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When We Can Read

I won’t tell a student to let go of his prejudice.  As long as he comes into my studio at the appointed hour and shows a willingness to work, it is all that I ask of him.  I’m talking about a piano student who doesn’t like to read music.  At a certain point his playing suffers because he can no longer memorize all the notes.  Learning becomes tedious and frustrating.  I decide to stop everything that we have been doing and just focus on improving his sight-reading ability.

It seems a long time, and parents are worried that their son plays the same song over and over for nearly a year.  But his real work is during the lessons, when he is drilled to make his fingers “see” the keys on the piano.  It is eye-hand coordination.  Some of us do it better than others, but all of us can do it given time and persistence.  My student had a break-through yesterday, playing something the very first time correctly by sight.  All at once time and grievances melted away.  We reveled in the unsuspected moment.  I watched him walked away with silent pride.

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