Did You Say Football Fan?
What is your favorite football team?  Chances are you just answered the question easily.  Now who is your favorite composer?  Band?  Performer?  What’s your favorite piece or song by that performer?  I will assume the answer didn’t come as fast, and if you asked your 10 year old trombone student maybe there wasn’t even an answer.

A Song Or A Composer

There are numerous great musicians to be a fan of; however, you may choose a song or a composer as your favorite.  If you’re a music educator or an in-home music teacher and can’t figure out why your students aren’t “into it,” chances are they are not fans.  I challenge music teachers to turn their students into fans.  The biggest reward is that the students won’t even need to practice.

Here are some examples of what Lessons In Your Home teachers are doing:

Settle Piano Teacher

• Zarni, a LIYH piano and voice teacher in Seattle sent an email to a student’s parent with links to various You Tube videos of great performances for the student to watch.  She said she chose videos of shorter songs because her student was younger.  “They were flashy to get his attention.”

Baltimore Guitar Teacher

• Joshua, a LIYH guitar teacher in Baltimore also used You Tube.  He found videos of other guitar students playing the same songs that he was teaching.  It has given his students something visual and auditory to emulate.  This is a strong tool.  They will become a fan of the piece from the method you are teaching as well.  Our LIYH Orlando guitar teachers are now doing the same!

Miami Violin Teacher

• Angelica, a LIYH piano and violin teacher in Miami, FL suggests listing to the radio.  She involves the parents of her music lesson students by encouraging them to ask the students, ‘are you hearing piano, guitar, saxophone, etc?’  “Who is the artist?”  “Do you like the music?”  The next step (she suggests) is to download it and put it on a playlist.  All private music lesson students can benefit from this.  It makes no difference which instrument they choose to learn whether it be piano, saxophone, guitar, violin, voice and the list goes on.

Denver Piano Teacher

• In Denver, Melody McQuitty (LIYH Director and piano/voice teacher) is always finding concerts in her area.  There are tons of free music concerts and inexpensive ways to see music, says Melody.  I do the same for our students in Atlanta.  Georgia State University (one of the local colleges) just hosted a free concert in the park.  This is not unusual, free performances happen all the time.  Find them!

We Challenge You!

The word “fan” is short for fanatical so lets get that way.  Let’s challenge every In Home Music Teacher. Wouldn’t it be cool if your saxophone student kept talking about John Coltrane?  What if your private piano student in Houston or Washington, D.C. kept asking about your favorite Beethoven piano sonata and then described the favorite part of theirs?  How cool.
Being a fan isn’t a natural thing.  We learn it from our friends, teachers and parents.