Build your student’s confidence authentically with a gradual release of responsibility

Today I’d like to share a teaching approach that is fundamental to how I lead online piano lessons. It’s an approach that I learned in teacher education and became fundamental to my method once I started teaching teacher education and I saw how powerful it truly is for both children and adults.

The concept is called the gradual release of responsibility. The idea is that the teacher starts with all the responsibility for performing a skill, and slowly doles out elements of that skill for the student to try, until the very end when the student is performing all the elements of that skill independently and with full confidence in their skills.

I love this method because it presents the teacher as a true mentor, where they come alongside their student and actually work with them in developing their skills, rather than remaining separate from their student as having expert knowledge that the student must somehow aspire to. This is a true guided model of education. And I love it.

This guided model occurs very naturally in our personal lives. Let’s take for example what a parent would do if their child wanted to learn how to make pancakes. They might invite the child to first watch them make pancakes so they can see the steps involved. Then the next time they make pancakes they might invite the child to do an easy task that they can handle, like mixing the batter. Then the next time, they might give the child even more responsibility - they might say, “I’ll measure out the ingredients, and you can pour them in.” The time after that, the child might be ready (and eager!) to start measuring ingredients for themselves, so the parent might say, “I’ll do the harder ingredients like cracking the eggs, but you can measure the flour and milk.” Slowly and over time, the child’s skill will grow and grow until they’re able to make pancakes on their own! And that’s a pretty good skill to have!

We can apply this fun and encouraging method to our own piano teaching. Many of you probably already have a habit of modeling your student’s piano songs for them, and that’s a great start at assuming all the responsibility for the skill. But what do you do next? Often, the next move is to simply hand the music over to the student and invite them to give it a try. But notice, that’s not a gradual release of responsibility. That’s just handing over the responsibility to the student. It’s an overwhelming amount of pressure because there’s an overwhelming chance of failure! Not feelings we want at the piano! Instead, the gradual release of responsibility tries to position things so that there is next to zero chance of failure, even when trying something new.

So what do we do instead?

Basically, we want to be more precise in identifying what a student can do on their own and what they have yet to achieve. This means getting more granular in your understanding of what skills your students are actually learning. They’re not just learning a line of music — they’re learning a hand position, key signature, arrangement of notes, timing, proper fingering. All this is very overwhelming to a child that’s expected to just “give it a go.”

So, it takes time and patience to divvy up all those components in your mind, and then go through them individually in the order that your student is most comfortable. For example, if your student is learning a piece in D major and has already played a song in D major, this could mean talking about their previous song before you move to this one. You could ask them about what they remember about what they needed to be able to learn the song (e.g., they had to remember the F# and C#, or common chord progressions like I-IV-V), it could mean practicing that scale and reviewing the notes involved to gain a general sense of their position on the keyboard. Or, if note naming isn’t their strength but they have an affinity for rhythm, maybe you’d start there, and learn to tap out the rhythm that they’ll be playing. Maybe it even involves letting your student scan the music and try a measure they think they can do, wherever in the piece that may be! It all comes down to starting with what the student is already comfortable with, and building incrementally upon that.

A common question I get at this point is, how do I know what’s the next best step for my student when there are so many possible directions??

My answer is deceptively simple: Ask your student what they feel like doing next. Give them some options and let them decide what is best for them. This can be really hard for teachers because we’re expected to be in the driver’s seat all the time! There’s this feeling that if we move into the passenger seat, we’re not professional or we’ll lose control. But this isn’t the case. You’re still in charge. You’re still leading them to their destination. You’re just letting your student, who’s in the driver’s seat, choose the route they want to get there.

So few teachers are willing to put their students in the driver’s seat, but it’s the surest way to understand where they’re at and what they feel capable of. Plus, it gives students some control over their learning, which promotes motivation, and it makes learning more enjoyable because they keep succeeding all the time! What a win-win! All it takes on the part of the teacher is a willingness to sit in the passenger seat instead of the driver’s seat all the time (hard, I know!) and patience to go through smaller steps than they’re used to and repeat those steps as many times as your student needs.

It can be difficult to slow down like this and put on the brakes when your goal is to see your student attain more and more, but it’s only in coming alongside your student and being willing to walk with them at their own pace that you build trust in your teaching partnership and real, authentic confidence on the part of your student. Good luck! :)