Keep your hands off the child.

A new school year has begun.

In millions of classrooms, hundreds of millions of fools are "molding" the hands of children.

They sit very close, "rewarding" their students with their foul breath and damaging their psyches.

Parents are "unaware."

I’m preparing to make a video about this. I went to my favorite Canva, where I get photos and videos.

The catastrophe is so vast that within a couple of minutes, I have already collected a whole array of such offenders comfortably seated at the scene of the crime, not even blinking.

So, my dear friends. Those who have never thought about this—listen up:

Freedom of muscles is a natural state to strive for, not a skill formed through coercive actions.

Freedom of muscles cannot be achieved through physical interference, especially if it involves forcibly holding or correcting hand positions. The intervention of a teacher touching the student’s hands can lead to tension, loss of natural movement, and even fear of mistakes, which in turn disrupts freedom of movement and muscle memory.

Why do students tense up when working with sheet music?

1. Cognitive overload: Simultaneously performing multiple tasks, such as reading music, keeping rhythm, coordinating hand movements, and pressing the correct keys, creates a significant cognitive load. When a student tries to keep all this in mind, tension arises, leading to muscle tightness.

2. Fear of mistakes: If a student is afraid of making a mistake or constantly feels pressure from the teacher or the process itself, this can cause stress and tension. Fear of mistakes blocks the natural flow of movement, making the playing process tense.

3. Incorrect note-reading technique: Many students, especially beginners, try to "guess" the notes or read them slowly and uncertainly. This causes a sense of insecurity and forces the muscles to tense in an attempt to maintain control over playing.

4. Lack of automatism: If the skill of reading notes and understanding the text has not reached automatism, the student will continually focus on the notes instead of feeling the music as a flow. This causes unnecessary tension and reduces the enjoyment of playing.

5. Focus on mechanics, not music: When a student is overly focused on the technical side of playing (finger position, adherence to rules), they lose the connection with the musicality and emotional aspect of playing. This turns the process into mechanical reproduction, often accompanied by tension.

Learning to play the piano can be compared to a situation where a toddler learning to walk has their eyes covered, or where gymnasts and ballet dancers practice with the lights turned off. Here’s why:

1. Lack of visual support: In both of these examples, the main support—vision—is either disabled or restricted. Similarly, in piano, vision does not fully assist in controlling hand movements because the eyes are focused on the sheet music, not the keyboard.

2. Increased complexity and stress: In situations where vision is impaired, the brain faces additional challenges—it loses a crucial source of information and has to rely on other senses, such as tactile sensations and internal spatial perception. This creates stress and tension as the body compensates for this lack of information.

3. Delay in learning: Without visual feedback, the learning process becomes more complicated, as the person must navigate by feel and through trial and error actions, which they would understand faster and with less tension if visual support were available.

4. Disruption of natural perception: When toddlers are taught to walk or gymnasts are taught movements with blindfolds, students lose confidence because they lack understanding of where they are and what is happening around them. Similarly, in piano learning, when the student cannot see what their hands are doing, it disrupts natural perception and control, hindering free and conscious skill acquisition.

Such "blindness" in piano learning is unique and requires a special approach that takes these limitations into account. The teacher's task is not to aggravate this "blind" mode with their interventions but to create conditions where the student learns to develop inner vision and coordination, ultimately leading to genuine understanding and control over their actions on the instrument.

In this context, a teacher’s touch on the child's hands appears as interference that worsens the "blind" learning mode and creates additional difficulties for the student.

Why is touching during piano lessons extremely harmful to the child:

1. Increased disorientation: In the "blind" mode, when the student cannot see their hands and must rely on internal sensations and hearing, any external intervention only increases their disorientation. The teacher’s touch deprives the child of the opportunity to develop their own sensations and understanding of their movements, which is crucial for mastering piano playing.

2. Violation of independence: Touch can be perceived as an attempt to control the student’s actions, which prevents them from finding solutions and mastering skills independently. It’s like blindfolding a toddler learning to walk and then trying to guide them physically. As a result, the child stops trusting their own sensations and loses confidence in their actions.

3. Reduction of natural development: In piano playing, it is vital that the student independently develops coordination and understanding of the sheet music. When the teacher takes the student’s hands, it deprives them of the chance to find the correct position on their own and to develop an internal sense of rhythm and movement. It’s like turning off the light and simultaneously trying to make the child move along a complex route.

4. Creating unnecessary stress: In conditions where vision is already limited and the student works in "blind" mode, additional touch can create stress and tension. This leads to tightness, as the child loses the small amount of confidence they might have developed through independent actions.

Touching the student’s hands during piano lessons interferes with natural development and makes skill acquisition more difficult and stressful. Instead of helping, such intervention amplifies the "blindness" and disrupts the student’s internal control over their actions. Therefore, it is crucial to leave the student alone so that they can develop their skills and confidence through their own efforts and conscious perception.

See this in a classroom?

Ask: Does the teacher understand the consequences of such behavior?

Do not let underqualified individuals harm children and turn them into dependent weaklings!

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