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Speaking of little tricks, although for piano teaching:
I have a hobby of making belgium chocolate, but it’s a very serious hobby, I have a special room with all professional equipment with over 500 molds to do that, but anyway, I make amusing animal shape chocolate, black, milk chocolate or white chocolate all nicely packaged in cellophane and have a dozen displayed not too far from my piano… For my first half of the lesson I use it mainly for scales, each student has their own special grid with the scales indicated of their level, beside each scale are 5 little boxes that I could check mark one of them whenever the student would get that scale perfectly and at the same time I could follow their progress, a mistake would deduct a point. Depending on their level and number of scales when you would total a certain number of check marks say 100 you get to take home one chocolate animal of your choice, they all had their eyes set on one in particular right from the start, Naturally it was a big incentive, but more so during the halloween, Easter and Christmas. Unfortunately, I can’t do that anymore, gone in other musical paths and less time for teaching, and I can’t remember the details of this system but that was the overall idea but I do remember all the parents would say: “Can I take lessons from you?”.
Maybe the wrong word, but seems the older people feel they have something to justify about this and I don’t why that should be.
I get the feeling that people are taking different tangents to reply the original question. Some nuances would help either in the question or in the replies.
I just don’t know were these answers are going…Ironic is the fact that is seems that in the majority – the older we grow the wider range the word young covers.
Ok young at heart maybe…. your music may still sound young at 50….but can you make it to the top of the Eiffel tower using the stair case instead of the lift? : )
What a fantastic idea Kimberly! It adds just the right spark of fun to help the student focus. I’m going to have to try it. 🙂
Diane, that is a unfortunate story. It sounds like it would have been
best if you could have practiced at a school and simply not play music
at home. How frustrating! A human being is always more important than
the music they play. If the experience of music making is not
strengthening the individual, building confidence, developing
potential, bringing joy, there is simply no point.It can be useful to ask students questions about what their practice
sessions are like, so some of this info can come to the surface. I have
encountered some problematic dynamics as well. I have learned that in
the Suzuki method they will sometimes offer parent classes when a
student begins lessons. This is to instruct the parent about what is
the appropriate and helpful way to support practicing. This sounds like
a good idea for traditional teaching as well. This can be an especially
significant problem because:A. Music teachers have not been required to have certification for many
years, so it’s not uncommon for a parent to have misguided music and
practice habits, and very distorted ideas about music in general.B. There can be a great deal of emotional baggage between a parent and
child that uses the practice session as an opportunity to express it.
When parents project their own needs onto their children it can be a
real mess.If nothing else, there is some value in writing up a “manual for
parents” regarding practice which could outline the appropriate
boundaries. I completely recommend “The Inner Game of Music” by Barry
Green because he gives strategies to get rid of our inner critic that
is just not helpful to the learning process. I can’t imagine having an
“inner critic” in the flesh. I understand Beethoven’s father pressured
him to be another Mozart and somehow he managed to hold on to his love
and meaning in music.I totally agree about Vollenweider and too much of his music might seem a bit boring. However some peaces (like “Bella donna” for example) are really enchanting!
This is a key issue. Teachers with a large studio don’t have the option
of going into every students home. Also, those like me who work
primarily through a community music school are not permitted to teach
lessons at another location for legal and insurance reasons. As a
second option, it would be worth having a monthly, or weekly class in
the evening with demonstration practice sessions for all the students
and their parents to attend. Students could take turns being upfront
with their guided practice session. This is an idea I would really like
to formalize because sometimes the parents can benefit as well. There
are occassions where the teacher can instruct the student one way, but
the parent takes over at home imitating whatever habits were ingrained
in their own experience. This class setting would also serve a
secondary purpose of practicing performing. Recitals would consist of a
similar audience, so the familiarity factor would be in place. It may
be best to offer a class for the absolute beginners, one for
intermediate and another for advanced, just to keep it very relevent to
the student.This year I am proposing to conduct sessions to reduce performance anxiety at my
school. I will say this practice session idea is really gold. Very good to bring
this to everyone’s attention.
