When Questions Precede the Answers, Learning to Play the Piano Is Easier by Kendall Ross Bean
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My father once told me about taking piano lessons from his mother (I also took lessons from her). He said he would often ask her why a certain thing was so. The question might be "Why there were 7 white keys but only 5 black keys?" or , "Why are C# and Db the same note on the piano?". He said that her response to his questions was too often, "Well, because that's the way it is."
I do not know whether she said this because she herself didn't know (which was my father's interpretation of things) or because explaining it at that point would have introduced too many complications into the lesson agenda. There are many possible reasons why she said what she did, and it is possible that I may never know the real reason, at least in this life. But knowing the reasons for things being the way they are, are very important. They are not only important to young children, but also to many other people at all ages and from all walks of life.
It is my feeling that too many piano students have the same experience as my father did, and they become put off by piano and music because so many things seem so arbitrary. Or perhaps because they are told that things are a certain way in music because "that's just the way it is", or "Because I say so." If I have learned anything, it is that eager learning is almost always preceded by a sincere question on the part of the student, a sincere desire to know something or to find the answer to a problem. In other words, the question, or at least an awareness of the initial problem, should precede the answer. In my experience teaching piano, I have found that "facts" or "answers" given without regard to whether the student has first been able to formulate a question are usually answers that are uninvited and often unwelcome.
If this order of things is followed then it will usually be found that one answer leads to another question (as every parent has discovered, the question "why" can go on indefinitely) and at some point, of course, the answers, and questions, do have to be postponed for another day or lesson. But at least this way, the same as with a story left unfinished, the next lesson is often eagerly anticipated, rather than dreaded. (Just remember Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights.)
Behind the explanation to every question in music is often a fascinating story about how somebody solved a difficult problem or discovered something really interesting. Children come with an innate curiosity: they love stories and finding out about things. Sometimes the teacher himself or herself doesn't know the answer to the question, or the reason why something is so. But that doesn't at all mean it's not worth finding out, and then both student and teacher can embark on a voyage of discovery, and the teacher has the prime opportunity to show the student how to go about finding answers for himself. "You know, I don't know the answer myself, but let's see if we can find it" unites both teacher and student in a common challenge, and helps both to identify better with one another.