Just a few days ago I received this question;
One of (my students) chomps down on her teeth in rhythm to the music and I hear a loud click when she is playing. The other gal sucks in her breath at the beginning of every measure and then holds it. They are oblivious to this… I realize that they are not relaxed and it can become an entrenched habit. They are both beginner- Level 1 students and I want to figure out something to help them. Any ideas?
GREAT question! This is very much an issue of self-awareness, habits and motivation to make behavioral changes.
Replace the Bad Habit With a New Habit
Think about smokers. If you try to just stop smoking with no replacement, it almost always fails. However, if you replace smoking with chewing gum or anything really, you get a much higher success rate.
Think of your students as having a bad habit, that is just covering up a good habit. In other words; what should the student be doing instead of clicking teeth or inhaling?
The tooth clicking is just beat keeping, but with the wrong part of the body! Get her to tap her foot, count out loud or perhaps even feel the beat with her wrists – the whole idea is to put the feeling of rhythm somewhere more natural.
Your inhaling student is breathing (good) but in the wrong way (bad). Spend a few minutes with her at the beginning of each lesson doing “symmetrical breathing”; 5 seconds out, 5 seconds in (a Yogi will tell you breathing starts with an exhale). Better yet, have her sing along while she plays her songs. You can’t hold your breath and sing at the same time. Sounds like this student would benefit from the idea that playing the piano is singing with your fingers. If she doesn’t want to sing, she could say the words. If there are no words she could sing/say the notes.
Your clicking tooth student is actually doing a GOOD thing, in a BAD way. She’s attempting to keep the beat and feel the rhythm but just needs to be shown the best way to feel rhythm, and that is with the body – not teeth! Try teaching her how to conduct also.
Think about music in its purest, most natural state – melody and rhythm. The human voice, movement and dance. Speaking or walking. Both these girls are trying to use their bodies in an unnatural way to make music. We just actually have to show them that music is just like breathing or walking, and turn their unnatural habits into natural ones. Making music is just like things they already know how to do – talking, walking, dancing or singing.
I almost want to stop there, but there’s two other tag team tactics that could come in handy (wow, I just used 4 “t” words in a row).
Reverse Psychology & Self Awareness
Ask your student to do the offensive behavior on purpose. Yes, that’s right. ASK them to do the very thing you want them not to do. Why? To bring that unconscious behavior to a conscious level. To give them the acute awareness of what it is they are doing, and a feeling of control. You don’t have to make a big deal of it, and tell them “you’re doing this really weird tooth clicking thing, so I want to you do it more”. You want to be subtle in a way where it doesn’t make things worse, like “let’s see what it feels like to click our teeth in rhythm”.
Then, ask them to play a line of music BOTH ways – and have you guess which way was correct and which way was incorrect. What we’re doing here is engaging their creativity and sense of play. Now we’re further highlighting the differences between the good habit and bad habit.
If all that doesn’t work, try recording them – video is best but audio works too. This is another attempt to bring in the self awareness piece. Don’t directly identify the bad habit for them, but ask them to watch or listen to see if they can identify it on their own. And usually when people, or kids, see themselves doing something they may find even slightly embarrassing or odd, this will motivate them to stop!
I appreciate the question, and I really hope that gives you some ideas. Definitely chime back in and let us know how it goes! This is so great that some questions are coming in, I’m very happy to help out. 
April 9, 2011
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