Re-framing: one of my most valuable tools as a teacher

It happens in piano teaching more often than one would expect: a child tries an activity for the first time, cannot do it perfectly and becomes frustrated and angry faster than the speed of light. One can tell almost immediately that this has happened by the sounds of the hands slamming down on the keyboard. Separating the child’s brain from the fingers (figuratively, of course) seems to be a powerful aid to relieving the frustration.

I talk to the child about his or her wonderful brain that has a clear picture of what needs to happen. At this time, though, the fingers have never attempted this action before. The brain is sending messages to the fingers but, since they are inexperienced at the activity, the fingers don’t always understand what they are being asked to do. This is why we need to ask them over and over until they really know what is required. It means, then, that the child’s brain needs to be kind to the fingers because the fingers are doing the best they can and the brain needs to help until, again figuratively speaking, the fingers turn around and say to the brain, OK, we know how to do that now.

The children respond wonderfully to this strategy, feel great about themselves and display real patience and compassion for their fingers. That is why re-framing is one of my most valuable tools as a teacher.