I agree that music lessons are something that should be enjoyed by anyone who is willing to learn. However... it comes a time when neither the teacher nor the student are ready for each other.
Recently I responded to a small advertisement on the bulletin board at school. A grandmother looking for a teacher for her grandson. Since they lived near the university, I chose to meet them at grandma's house instead of having them drive 40 miles in the opposite direction.
Well... The first meeting/lesson did not go well. The little grandson had just turned 6, and could barely read. He's a bright little boy, but still quite young. He also didn't have a piano. I inquired with the grandmother when I talked on the phone, but she never answered my question because she got another incoming call (call waiting), so our conversation got interrupted.
There he was sitting at the dining room table with an old Casio keyboard. His grandmother sat at the other side of the table and glared at me through out the lesson. She interrupted me at every opportunity she could. These were supposed to be half-hour lessons, and she made sure that her stove clock buzzed when that half hour was up. By the time the alarm went off, we were just getting rolling (wishful thinking), and he was getting used to note names.
I thanked them for the lesson time, and left it that they would call me if they should decide to continue. A week went by, and to my satisfaction, the grandmother told me that her grandson decided he was too young to learn yet as if a 6 year-old can make an executive decision like that.
No loss, and I was quite happy to let this fish go. I'll stick with my adult students who are an absolute joy to work with. There's no clock watching, or interjection by someone else during the lesson, and we all work at a pace that's comfortable for each other.
John
