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I've found it turbulent to motivate my students on to harder material. They pick up quickly what "difficult music" looks like. When picking a song, they know how to visually avoid difficult rhythms and will lean towards anything that shows the RH (right hand) and LH (left hand) playing seperately. So a few months ago I decided to start bracing my students in a positive way by calling their new material spicy. It somehow conveyed everything that I wanted to communicate to my student without saying the words "harder" or "difficult". I think thoes words are loaded and while for some they can positively challenge but my students typically try to weasle themselves out of anything "difficult". But when a song is spicy, it is exciting and more flavourful and has a greater pay off !!!
Today I was teaching a makeup lesson for two sisters, something I'll post about later. After about a month of learning a Grade 2 song that was rhythmically challenging. My student made great strides herself in sight-reading and speed but she was pretty winded after practicing the song. The next song she chose to play appeared to be much simpler. Longer notes, fewer syncopated rythms but the song was two pages. The point is that despite this song looking easier, my student wasn't as aware of the skills she needed in doing this song and found it boring and unexciting. It was then that I realized the challenge of this song was longevity.
I explained to my student who is 10, that this song too was spicy. That in order to execute it properly, she's have to be accountable in measuring the beats and counting aloud. That somehow got her to perk up a bit. She was then being a bit unfocused so I assigned a second song, that also appeared easy, but was challenging in stamina and longevity.