PPP163: Learning from a guy who loves learning

07Oct 2019 by Shelly Davis

My son Austin and I had breakfast together this morning.

He showed me a YouTube channel he’s been watching.

Austin likes to learn things: basic handiwork, woodworking, auto repair, juggling, yodeling, mountain biking…

He’s not afraid to learn something new.

No surprise that he was watching a channel that is all about a guy who learns to do things.

Mike Boyd documents the process and challenges he goes through to learn a new skill.

Uploaded September 14, 2017 and viewed almost 9 million times. The challenge posed to Mike by a fan of his on Twitter is called Dice Stacking and it is simply to scoop dice off a table with a cup and place them back on the table in a tower then place a second tower on top of the first one. Easy, right?

Our piano kids are learning new skills all the time so I thought I’d share my take-aways from Mike’s dice staking video.

Listen to the full episode here

Start with the right/best equipment (Pause at 1:20)

Mike got a challenge and just jumped in.

After failed attempts, he didn’t give up, he took inventory of his equipment.

He couldn’t even begin to deal with the challenge until he knew he can trust the tools he was using. The cup he started with was too big and the dice were too lightweight.

What about your piano kid? How well do they relate with their teacher? What kind of instrument are they working on? An out of tune piano? A keyboard that is too small or doesn’t respond well? What about their music? too hard? too easy?

This is not something a preteen child might notice other than trying to avoid practice. Piano parents need to be attentive to their child’s reaction to practice and investigate what the root cause might be. Is the solution as simple as a better quality instrument?

Refine your technique (Pause at 3:00)

“It’s not aggressive! It’s nice and elegant and slow.” Mike Boyd on stacking dice

I love his expression at the 2 minute mark! I can imagine how excited a piano kid feels when they finally ‘get it’!

What a valuable skill for students to learn – to study their own technique. Teachers are watching students’ hands constantly. We see collapsing first knuckle joints or pinkies sticking up or wrists sagging below the keys. Students need to be aware of how their hands move on the keys.

Technique can make playing the piano much easier or much harder than it needs to be.

Listen to your teacher’s recommendations about technique or efficient hand movement.

Video your child’s hands (overhead or zoomed in side angle) as they play so they can watch the video and make their own technical assessments.

"Stack" your skills (Pause at 4:15 and again at 5:13)

Once Mike can finally load five dice in the cup and stack them on the table, he ups the anti. His next challenge is to see if he can place a stack of five dice on top of a tower already on the table.

You might subtitle this part of the video, “Don’t let failure get in the way of your goal.” or as Thomas Edison put it, “I haven’t failed (at making a light bulb)…I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

According to ThomasEdison.com, the full quote wasn’t specifically about the light bulb. “Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward….”

Isn’t it so easy to get frustrated when things don’t happen easily?

Watch the video. Watch with you kid and let them see that Mike does get frustrated but he does NOT turn that frustration internally. He doesn’t decide *he* is a failure, just that the way he is trying to stack the dice isn’t working. He keeps studying and trying to find a better way to do it. That is gold!

When you get to the 4-5 minute mark in the video, go back and watch how clumsy Mike was at the beginning of the video. He couldn’t even get two dice in the cup.

At this point, though, that skill is almost a default. There is no way he could put two stacks of dice on top of each other if he hadn’t mastered and automatized (see PPP133) the first skill.

Piano parent, you have to constantly remind your piano kid of how much they’ve learned and the new skills they’ve acquired. In PPP128 I talked about keeping a video journal of your child’s progress. Use those videos as a way of encouraging your piano kid (and yourself) that this investment of time and money and effort is really, truly worth it.

Make sure your success is not a fluke (Pause at 5:33)

Sometimes, when a student plays their piece fairly well, I’ll ask them if they played it correctly on purpose or was that a lucky accident. Their answers are often very entertaining.

Julie Andrews is often quoted as saying something along the lines of, “Don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong.” Actually, that quote doesn’t originate with her and I’ll be telling you more about it in next week’s show.

No matter who said it first, Mike certainly puts it into practice here. He says, “To prove this isn’t just a fluke and I can actually do this, I’ve got to do it twice.”

Have your piano kid do the same thing. Don’t stop just when you complete the piece once. Play it again and again to make sure you really know it and that the first time wasn’t a fluke.

Celebrate your success! (Stop at 6:16)

The remainder of the video is a montage of how Mike varies his new skill. I like his expression at 5:42. It’s like he’s saying, “Piece of cake!” It’s not as thrilling as seeing his joy at 5:06 to 5:16 but it’s still pretty good.

Even though I only ‘met’ Mike this morning, I’m thrilled when he finally succeeds at something he’s been working so hard at. I’m even more thrilled when my piano students master a skill they’ve been working on. I’m not nearly as important to them as their parents are.

I know you’re thrilled when you watch your child succeed after they’ve been frustrated and persevered through a challenge. Be sure to celebrate with them and remind them how proud you are of them.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes just getting your piano kid to sit down a practice at all is a challenge. That’s why we will soon be starting our annual PIANOVEMBER Practice Challenge.

Our challenge for the month of November is to play as many songs, pieces, and original compositions as possible.

You may tally one point for every piece you play, every time you play it. You can play review pieces, old pieces, new pieces, memorized pieces, songs by ear, original compositions, or even songs on piano apps. Older students may count smaller sections of larger pieces they are studying.

Join the challenge

A little friendly competition to make your piano practicing more exciting. Every piece you play, every time you play it. Goes from Nov. 1-30. Jump in anytime!

Thanks for listening!

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