Here is a link to the article Higher Education and the Young Guitarist, Pt. I - Classical Guitar which I co-authored for Tempo - the magazine for the New Jersey Music Educators Association. It offers music educators with a limited guitar background information about guitar studies on the university level. This is the first of a three part series and examines classical guitar programs from some well respected players. The article is on pages 30 - 33.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Friday, December 7, 2012
What It's All About
Welcome to The Guitar Teaching Blog which is geared towards those who teach the guitar. Each month’s post will discuss aspects of guitar pedagogy (the art/science of teaching), as well as contain viable lesson plans. This blog hopes to provide new and different approaches to those teaching for years and offer “from the ground up” lesson plans for someone just starting out. Lesson plans begin at the most simplistic level (such as teaching the parts of the guitar) and build as if teaching a student week by week. There will be periodic breaks between lesson plans where various pedagogical topics will be discussed.
The main thrust of The Guitar Teaching Blog is to assist guitar teachers in becoming better at the craft of teaching their instrument. To become a better instructor it helps to understand your own teaching style and where it comes from. Most teachers teach the way they have been taught, meaning that for better or worse we as instructors teach material in the same order and manner as we have been taught. Furthermore, instructors tend to emphasize areas of study taught to them as students. It is now easy to understand how instructors become closed minded about new ways of teaching because “it is not the way they were taught".
The main thrust of The Guitar Teaching Blog is to assist guitar teachers in becoming better at the craft of teaching their instrument. To become a better instructor it helps to understand your own teaching style and where it comes from. Most teachers teach the way they have been taught, meaning that for better or worse we as instructors teach material in the same order and manner as we have been taught. Furthermore, instructors tend to emphasize areas of study taught to them as students. It is now easy to understand how instructors become closed minded about new ways of teaching because “it is not the way they were taught".
It is important to be open to new ideas and approaches to teaching the instrument because not everyone learns in the same manner. Some students learn better from visual representations, others from sound and some when the instructor models examples. Whatever the case, having multiple ways of explaining the same material is helpful so if a student does not understand a concept another approach can be offered. I always tell my students, “If you are not getting something, I must not be explaining the idea clearly enough.”
The time frame of a weekly lesson is between ½ an hour to 1 hour in length. In this short span of time there are two things that need to be accomplished: review the previous week’s lesson and introduce new material. It may not seem like much but it encompasses a good deal of work. Reviewing the previous week’s material can take half your lesson time or more if you are not careful. However, reviewing material is essential to a student’s musical growth. It not only requires a student to reference prior lessons, but also enables the instructor to view material with fresh eyes each lesson. For example, if technical suggestions such as hand position or alternate picking were made in the prior lesson, the instructor should check a students’ progress in these areas week to week.
Each week any new material presented should in one way or another build upon the prior knowledge/skills a student may already possess. For example, students playing major scales might be taught: how they are constructed, why they are important and/or how they relate to one another. This enables the student to reference previous materials and build upon a prior knowledge base. In the simplest of terms this means that lessons should be like building blocks: each lesson lays the foundation for what is to come next. If lessons are thought of in this manner, then teaching Stairway in a students’ first lesson doesn’t make much sense when they have yet to move their fingers.
A good teacher not only caters to the need of each student, but also to his or her larger role. And just what is the larger role of a guitar instructor? We are of course in the service industry, and must provide the best service possible. That means: talking to parents about their child’s progress, discussing what their child is working on, letting parents sit in on lessons, returning phone calls in a timely manner, taking trips to the music store to review various method books, scanning magazines for helpful articles pertinent to our lesson topics, brushing up on techniques and styles we may not be too familiar with and of course talking to your students to find out about them and their interests. All of this leads to a better service which teachers can offer their students. Remember, if your students like you and they are progressing, then their parents like you. If this happens, you will get referrals from parents and find yourself with more and more students. This is because parents talk to other parents about where and particularly with whom their children study an instrument with. Keep this in mind if you are looking to build a guitar studio – no amount of advertising can take the place of word of mouth.
The role of a guitar instructor is also that of a motivator. Yes, students must have the internal motivation to play guitar, but part of the teachers’ job is to keep them interested and excited about playing. This includes: letting students know when they are doing well, demonstrating how mastery of one skill leads to breakthroughs in other skills, not boring students with the same material for an entire lesson – mix it up and tackle several topics in one lesson. Variety is the spice of life and for guitar students as well. Students need and want more than one item to focus on; it gives them a sense of accomplishment and can break up the monotony of practice. Try to set a level for which students can aspire and constantly raise the bar. Setting goals is part of motivation; it gives students something to look forward to achieving.
I hope this short discussion was enough to get you excited for the next month's post because I’ll be discussing business skills.
The time frame of a weekly lesson is between ½ an hour to 1 hour in length. In this short span of time there are two things that need to be accomplished: review the previous week’s lesson and introduce new material. It may not seem like much but it encompasses a good deal of work. Reviewing the previous week’s material can take half your lesson time or more if you are not careful. However, reviewing material is essential to a student’s musical growth. It not only requires a student to reference prior lessons, but also enables the instructor to view material with fresh eyes each lesson. For example, if technical suggestions such as hand position or alternate picking were made in the prior lesson, the instructor should check a students’ progress in these areas week to week.
Each week any new material presented should in one way or another build upon the prior knowledge/skills a student may already possess. For example, students playing major scales might be taught: how they are constructed, why they are important and/or how they relate to one another. This enables the student to reference previous materials and build upon a prior knowledge base. In the simplest of terms this means that lessons should be like building blocks: each lesson lays the foundation for what is to come next. If lessons are thought of in this manner, then teaching Stairway in a students’ first lesson doesn’t make much sense when they have yet to move their fingers.
A good teacher not only caters to the need of each student, but also to his or her larger role. And just what is the larger role of a guitar instructor? We are of course in the service industry, and must provide the best service possible. That means: talking to parents about their child’s progress, discussing what their child is working on, letting parents sit in on lessons, returning phone calls in a timely manner, taking trips to the music store to review various method books, scanning magazines for helpful articles pertinent to our lesson topics, brushing up on techniques and styles we may not be too familiar with and of course talking to your students to find out about them and their interests. All of this leads to a better service which teachers can offer their students. Remember, if your students like you and they are progressing, then their parents like you. If this happens, you will get referrals from parents and find yourself with more and more students. This is because parents talk to other parents about where and particularly with whom their children study an instrument with. Keep this in mind if you are looking to build a guitar studio – no amount of advertising can take the place of word of mouth.
The role of a guitar instructor is also that of a motivator. Yes, students must have the internal motivation to play guitar, but part of the teachers’ job is to keep them interested and excited about playing. This includes: letting students know when they are doing well, demonstrating how mastery of one skill leads to breakthroughs in other skills, not boring students with the same material for an entire lesson – mix it up and tackle several topics in one lesson. Variety is the spice of life and for guitar students as well. Students need and want more than one item to focus on; it gives them a sense of accomplishment and can break up the monotony of practice. Try to set a level for which students can aspire and constantly raise the bar. Setting goals is part of motivation; it gives students something to look forward to achieving.
I hope this short discussion was enough to get you excited for the next month's post because I’ll be discussing business skills.
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