Follow the Student

I have found that the best way to teach someone is to follow what they need. I teach everyone how to play by ear, immediately, and how to remember their music. I have a fairly new group of 4 boys, all aged 9 or 10, all beginners. But a few weeks ago, in following my 4 note example, complete with the story that I was telling to make the example memorable, 3 of the kids in the group got it right away, but the 4th played 3 out of the 4 notes wrong. This is a boy (I'll pretend his name is Marshal) whose mother had told me that gets frustrated quickly, and has trouble paying attention. Marshal got very upset. I said, "Wait!! You have just created a melody." I repeated the notes he had played, repeated it again, and showed him how that is how tunes get created. I emphasized the rhythm he had inadvertently used, and said, "Let's put words to that." What words do you think would fit?'

I said, I hear, " Spaghetti. Yum. See how the first 3 notes are even, and match? Then you had a tiny pause and the next note was stronger. Here, let's all clap this."

Soon all 4 kids were clapping, and marching around the room saying, "Spaghetti, (pause), then stamping down their foot on YUM!"

I had the boy repeat his little tune 3 times, then add one of the notes from the melody to the left hand. Now he had a 2 handed song he had written, and I had a boy who was involved, excited, smiling and successful.

10 minutes later (you have to be very time conscious when it's a 45 minute lesson shared by 4 active boys), each of the other 3 kids had started their own melodies, and had put words to theirs.

10 minute after that, all of them were stamping out their own rhythms (we had "Mississipi River, Summer's the Best, and New Shoes, New Shoes, going.

All of them were laughing, impatiently waiting for their turn at one of my 2 grand pianos to try out their song.

Now Marshall is fabulous at his lessons. We keep working, just a little each week, on composing, and the rest of the time we're learning and remembering new songs, reviewing old ones. And yes, you guessed it. Marshal is keeping up happily with everyone.

The lesson to me? Follow the students. See what they need. Show them how successful they can be. And as always, make it easy and fun.