Music Teaching Success

Finding that you have students that are not practicing music between lessons can be a bit of a downer. Obviously, it is going to be far more difficult to make forward progress with a student if he or she just won’t practice. But not to worry, there are definitely ways that this problem can be addressed.

Of course, students often will not practice between lessons even if you have told them it is important a million times. As a music teacher, it is important to keep in mind why. Children and teens, more than any time before, are saturated with distractions almost too numerous to count. In short, it’s important to remember that children and teens are being pulled in a lot of directions.

It is also important to evaluate each student as an individual. For example, is the student in question over committed? This is a very key question that must be answered in order to know how best to proceed. For example, if your non-practicing student is also playing a sport, taking advanced placement classes, and is one of the leads in the school play, you might have your answer as to why they are not practicing music. It is important to address this issue with parents before a lack of practice creates a student that is too far behind to meet your set goals.

If, as it turns out, your student does have enough time on his or her hands for practicing music, then you first need to address parental involvement. Hopefully, the parents are involved in their child’s life and motivated to make sure that he or she does eventually learn to play the piano or whatever musical instrument they are studying. Once parents realize that your professional opinion is that their child isn’t practicing enough, often the rest takes care of itself.

Talking to a student that isn’t practicing music is often enough to get some increase in overall levels of performance. Of course, how much improvement you will see will vary between students. With students that are motivated and truly want to learn how to play the piano, discussing the issue and the importance of practicing music with them should yield solid results.

Another strategy is to discuss the fact that if students do not practice, they are, to an extent, wasting their time. For some students, this helpful reminder may be enough to see some improvement. But also be willing as the teacher to try and come up with some creative ideas to help the student overcome the obstacle of not practicing. Often if you can get a student to do small consistent amounts of practice each week, they will naturally start to practice more. Remember quality over quantity. We don’t want students wasting their time or yours, but you also don’t want to discourage a student so much that you lose them as a student when you can work together to solve the dilemma of not practicing.

Just as with all education, parental involvement is key. Music lessons are unique in that they fall into a category where parents are paying for an activity that will enrich their child’s overall learning experience outside of the educational system. This means many of your clients will fundamentally be motivated to help their kid’s practice. Try talking to the parents about the problem and see if they have any suggestions about how to get the student to practice more. Perhaps, together with the parents, you can work out an effective strategy. Also remind parents that you are there to discuss problems and questions that arise with practicing and lessons, often you can turn a student around and keep them from stopping music lessons if parents tell you about musical challenges that are happening at home.

I keep an attendance and preparation record for all my students for each month. I found from personal experience that 2-3 weeks of absences and not being prepared can lead to student frustration and potential drop outs. But my attendance record helps me to head off problems by being able to use it as a tool to communicate with parents and students about lessons preparedness.

Now if your clients are adults and they are not practicing music that is a totally different animal. Just gently remind them that if they don’t practice, they will have greater difficulty learning. Sometimes adults even need a little nudge in the right direction with discussing times they could make available to practice, almost like scheduling time to go to the gym. When working with both children and adults, make sure they are enjoying the music you are giving them. Adults often will drag their feet in practicing if they are not “in love” with the music you have given them.

Over the last few weeks, I have been training a new teacher on “how to teach a small group class” for one hour every day. This class comprises of three little girls who are all six years old and are very good friends. Since, the girls know each other; the class could be enjoyable to teach. However, keeping the girls on track and paying attention might be a challenge.

Training new teachers & new students can be a lot of fun for everyone if you keep the right attitude. Here are a few tips that I have found to make that very first lesson a roaring and delightful success.

1.Organize your schedule and keep all your teaching materials handy.
2.Set your ground rules with the students so they know what to expect and how to behave during the lesson.
3.Plan ahead as to what you want the students to learn.
4.Always send the student home from the first lesson with a song and a completed worksheet if possible.
5.Always keep and extra activity or song available in case you need to quickly change activities with the student or give them additional work.

Sending students home from their first lesson with a song and a worksheet that they have completed with you in class is what I call “products”. They are tangible results that go home with the student and helps create excitement for both the student and parents about music lessons!

For piano students, I trace their hands and label the piano fingers on the right hand and left hand. Then, I draw the treble and bass clefs. I also teach a simple black key song so the student has at least one song to be played for friends and family all week long. On the piano, I generally teach Hot Cross Buns or Twinkle, Twinkle as a first lesson. On string instruments, I often teach Hot Cross Buns or the Jaws movie them, the shark attack notes.

These are the few tips which I think are helpful for that first lesson. However, I would love to receive your tips and ideas about the first few lessons for a new student. Please leave a comment!