Does A Positive Music Lesson Have To Be Excellent?
Recently during a seminar I was offering on positive teaching methods, I was challenged by a very well trained and passionate piano teacher about the idea of teaching positive music lessons. After I gave notes, ideas, and examples of practical applications on how to positively reinforce the actions of a music student during a private lesson the young music teacher stood up.
“All these positive music lesson ideas would work fine if a student is practicing, but I’m not going to sit there and lie to a student who didn’t do anything and tell him he did a good job” he said.
I reminded him politely that I hadn’t asked anyone to lie but I did ask all the teachers to consider being positive even if a student hadn’t practice the week before. I asked the teacher if a positive music lesson experience had to be based on excellence.
The young man told me “I’m not going to reward or be positive with a student who didn’t practice” to which I knew the idea needed further explanation and I was happy for his comments because maybe I didn’t present my topic in a clear enough light for everyone at the seminar to understand.
Step 1, Find Something To Be Positive About
Of course you can’t be positive about practicing when a student hasn’t done it but you can have a positive music lesson in my opinion. In our school of music, Lessons In Your Home, we believe there are two broad possible actions to take to hopefully encourage a student to practice, which of course is our second goal (the first is to teach a student to play music). We default to the second option listed below.
Action No1 – show disappointment that a student hasn’t practice in such a way that the student will be compelled to better prepare for their next lesson in hopes of getting a positive reaction from their teacher.
Action No2 – find something, no matter how small in a lesson to tell a student she does that well in hopes of repeating the action over and over again so that a student wants to do what they do well over and over again to get more positive reaction from their teacher.
Excellence Wasn’t Built In A Day
Excellent musicians sometimes have a hard time remembering when they weren’t so excellent, they most likely still had a positive music lesson. I love how they hold what they’ve achieved in high regards and they should but they need to have a proper perception of how excellence is obtained. Excellence is obtained by a continued pursuit of something you love to do. Better yet, they should implement a plan to teach excellence since after all we’re not being paid for our excellence as private music lesson teachers. We are being paid to have a plan on how to share what we know about playing our instrument so that our student can play too.
Music teachers need to understand that there are times when practicing just is not possible. This can be caused by everything from other demands on a students time (particularly schoolwork) to sickness of the student or a family member. When a student is busy and stressed, it is particularly important for music teachers to be positive and motivational. Emphasizing the use of music as a stress reliever or distraction is one possible approach.
I completely agree that positivity is important in music lessons. Growing up I had several different piano teachers. The one that I liked best wasn’t the one who drilled me on practice, but the one who found the small improvements I made even without practicing outside of lessons. I hope to find a positive teacher and musical influence for my children someday.