One of the beautiful things about teaching young beginners is that sometimes they surprise you long before they’re “supposed” to. Aiden is currently the youngest student Abraham Valdez teaches at Lessons In Your Home. He’s only five years old. And if you’ve ever taught very young students, you know that lessons at that age can
One of the most underrated skills a music teacher can have is the ability to notice what already excites a student and bring it into the lesson. Jim Kniest had a piano student who absolutely loved Star Wars. The problem was that the student was having a hard time focusing during lessons. Attention would drift.
One of my favorite things about teaching music is watching what happens when lessons stop belonging to just one student and start becoming part of an entire family. We have one family that immediately comes to mind. Five kids.Five years of lessons.An entire household transformed by music. When they first started with us, the children
People often think the hardest part of teaching music is explaining the instrument. It’s not. The hardest part is finding the connection point. Phoenix Abbo has a 10-year-old violin student who recently performed flawlessly from memory at his very first recital. No breakdowns.No stopping.No forgotten notes.Just a confident performance from a young student standing in
One of my favorite things about music lessons is that sometimes you get to watch the story keep going long after the lessons themselves are over. That happened recently with Phoenix Abbo and one of his former violin students, Chloe Svadlenka. Chloe now teaches with us in Dallas while finishing her senior year at UNT.
Most people think music lessons are about teaching an instrument. And sometimes they are. But with young beginners, lessons are often about something completely different first: safety, trust, and comfort. Before a child learns to play music, they usually need to feel okay simply being in the lesson. Brian, one of our guitar, ukulele, and
Most music teachers are taught how to explain. Explain rhythm.Explain posture.Explain finger numbers.Explain dynamics.Explain technique. But every once in a while, a teacher gets a student who changes the entire definition of teaching. Rafael had one of those students. A young piano student named Donovan had recently moved to the United States from France. Donovan
Jess checked in with us the other day with one of those stories music teachers never forget. An old student of hers, Gabriella, reached out after years of not seeing each other. Jess had taught Gabriella piano and voice lessons when she was a teenager, back when lessons were probably filled with missed notes, learning
The toughest and smartest student I ever taught was David. He was the only student I ever seriously considered giving up on — and actually tried to. During his second piano lesson, I asked David to hand me his piano book so I could write a note in it for him. Instead, he threw the
A parent once told us something simple after a lesson: “I love when I get those little updates. It helps me feel like I’m part of what’s happening.” Nothing about the lesson had changed. The teacher was doing a great job, the student was progressing, everything was on track. The only difference? Communication. A Small
