Developing Relationships

At Lessons In Your Home, we have a core value: to make a connection — to develop a relationship — that has more value than the lessons we teach.

Some music teachers might find this idea a little crazy. After all, we’re being hired to teach a student how to play music, right?

Well… kind of.

You can’t actually teach a person how to play an instrument. They have to teach themselves. What you can do is show them how. You can guide them through the steps, demonstrate how to hold their body while playing their instrument, and teach them how to read music.

But the student ultimately controls whether learning happens. Progress comes from their actions, not simply from the lesson we give on what those actions should be.

This Isn’t Easy to Understand

We’ve been a school of music since 1997, and I can tell you firsthand that this idea — developing a relationship that has more value than the music we teach — isn’t easy for our staff to fully grasp.

So much so, in fact, that we have five other core values that are much easier to teach. We know that if our teachers consistently live out those other five values, they will naturally create the kind of relationship our school is built on.

Our Best “How-To” So Far

I don’t know how to directly teach someone to “develop a connection that has more value than the music you teach,” even though I’ve been talking about it for 28 years at the time of this writing.

That said, I feel better than ever about the progress we’ve made in the how-to department of this core value.

How to Make a Connection More Valuable Than the Music We’re Teaching

When interacting with a student and/or their family, listen first.

Before you try to communicate what you want to teach or say, take a moment to understand what the other person is feeling or expressing — and make that the most important part of the interaction.

What you hear might change what you were planning to say or do. It might even reinforce what you were already aiming for. Either way, if you listen first and genuinely care about what you hear, you will never fail at building this connection.

Welcome to Our Family

When you schedule lessons with us, you receive a welcome email that says, “Welcome to our family.” That word matters to us.

While we love that your student will be learning to play an instrument through music lessons, we’d be lying if we said that was more important than the relationship our teacher develops with you and your child.

And our teachers receive a gift, too. If you’d like to understand that side of the relationship, you can read more here: Being Part of a Family That Isn’t Your Own