All I want to say is I'm sick of losing students to sports. There are several times throughout the school year that a teacher will tell me their son or daughter won't be continuing lessons anymore because it interferes with t-ball or basketball or soccer or what not. It especially pains me when these are students who are very bright and hard working and appear to really enjoy the instrument.

When did a music education become disposable, and when did sports become more important? You would NEVER hear a parent say, "Sorry, coach. Janey is going to have to drop from the team because soccer practice interferes too much with her piano lesson and practice time."

Grr...

Actually we've dropped other activities because it was either taking time away from piano or the commitment to piano was not allowing enough practice time in those activities to do them justice. So take heart, there are some of us out there.

THANK YOU!!

I laughed at this subject coming from "toejamfutbol" lol.

Seriously, I think most of us can feel your pain!

I do have a young man that comes in his football gear and mom has told coach that he will be late on Wednesdays due to piano beforehand.

I have 3 boys, I KNOW how intense these sports can be. They expect these kids to practice 6 days a week for hours at a time. It's true that there really isn't time to do anything else during the season unless the parent is assertive enough (or cares enough) to do something about it. Sadly though, I have seen it happen where the kid gets penalized by sitting the bench more.

Ironic that when you go to apply for scholarships and things (even National Honor Society!) they want the student to be well rounded, and in lots of things! One of my students was denied membership in the NHS because "all" he had was a 4.25 GPA and had achieved rank of Eagle scout, and played piano. Not enough. Sad. Since when is a sport required for NHS????(I have used this info to keep a student or two that was considering dropping cuz of sports)

Oops, looks like you got me started lol.

Haha, my username is actually from a Beatles' song.

And yes, don't you get even more irritated and fired up and about it the more you talk about it?

Well, we're a second example. It's rarer, to be sure.

We can carp a lot about why music, or piano in particular, isn't accorded the same status as sports. Yet the whole story isn't wrapped up in simple excoriations of modern cultural decline or some other 'changing values' story.

I would think that part of the story is that most sports are team activities, and much of musical training is solo. I don't think it is unreasonable for people to value quite highly the team aspects of their kids' extracurricular activities. for many families, that team development aspect is an important part of the social development of their children. Many children simply prefer that to the hard slog of attaining mastery of a solitary instrument. Thus I'm not at all surprised if the attrition rate from solo instruments toward team sports seems higher than the reverse attrition toward specialization in the piano or violin or .... accordion (sorry Monica, I couldn't resist!).

In support of this, consider the sustained success of many high school and middle school band programs. Most are not particularly musically demanding. Some kids in them will indeed take their instruments seriously and practice a whole hour per day (sarcasm intended, and dripping). Others won't practice much at all outside of the classroom. Yet for all of them there is a huge social benefit from being in the group and there is a broad and deep well of parental support for the organization. Band Parents (in caps) are as potent a force as Football Parents.

I had totally forgotten this from my youth, until your post. My gym teacher came up to me and tried to recruit me into football. You see, I'm (was) 6' 1" and weighed at the time a good 190 lbs. Back in the 50's, this was perfect for a lineman position. When I asked him when they practiced, and it was every day from 3:30 to 7PM, I said no thanks. I never even mentioned it to my parents, and if the coach said anything to my parents, they never said anything to me. I had both violin and piano, and orchestra, and who the heck wanted to give that up for an afternoon of grunting around a football field?

Add my kid to the list of those who quit sports for music. He was captain of his traveling soccer team, and a star player. He quit for youth orchestra. And took a lot of grief for it - sacrificing something he had "such a talent for", for "a hobby." Fortunately, he got into Juilliard without the soccer scholarship.

Two things help my students stay loyal. First, I do attempt to accommodate their schedules, and find ways to relate the two endeavors. One example: I have a young baseball player in my studio. We refer to the Lesson book as being like "baseball practice", the theory book is the rule book, the technique book is batting practice, and the performance book is game time. He played "Take me out to the ballgame" in our last recital, dressed in his uniform. He is 7 - it was adorable. He hit a home run!

The other thing I do is that I guarantee my rates for 3 years if lessons are uninterrupted. If they take a break (unpaid), then when they resume, they come back in at whatever my current rate is. Many parents are unwilling to give up that price break.

I agree that piano / music is important, but I also agree that there is much competition for students' time. In the end, though, I'd rather teach the kids who want to be there.

Love the "uninteruppted lessons" deal with your rates Lollipop -- that's a great idea!

I think we all deal with this conflict, but I err on the side of trying to accomodate my students and encourage them to try and swap lesson times with other students in the same area. I'm actually happy that some kids are still outside and exercising because I see way too many kids who only exercise their thumbs while playing video games and text messaging from the couch.

"Come Together", right?

I tell parents and students that piano lessons deserve the same respect that sports and other activities do. Talk is cheap, I know...

Yep, Come Together.

Since I work in a larger studio with other teachers, I usually suggest that the parents at least try to schedule a different lesson time with a different teacher, so the student is still taking lessons, even if it's not with me. Better than nothing!