When I started teaching, I thought that all I had to do was to show my students how to play their instruments properly. I hadn’t realized yet, my role as a teacher is also to inspire my students to want to play. It is very easy for someone to give up playing music when it becomes hard, so I have to make sure that they are hooked. When the students are kids, I need to make sure that the parents are happy with what their child is learning and keep them in the loop. I also need to be patient and remember that I had a hard time when I started too.
Inspiring students
It is of the utmost importance to inspire your students. Music is hard to learn and it is very easy to get discouraged. If your students are inspired to learn, despite the challenges, you will be able to keep teaching them for much longer. They need to want to be able to do what you do. Being able to play your instrument well is a good start. If they can see you play and be impressed by what you do, they will be interested in listening to what you have to say. I am not saying that you have to be a show off, but you have to be able to play some stuff that will push them to get to where you are.
I started playing music because I was inspired by famous artists, but also by friends and people that I saw play music live. It lit up a fire inside of me that hasn’t stopped burning since I played guitar for the first time. When I teach my students, I want them to feel the same way as I do. One of the ways that I do that is by making sure that they play some songs that they like. I find that learning music from method books with songs that are so old that nobody knows who wrote them is not very interesting for me as a teacher, but also for my students.
I also need to pay attention to who my students are. Every student is different, they all learn differently and they all have different interests and goals that they want to achieve. Not everyone will want to play music for a living. So, if I get too technical, they might get bored because it’s too hard and it’ll make them want to stop learning. If I am not technical enough and I just teach them basic things, they might get bored because it is too easy.
Preparing Lessons or Not
I don’t use a method and I don’t prepare my lessons much. When I first started teaching, I was not confident, so I would prepare my lessons in advance. I remember the first student that I had, I was 18 years old and my student was 8 years old; I had to teach him one hour. I didn’t know how to deal with a kid that age, so I decided to bring a guitar method book to help me. After the first two lessons, I ditched the method, because I was so bored of teaching that stuff that my lessons were boring. I decided to go with a more personalized approach. That takes a bit of skill, especially interpersonal skills. I have to be aware of how my students react to what I show them and go with the flow.
The reason why I stopped preparing my lessons early on is because it happened to me several times that I had prepared something, but when I arrived at the lesson, my students would have something else in mind that they wanted to do, or they just weren’t in the mood for what I had planned. Sometimes, I wasn’t in the mood for what I had planned. So, all I ask my students to have is a notebook, so I can write some things that I want them to work on. I find that when I have to write things down myself, I pay more attention and I am more aware of what I am teaching them then when I use someone else’s material. Sometimes, I show the students how to play something and I ask them to write it. I don’t do this often, but it is very effective, because they have to visualize it and figure out how to put it on paper.
When I teach, I always want to make sure that I do things that interest me as well. It is important for the students to do things that they want, but I need to have fun in the lessons as well, otherwise I will be very boring when I teach. I often teach things that inspire me that week, or I’ll teach them something that I am working on or that I need to prepare for a gig. It sounds selfish maybe, but it is very effective, because I am interested in what I am teaching, it is much easier for me to have my students be excited in learning. If I am teaching the same song that I have taught a millions times before the same exact way, I will be very bored, therefor very boring.
I am not saying that preparing lessons is a bad thing. It can be very helpful, but be sure to be willing to change your plans if your students aren’t feeling it that day. My experience with students is that the more I force them to do what I want them to do, the less they want to do it. When I plan something, I often have a backup idea or I might give them a choice out of several things that I have in mind.
Not planning lessons can be very challenging if you don’t have much experience and don’t have enough ideas to draw from of what to teach students. Because of my experience, I have a lot of ways to teach the same things. It’s very important, because not everybody learns the same way. If someone doesn’t understand something, you have to try different approaches.
Involving the Parents
Involving parents in the lessons is a little bit scary at first. I used to be intimidated and felt like maybe they’ll think I am a fraud or they won’t like what I teach their kids. What I have learned over the years is that it is much better for me to have them see what I do. This way, they don’t wonder and they can see that I do the best I can. Parents know their kids. They know that it’s not always easy to get through to them or to have them do something that they don’t want to do. So, usually they are pretty understanding.
There are different levels at which I involve the parents depending on how willing they are. I usually try to have them participate and learn with their kids. I do that because some parent have never played music, so they don’t know what to expect or how quickly their kids are supposed to learn. So, if they learn with their kids, they can realize very quickly that it is not easy and that the kids are trying, it’s just hard. Some parents will continue on and take lessons at the same time as their child, others will decide to take lessons by themselves and others will be turned off by how hard it is. Either way, they will respect what you do more and let you teach their kids without micro-managing as much.
In terms of business, if you do get to teach the parents at the same time as the kids, you will probably be able to keep your students longer. If they decide to take lessons on their own, then you are getting a new client out of it as well as keeping them longer. It has happened to me that I started teaching the children, but after a few years they stopped taking lessons, while their parents continued.
Teaching Them What They Want and What They Need
It is important to teach students the techniques and songs that they want to learn. But, it is also important to teach them what they need to learn. I try to find a balance between the two. I often chose songs that will use new techniques they need to learn, so they can enjoy playing a song, while learning something important.
I have a student that is a really good guitar player, even though she has only been playing for about a year. She learns really fast, but struggles with understanding rhythm theory and doesn’t like it much. So, I chose a song for her to learn that I knew she would like that has really interesting rhythms. It is a hard song, but it sounds great, so she’s tackling the challenge willingly, even though it means that she needs to work on rhythm theory.
I want to make sure that my students keep learning things that they want to keep them interested, but if the lessons become directed by the students, it is easy for things to go array. As a teacher I am responsible to give them some direction. A rudderless student is a student that will often quit taking lessons. I remember teaching at a music school where I would be teaching for 6 hours in a row without breaks. At one point in my day, I would start to lose track of which student was which and I was tired of repeating myself, so I would ask my students what they wanted to learn that day. That is ok to do that once in a while, but when it starts to be every week, the students might get tired of that. It is important for me to have an idea of the direction I want to take my students. After all, I am the teacher, not them.
To teach them what they need, I have to pay attention to how they play and what they like. If they like metal music and I try to teach them classical, I am probably going in the wrong direction. If they like to use a pick and I always insist on having them play with their fingers, I am not looking out for what they want. I have to find a way to go along with what they like, while still bringing them what I think they need. I have to assess where they are when they play, so I can know where to take them.
I take the time to know my students, not just musically, but as people. I teach in my students’ homes, because I like to know who they are. I find that they are more relaxed, because they are in their own environment. They don’t have the stress of getting to the studio on time. It helps me know what they like and what their set-up is. Knowing my students helps me with teaching them what they like. It also helps me know how they learn and what is the best way to tackle difficult things. Every student is different. It is a mistake to try to teach everybody the same way.
Patience is Key
Do you remember what it was like to learn music when you started? If not, then maybe it is time to learn a new instrument or a new language, so you can refresh your memory. It is very easy for me to forget how hard it is to learn a song, because I can do it so easily now. I have felt discouraged more than once while learning music. I felt unmotivated and lazy. I have forgotten to practice and forgotten what my homework was. When I remember these things, it makes it easier for me to empathize with my students and accept that they won’t be amazing musicians overnight.
I have to be patient with my students. Sometimes, it takes weeks or months for some of them to learn something that I find easy. It doesn’t give me the right to make them feel like failures. Sometimes, it’s not the students, but the way I teach them that is wrong. I have to be able to teach things in different ways. I need to use my creativity and find different words or a different approach, break things down a bit better. Other times, I just need to have my students do something else for a few weeks and come back to it at a later time.
Be Flexible and They Will Be Flexible With You
In life, things don’t always go the way we want them to. Some weeks, I am sick, or my car doesn’t start, or someone in my family is sick and I need to take care of them. Those kind of things happen to my students as well. As a music teacher, I don’t get paid when I don’t teach, so it is very tempting to want to charge my clients every time they miss a lesson and disregard the reason behind the absence. I do ask for 24 hours’ notice to cancel a lesson, but if they do that then I accept the fact that I won’t get paid for that lesson that week. I need to remember that my goal is to keep my clients longer. It is much harder and it takes a lot more effort to get a new client then to keep a current client happy.
If I am flexible and accept that sometimes my students need to cancel, they appreciate it. They will probably want to keep taking lessons longer than if they feel ripped off every time something unexpected prevents them from being able to attend. They are also more lenient when I need to take time off for personal reasons.
When I worked for a music school, years ago, I remember the owner refusing to reimburse someone that had bought a package of lessons a few days prior, even though that client had just learned that one of her close relative had cancer and she would have to take care of that person. She wasn’t going to be able to attend the lessons because of her schedule. I cringed when I heard the owner refuse to reimburse that person. Cash flow is important, but keeping clients happy is more important. He might have gotten that client back in a few months or years, but after refusing to be flexible, I am pretty sure that he never saw that client again. She probably didn’t recommend him to her friends either.
In a few words, pay attention to your students and be passionate. Teach the way you would like to be taught. Be patient, flexible and remember that every student is different, so don’t teach music the same way to everybody.