comprehensive musicianship through performance
Generating Smiles Through Effective Teaching Strategies Cornelia Watkins, CMP Committee Member
There are few things more rewarding – and more joyful – than learning to be good at something. And as far as I’m concerned, music is the ultimate “joyful subject” because it encapsulates life:
it is mental, physical, psychological, emotional, even spiritual; and because it teaches us creativity, discipline, self- expression and belief in ourselves – having something to “say” and knowing that it is valuable. And of course, it can be playful and fun.
Having fun in the studio or classroom still requires core teaching principles – without these, lessons lose their value. I have three: 1) that learning has less to do with “you need to do this right” and more to do with “let’s figure out how to make music come alive”; 2) that students learn excellence from the start, such as what it means to play exactly in tune, or to count and not guess, or to practice efficiently (they won’t always accomplish this, of course – do any of us? – but it creates the baseline for our work); and 3) that I take seriously my responsibility to be prepared with a clear sense of the skills and concepts I want them to learn.
One happy benefit of advance planning is that I don’t feel bound to a standard routine for every lesson. With multiple strategies ready to go, deciding which new angle or different approach I will offer today is creative and fun. And since my students never know exactly how each lesson will unfold, they come to lessons excited and ready to learn something new – about their pieces, about their instrument, about themselves.
The truth is, it’s hard work to make great music, and the best learning is not always outwardly joyful. Nevertheless, it’s im- portant to have teaching strategies that are almost guaranteed to generate smiles and that are effective under even the most challenging teaching situations.
“The Best Thing.” A great way to begin a lesson is to ask, “What’s the best thing you did this week?” Even if their response has nothing to do with music, you will honor their individuality by listening deeply, and you’ll learn more about who they are. And because of music’s universality, you can almost always delight students by finding a way to tie that idea back into their work later in the lesson.
Wisconsin School Music Association Virtual Solo & Ensemble Festival
Encourage your students to participate in the WSMA Virtual Solo & Ensemble Festival!
• Participants receive adjudicator feedback by safely and securely submitting videos of their performances through the new WSMA Festival App
• Both ratings and comment-only options are available
• Official awards can be purchased directly from
store.wsmamusic.org
Go to
wsmamusic.org/virtualfestival for all details. 28
“Play by Ear.” Sometimes we forget to include playing by ear in more formal- ized instrumental teaching. “Hot Cross Buns” can be easily played from almost any starting pitch in any register. And if accidentally the tune emerges in a minor tonality, call it “Cold Stale Buns”–very sad indeed! How mournfully can we ex- press our deepest regret that we did not eat them sooner? Keep things light and fun as you introduce new tunes and variations, and better still, let students pick the song, the starting note and the style.
“Moving to Music.” How rigid and seri- ous we tend to get in our quest to “do it right,” when actually just putting down the instrument and moving and singing
January 2021
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