I like Hendrik Broekman's terms "light touch," as I believe it very accurately
describes how my mother encouraged me. When I was first starting piano lessons
and didn't feel like practicing, she used to say things like, well what are
you working on, why don't play it for me? or, how about playing each of your
pieces twice and call it an evening? Only once, a few years into the lessons,
did she issue an ultimatum during a week when I, for some obscure reason,
simply decided to stop practicing. "If you're not going to practice, I'm not
going to pay for your lessons!" Well, that made sense to me.
 
Of course, even though I, as with most kids, didn't always like practicing, I
did like playing and wanted to keep up with it, so perhaps I was an easy case
to deal with. I have had only a few students and no experience as a parent
myself, so I honestly cannot say how far one should go toward encouraging a
recalcitrant student. Someone mentioned getting their son to promise to try it
for a year, that seems like a good strategy to me. I do honestly believe that
there comes a time for some people when playing a musical instrument just
doesn't hold their interest anymore, and I'm not sure that forcing the issue
is such a good thing, after all we need listeners as much as players. I'm sure
all of you have had people say things like, "Oh, I wished I'd kept up with my
lessons when I was a kid." Maybe this is sort of naive, but I really think
that if they'd been interested enough, they would have done so. Though
certainly a bad teacher can go far toward discouraging a student who might
otherwise have lasted longer!
 
Rebecca