My Method

As a music teacher I’ve found that a lot of the work I do with my students is bit of a balancing act. On the one hand, learning music requires a lot of hard work, dedication, and discipline, things that many students are not too excited about when they start, but which I need to help them develop if they want to become good musicians. On the other hand, music is also a ton of fun, and the pleasure of playing and performing is the reason we ever get into music in the first place. This is something that I also want every student to learn and experience. The balancing act that I try to do in every lesson is teaching the value of hard work, while showing just how fun and rewarding music can be. Eventually I want my students to see that these two “different” parts of learning music are actually inseperable, and that they are just related moments of their music learning journey.

I believe my job as a teacher is not to erase the hard parts and provide a straight path of musical highs for students, because this is impossible. No real achievements can be made without putting in the necessary work. However, as a teacher I can set out a path for a student that will include more instances of the high notes, while providing a supportive guidance that can allow students to work through their challenges, and appreciate their necessity for accomplishing something wonderful with music.

What I do to provide this learning path for a student is to get to know them as an individual, and adjust my approach accordingly. Every student has a different personality and a different set of likes and dislikes, and so I focus on finding creative and fun ways of tackling the practice they dislike, while also providing more context about its value. I also try to show them that I care about their musical journey and about their musical interests, so that they can trust that the difficult tasks I assign them are going to be worth the effort and allow them to have even more fun with their instrument.

Not every strategy will work with every student, and in some cases, they will dislike the work regardless of approach. However, by getting to know a student, I can find their particular likes and dislikes and try to support and guide them according to who they are. I can also create an understanding relationship that motivates them to work in spite of the challenging lows, and experience more of the high points of playing and learning music.