Teaching Adults (Rami Bar-Niv in Conversation)
Rami Bar-Niv
Teaching adults is an area of expertise for Rami Bar-Niv. Rami visits the-piano-studio.com to join the Conversations series, in which we sit down with various piano luminaries and chat about what interests them, what they’ve learned, what they’ve taught to others, and their areas of expertise.
In Conversation with Rami Bar-Niv
Rami Bar-Niv is a concert pianist, composer, author, and teacher. Born in Tel-Aviv, he has become one of Israel’s most acclaimed and sought after pianists.
Rami Bar-Niv graduated with honors from the Rubin Academy of Music, and was the recipient of many prizes and scholarships. He studied further at Mannes College of Music in New York. He performs regularly in North, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and of course Israel, where he received the “Best Performer Award” from the Israeli government.
One of Rami’s many projects is Rami’s Rhapsody Piano Camp for Adults, so we took the opportunity to ask him some questions about the joys of teaching adults.
Rami Bar-Niv talks to us about teaching adults…
1) Is there truth to the adage ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks‘? What do you say to those who think it’s too late to begin?
Certainly true for me, but luckily I already play the piano… 🙂
I suppose this adage would be true for some and untrue for others — it probably depends on one’s determination and dedication. I have started many adults from ‘scratch’ and they enjoyed it immensely and made wonderful progress. However, unlike some other activities, with piano playing an adult beginner can’t expect to become a Rubinstein — that needs starting at an early age. But, I believe that learning, understanding, and producing good piano playing can definitely be achieved at any age.
Just do the work it takes and have lots of patience–enjoy the trip! It’s not only about the destination.
2) What characteristics do you think are most helpful for adult students to cultivate, develop, or have?
I am not sure that all these would be different from adults to non-adults, but I suppose some would:
Perseverance, non-competitive/non-comparative thoughts, optimism, attention to details, love of music and piano playing, and a bit of ‘chutzpah’.
3) What challenges are unique to adult beginners/students and what do you do to solve these challenges?
People have different abilities and understandings. They come with different backgrounds — some more musical and some less. The biggest challenge for an adult beginner is that they are usually already successful in what they do and piano playing, all of a sudden, is not simply adding another skill to their knowledge, it’s a whole new difficult world. Adults are more aware than children of how many different things they have to do and think about when playing the piano — this may be scary to them.
I personally try to calm them down by taking it easy and conveying the same attitude to them. However, taking it easy does not mean taking the short road or overlooking details; it means understanding that no one is standing over them with a whip, demanding them to be perfect within a given time.
4) With many method books geared towards children, are there any adult method books that you use often? Which ones do you recommend and why?
What’s wrong with adults learning from method books for kids? 🙂 I am not very familiar with the variety of method books both for children and for adults, except for a few of quite old ones. Therefore, I can’t recommend any. I do use them if they are around… I can teach from any book.
5) What advice would you give a teacher who wants to start teaching adults?
Be patient! Adults may understand better/faster, but their coordination, ability to execute things on the piano, and motor flexibility may not be as natural as with kids.
6) Can you give us a brief overview of a private lesson or masterclass geared towards adults?
This is a hard question as my adult students range from beginners to very advanced: some are performers themselves. In general though, I don’t find that my lessons are different whether I teach kids or adults. The difference is in the level of the student and in the student’s ability to accept instruction.
Master classes and a private lesson are quite different: in a lesson I can work on details that in a master class may be boring for the audience.
My private lessons with adults are mostly planned by the students: they decide what to play in the lesson, what aspects they want to work on, what questions they have, etc. They are more self-directed.
7) What do you find most rewarding about teaching adults?
We understand each other’s jokes! 🙂
Adults take lessons because they choose to and not because someone else chose it for them. They are very appreciative and fascinated with every piece of new knowledge and we can talk on the same level.
Important Links
Click here if you would like to find out more about Rami’s Rhapsody Piano Camp for Adults. You can read more about Rami on his wikipedia page or see his YouTube videos here.
Return to top of this page.
Return to home page of the-piano-studio.com.