Originally Posted by jesse
Just one last thought. Do you sense your own intensity in the matter? Do you think your children sense your intensity?

Best of luck.

Yes. It's my intensity, not so much my intensity with regards to this matter. But of course, I don't know exactly how he interprets it. The other day he was struggling with a tiny portion of a piece that was new to him. I broke it down into just two measures. Finally he did it right hand while I played left hand and when we did it he was all "Yay! NO MISTAKES!" SO he does enjoy his sucesses and perhaps they should be celebrated more. My style is to not dwell on successes or failures, but when something is wrong I DO point it out.

It's very possible that because I am pressed to for time and because previously I had to work with both children every day I pushed for efficiency. I say "efficiency" not performance becasue I don't think I've ever given either child a hard time for making mistakes or having touble getting something. But I've certainly been guilty of getting frustrated because something that should take 10 minutes takes 20. I'm talking about something taking a long time becasue they refuse to slow down or look at the music. I don't have any expectations for how long it should take them to learn something.

It honestly never occured to me that when he plays too fast and gets called on it it might hurt his feelings. It's obvious to me that he's doing it to rush through his practice, but I guess it's still possible that criticizing it could hurt his feelings.

I don't know if it's practical to let the teacher be the only one to correct and criticize just because he is so young. But I am certainly willing to give it a shot. I think I will still have to show him how to do certain things, but I can demonstrate only. If he does it one way, then jsut do it again and if we only get through one tiny portion of a piece then so be it.