Learning to See Things Differently

Sometimes, all it takes between what we as teachers perceive as a great lesson and a bad lesson is a matter of perspective. I'm writing this post because this is something that I personally struggle with a great deal. Before lessons, I am usually guilty of setting goals for the upcoming time period. There are things I want to accomplish, projects to be finished, new projects to be started...

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with setting goals! But there is something wrong with beating yourself up if you don't actually accomplish all those goals in each lesson.

I have a student who has been a real struggle for me this year so far. His level of energy and lack of constant focus in lessons have been a source of stress for me each week. As I set my goals for his upcoming lessons each week, I found myself approaching the lesson each successive week with more and more of a sense of despair. I knew that no matter what, the goals wouldn't even be remotely accomplished because half of my time would be spent trying to re-gain focus. And the entire day of lessons would end on a sour note as I reflected on that one lesson and what a failure it had been.

Not good!I knew that I needed to change my approach, so this week I decided to try something radical (for me at least!) :) . I approached his lesson with no expectations, no goals, no thoughts of "we have to accomplish x, y, and z...". Rather, I just let things happen. I worked with what I had. We spent the lesson engaged in more activity- jumping back and forth between the piano and keyboard, changing up the usual format of the lesson, throwing in some new stuff...and the lesson ended up being much more successful. Was the child more focused? Not really. What had changed was my approach to the lesson. I decided that success wasn't really based on accomplishing goals, but more on finding creative ways to engage and help this student experience success. The result was that I ended my day of teaching with a much more positive attitude, rather than starting my week off feeling like a failure.

As teachers, having goals and expectations are definitely important. But there are also times when those same goals and expectations can get in the way of a truly successful teaching experience. Sometimes all it takes is a small change of perspective to make all the difference! Have you ever dealt with this in your teaching experience? I'd love to hear your stories of success and tidbits of advice on how you overcame a difficult situation like this and made it a positive one!

A Reason to Celebrate

I don't think there's any magic formula for teaching students how to practice. Wouldn't it be nice if that existed?! Or if students could somehow be programmed into becoming good practicers?

It's a constant struggle for me to impart good practice techniques and habits to my students and find ways to make sure that they sink in. And despite my best efforts, I feel like I'm often offering the same suggestions and advice over and over.

Once in a while, however, I find that some of what I've said has actually stuck! Those are the times I celebrate.

Yesterday, one of my students and I were discussing the need to make sure the details were part of the music; things like the dynamics and an idea of the mood and suggested speed.

That's when he turned to me and said:

"Yeah, I was practicing this week and I was really having a hard time with this piece. Then I looked at the tempo and realized that I was trying to play it too fast. I slowed it down and I thought it made a big difference. Then I was playing it this morning and I think it was one of the best times I'd ever played it."

There it was! From his own mouth, completely unsolicited by me! He'd taken the initiative at home to pay attention, and found out all on his own that those details do make a big difference! Definitely a moment to celebrate. I especially love it when my students make these kind of discoveries all on their own rather than through my constant nagging. 

Have you had any reasons to celebrate in your studio recently?

I Know I'm Late...

Students and parents come up with some pretty interesting excuses for not being on time to their lessons. I'm sure we all have our share of stories! :) But what happened at one of my lessons last night was just too cute not to share.

A mother and daughter showed up about 10 minutes late for their lesson. Their excuse? The mom says:

"I couldn't get her to stop practicing!"

You can't be too upset with that kind of excuse, can you?! And especially since this was coming from a student who had been a real complainer about practicing until we tried something new this term. She's improved tremendously in both attitude and practice this term, and I'm so proud of her!

What interesting excuses have your students come up with recently to excuse late arrivals? ;)

The Benefits of Review

Summer lessons can be challenging, especially if you have students who are gone for about half of the term at camps or on vacation.

Such has been the case with one of my most motivated students this summer. He was a star practicer over the spring term and worked extremely hard, but this summer both his attendance and practice have been sporadic, and it's been really hard to make consistent progress with the amount of time between lessons.

Two weeks ago, after a lesson following another long break, I decided to abandon my plan for the summer and simply focus on review of previous material and concepts. The following week when he showed up for lessons, I challenged him by telling him we were going to look at some former pieces. We looked back through his books and picked a few favorites for him to review and work on over the week. And that's been our mode of operation for the past two lessons.

I can't even begin to say what a difference it's made! By keeping things positive and letting him choose some of his favorites, he's had fun without feeling like we're backtracking. I've also taken advantage of this opportunity to review some of the past 'problem pieces' to reinforce concepts where he's a bit weak. Finally, I've been incorporating some fun, off-bench activities into the lesson.

There are some times when taking it easy for a few weeks and falling back on good old-fashioned review really is the best option. And I'm thrilled at the positive results I'm seeing from this slight detour. With a few weeks of review, I can be certain that this student will be more than ready to jump into the next unit come fall.

That's been my most recent teaching 'aha' moment. Can you remember a specific time when review of material was a lifesaver for a particular student?

Priceless

I have a student who has been asking all summer for Star Wars music. There was always a reason we couldn't get to it...first, I needed to find music, then he was away on vacation, then there was another song I wanted him to finish first...but finally I decided to surprise him this week with the music!

I presented it to him first thing, and I asked him if he knew the song. His response? "I think so." But as he started to play the first few measures, I could tell the instant it 'clicked' as a huge smile lighted up his face and he kept playing.

Seeing that joy and excitement on the face of a student is a priceless treasure!

Crazy About Scales!

As a musician, one of my favorite ways to start a practice session is with scales. As practice time is often limited, I don't always take the time to do so, but when I do I have SO MUCH FUN!

I don't know when my little love affair with scales started, but I think it was sometime in college when my teacher showed me all the many ways I could get creative with scales and arpeggios. Up to that point, scales had been super boring and monotonous- 4 octaves ascending and descending with the metronome, arpeggios, cadences...where's the fun in that?! But a whole new world of possibilities was opened up to me when I realized I could play scales in parallel 3rds/6ths/10ths, perform both scales and arpeggios in parallel and contrary motion, vary my dynamics, articulation, rhythm...it was exhilarating! Suddenly scales transformed from boring drills into exciting, creative experiments. I started to enjoy that part of my daily warm-up so much more and continue to enjoy it to this day.

Having the rare opportunity to warm-up with scales yesterday reminded me again how much I enjoy them and also got me thinking about the role we as teachers have in finding creative ways to inspire our students. There are teachers who merely teach, then there are those who inspire. I make it my goal to be the type who inspires.

What does it mean to be a teacher who inspires? It means constantly thinking outside of the box and looking for creative ways to approach new concepts. It means embracing new ideas rather than sticking with the tried and true. It means taking the time to learn what makes each student tick and then finding ways to teach to those specific needs. It means being willing to make mistakes. It means being a teacher who teaches with excellence but also has fun!

Being this type of teacher does mean more work. It's a lot easier to stick to the middle of the road and never go outside the boundaries of what's comfortable looking for new ideas. But the incredible rewards of the extra work make it all worthwhile!

So what do you do to inspire your students and motivate yourself to go the extra mile to make sure it happens? Did you ever have a break-through moment as a student where a particular teacher made a musical concept come alive for you?

Teaching 'Aha!' Moments (For the Teacher :) )

It's so easy to get caught up in what I as a teacher am doing wrong that I can overlook the times I get things right. That's what these 'Aha!' posts are for- the moments when I experience a teaching breakthrough. I hope that these posts will encourage fellow teachers! Read on for installment #1...

I love love LOVE it when my students have 'aha' moments and you can literally see things click in their brains! But, I'm also a fan of those times when I have my own 'aha' moments as a teacher.

Sometimes finding a way to effectively communicate can be a real trial and a test of my ingenuity and creativity (and my level of patience!). It's always so rewarding when I finally light on the right explanation or solution to a given problem.

Like this afternoon...
I was working with a student on a piece of music that has a lot of ascending and descending scale passages. It was his second week on the piece, and even though I'd assigned metronome practice over the past week to try and get a more even, smooth speed something wasn't working! As he was playing, I suddenly had an inspiration: Why not change the metronome so that it was beating the eighth note instead of the quarter note? Once he finished his current run-through, I offered my idea and we tried it. WOWOO! It made a world of difference. The passages were smooth, steady, and confident. Seems like trying to subdivide while playing was really causing more stress than help. I was so excited to have landed on an effective solution.

Now, keep in mind that this is the same student who told me later in today's lesson that he felt that metronome practice wasn't really helping him...and you can see I've still got some work to do, both to convince him of the benefit of the metronome and to find better ways of assigning metronome practice so he feels like it is working and worthwhile. But it was a step in the right direction!