Here's a teaching tip that worked for me.

At one time I had approximately 25 piano students. One was extremely left-brained and one was extremely right-brained. The rest were somewhere inbetween.

The right-brained girl was 12 years old and didn't read well. I would let her hear me play a song and then imitate it. We concentrated on expression and feeling the phrasing. Reading was so difficult for her we would "see" the notes as groups of chords, and we would "feel" them before we read them. Only after she could play a song reasonably well did we go back and read the notes while we played.

The left-brained girl could read and play notes, but it never sounded like music. We spent time with duets and playing everything possible from memory.

A simple test for right-brain vs. left-brain is to ask the student to 1)name all the letters of the alphabet which rhyme with e. 2)name all the letters of the alphabet which have a curved portion in the capital letter. Then ask which was easier. LB people prefer #1 and RB people prefer #2.

Of course we're all a combination of LB and RB, but a few people are extremes. Using both approaches seems to help most people. Most of us prefer to learn new material using our strengths, then improve our weaknesses using the music we've already learned.

Another idea for beginniners who don't always have others to play with is to play along with a tape that they (or you) have made. I agree with your observation that those who play and participate will continue.

Mary