I once had a piano student whose left leg would point slightly to the left when sitting at the piano. Not a huge issue for a beginner, but for starters, if she ever needed to use the soft pedal, her left foot was not lined up to get there efficiently.
As a teacher, I mentioned it on occasion, and she would move it so it was lined up, but it didn’t feel natural to her. Inevitably, her left leg would drift right back to its comfortable place pointing outward.
Years later, a new idea popped into my head when I saw her leg pointed slightly to the left as she sat at the piano for her lesson.
I asked her, “Can you feel the relationship between your arms and your legs from a feeling place?”
She paused a moment as she sat on the bench and tuned into her body. I held the silence so she could get out of her thinking head and feel what was going on.
After a minute or so, as she was noticing her arms and legs from a feeling place, she slightly readjusted how she was sitting. And to my surprise, her left leg and foot now pointed straight ahead.
I hadn’t said anything about the left leg pointing outward, but when she actually tuned into her body and felt the relationship between her arms and legs, it became more comfortable to have all of her body, left leg included, pointed all in the same direction, straight ahead toward the piano.
As teachers we often point out things for our students to change or adjust as they learn to play their instrument. What I realized is that having them tune into their body from a feeling place brings about its own transformation on a much deeper level than any word coming out of my mouth. The experience of it lasts much longer than the verbal explanation.
So the next time you have a student where something is not how you wish it to be, consider withholding the correction, and instead ask them to feel. They might just discover their own correction. If you try this, I’d love to hear what you learn.