Being a skilled musician doesn’t necessarily translate into being an effective music teacher. Teaching, like music, is an art that requires skill acquisition, development, and experience. Investment in excellent teaching is directly correlated with satisfaction in the role of a teacher. In this blog, we will discuss the principles that are fundamental to connect with students, deliver information, and nurture growth in a meaningful and rewarding manner.
Principles for Successful Instruction:
1. Care for students as individuals and respect their intelligence, personalities, and preferences.
2. Infect students with your passion for music by sharing what you love about making music with them.
3. Develop teacher-student relationships based on trust by creating a safe learning environment where students can make mistakes and voice concerns.
4. Teach the person in front of you by balancing student interests with teacher agenda and speaking to the issues of the person in front of you.
5. Teach students to listen, move, and sing to access musical expressivity in natural and meaningful ways.
6. Validate the expressive musician in the student by allowing ample opportunity to make personal connections and create individual interpretations of music.
7. Give students honest feedback and correct flaws without criticizing the person.
8. Fix fundamental problems and isolate, resolve, and repeat new behaviors until they are established.
9. Vary your teaching approach to enhance the learning experience and reinforce understanding through aural, visual, kinesthetic, and verbal approaches.
10. Give specific instructions for practicing by defining goals, what to watch and listen for, how many times to repeat passages, tempo goals, and memorization goals.
11. Allow students to play and sing to observe their development without interrupting them.
12. Define artistic standards for yourself and your students, teaching to this standard from the first lesson.
13. Foster the full potential of every student, making no assumptions about a student’s talent and helping them reach their highest potential.
14. Stay optimistic when students are challenged, reinforcing their strengths and addressing weak areas effectively.
15. Ensure that lessons and classes are positive growing experiences and that students are not harmed or discouraged.
16. Maintain a balance between personal involvement and objectivity, observing students as if another teacher were in the room.
17. Cultivate thinking, independent musicians by challenging students to listen, solve problems, and think for themselves.
18. Foster confidence in students by providing clear explanations and celebrating their accomplishments.
19. Keep students motivated by providing ongoing sources of inspiration and creating personally meaningful opportunities for them to play music.
20. Take responsibility for students’ progress and guide them in a positive direction with incrementally increasing steps.
21. Make short- and long-term plans that support each student’s vision for themselves.
22. Demonstrate integrity by modeling how to deal with mistakes and problems, inspiring students to approach their work with comparable integrity.
As music teachers, we play an important role in shaping the vast body of information and insight that musicians possess. While there are no absolute rules about teaching and every teacher has their own distinctive manner and unique approach, the principles of integrity, sincerity, optimism, and passion are important values to believe in and make integral to teaching every day, at every lesson, with every student. By following these principles, music teachers can create a positive and meaningful learning experience that fosters the full potential of every student.