Music: Piano Lessons Can Be Fun

Small fry have been balking at piano lessons for a long time; the new distraction of TV often makes things even tougher. But Music Teacher Bernard Gabriel, 37, thinks he knows how to win: make sure the kids have fun. Sometimes this leads to a circus atmosphere in his Manhattan studio. Says Teacher Gabriel: “I’ve never yet heard of a child who hated circuses.”

One of Gabriel’s pupils last week was a ten-year-old named Bobbie. He sweated and thumped at Schumann’s The Happy Farmer, finally burst into tears. Gabriel handed Bobbie a baseball, told him, “Here, just for fun, see if you can play the melody with this.” After a few minutes of baseball on the keys, Bobbie was ready for orthodox Schumann.

Teacher Gabriel’s bag is full of such tricks. To a moppet who finally manages to play a piece correctly, Gabriel will award a slip of paper with the announcement: “I confer on you the degree of Doctor of the D Major Scale.” A bored learner may be allowed to peck out scales with his nose, or play a piece blindfolded, or standing on one leg. Gabriel students also play musical Truth or Consequences, in which one penalty is standing on the head to sing God Bless America. Gabriel sometimes reverses the lesson, plays student to the pupil’s teacher. Says he: “It purges the kid of hostility.”

Gabriel, a Denver-born concert pianist, hit on his “music-can-be-fun” formula six years ago. He was faced with a particularly bored, antagonistic ten-year-old. Said Gabriel: “Dorothy, what would you do if you were in my shoes?” Said Dorothy: “Keep cool, Mr. Gabriel, keep cool.” But the conversation apparently purged a bit of Dorothy’s hostility; she began to show interest. After that, teaching her was no problem.

Gabriel has all the students he wants now. Some 25 youngsters a week (aged 5 to 10) troop into his studio for lessons at $10 an hour. He also teaches grown-up beginners (oldest: 60) who think they have missed something along the way, and a few advanced students too. Latest Gabriel enterprise: a series of Saturday morning radio shows this fall, on Manhattan’s city-owned WNYC, aimed at youngsters and featuring standard study pieces from Mozart, Bach and Clementi, played as the composers intended them. Says Gabriel: “After that, the music won’t sound so much like exercises.”