding of grammar and syntax, suddenly made more sense to me."
"I really appreciated the friendly support from other experienced parents at the recent meeting. These chats are so motivational and provide inspiration for the learning path ahead."
"I enjoyed meeting with you and the other parents and felt it was a useful for prompt for me to get more involved in the girls' practice sessions. It was helpful to hear how other parents managed practice times."
"I wondered whether it may be an idea to set up a Suzuki lending library. If each family purchased one Cd for the library of good recordings of selected composers we would then have access to a wide range of music."
"Many thanks for the enjoyable group meeting on Saturday. The meeting has encouraged me to give more thought to listening to repertoire outside of Suzuki and not just Michael Jackson. 'X's' routine is to listen to a classical music Cd every night to get to sleep however she's been listening to the same Cd for five years+ so I think it's time for a change. I shall also encourage listening to the Cds from higher books as well as her current repertoire."
"I enjoyed discussing practice ideas with other parents and having the chance to meet parents informally."
"Thank you for the invitation to attend the last week Suzuki piano group parents meeting. Although it was the meeting for the more advanced Suzuki piano group I still found it to be very useful and reassuring. When I say reassuring I mean that a lot of issues related to the progress of individual pupils, no matter how different these individuals are, still appear to be very similar.
It was good to hear various approaches regarding motivation and as I said above, although every child is different, there is a lot to be learnt from each other.
I was relieved to hear that impatience and strive to "instant success" was not only 'x's' problem. Also the fact that you have to come up with new ideas, if not tricks, to keep the motivation on a reasonable level seems to be more justified after hearing other parents and their ways with dealing with that.
The meeting also helped me to understand the importance of establishing a routine, which in 'x's' case is still a bit of a struggle. fitting piano into a busy school week has proved to be a challenge but looking back over the last year and the progress that 'x' has made gives me strength to continue.
I would like to thank you for your extremely valuable feedback and comments regarding not only 'x's' progress but to other pupils as well, which gives me as a parent enough reason to believe that for him Suzuki piano is right and worth doing."
"The atmosphere at the meeting was very nice and friendly. It was great to have the opportunity to discuss issues relating to Suzuki practice with other parents. It was also reassuring to discover that other parents are facing the same problems (e.g. when is the best time to practice, how to juggle the daily routine, the 'ingredients' of practice.) Listening to other parents' experience I really appreciated the concept that "practice is a time of exploration."
Thank you to all the parents who were kind enough to respond to my request for feedback. I think that all will agree that these comments and observations are very useful.
Marie.
