My teenage students were always some of my favorite people to teach. However, you need to approach teaching teens a little differently in order to keep them interested. Here’s some quick tips to keep them engaged and loving their studies:
Lose the deadlines and eliminate testing requirements. Although it’s not in my formal lesson contract my teens and I have this discussion whenever I sense that they’re getting overwhelmed with life in general. Too often it is too easy to just lop piano lessons of the list of “things-to-do” so as a business person you’ve got to structure the lesson experience so that teens look forward to their time with you. Let piano be the one hobby without a deadline. Everything in their lives is time-sensitive. Let the exploration of music and the piano be the exception to this rule.
No guilt-trips allowed. Make it clear from the start that you are not here to come down on them if they missed a week of practicing. Kids these days have pressure and deadlines coming from all angles: their parents, their school teachers (usually 5 or 6 of them!), their athletic coaches, etc. Be the person in their life that doesn’t think the world needs to revolve around your particular activity. You might find that they gravitate more towards the piano when the pressure is off.
Be a “co-learner.” Because piano and their progress is not a time-sensitive activity you have ample time to explore and carve their educational path together. Use lesson time to explore new genres, and let your teenage students play an integral role in making repertoire decisions. Lose your agenda and your idea that ‘you know best’ and be open to trying new things. You’ll probably learn a lot in the process and discover new music that you may not have come across.
Be a safe haven and mentor. They need you. Be a sounding-board when necessary. You don’t need to be their therapist, but having a strong relationship with your teen students on a personal level is invaluable.
Yes, I agree with this. I have a student that’s been with me for 7 years and will be a junior in high school. She has so many interests and her Mom won’t let her quit piano until high school ends. During Covid she started to lose interest and stopped practicing. I took her out of method books, and she and I looked through loads of songs to discover what she wanted to work on. She is now in a church band, so all those lead sheets and accompaniments we’ve worked on have come in handy.