One of the frustrations Independent Music Teachers often deal with is requests from parents that seem unreasonable and outside of what is allowed in our studio policy. The importance of communicating openly and clearly with parents became clear to me in a recent situation I encountered. A student showed up at my studio for her […]
Personal
Private Lesson No-No’s
Here are a few excerpts from this site where students communicate their thoughts about teachers and lessons: What this student wants from a teacher: “…be organized, consistent, give specific feedback that a student can work on, be prepared in the sense that if you are about to assign a new piece you are familiar with […]
A New Year!
What a whirlwind life has been since the middle of last month! I know you all can relate! As you’ve no doubt observed, I took off a number of weeks from this blog due to the many other responsibilities that required my attention. Now that the new year has begun, I hope to post more […]
White Board Messages
Every music teacher needs a white board. My students love writing messages on my white board. Here’s one that showed up today: “I want stay in your lessons till a’m 35 years old” This particular white board is one I picked up at a local teacher supply store. It’s magnetic, 24×36″ and has a grid […]
How to Inspire Students to Do Better?
Here’s a funny little quip I ran across recently that made me think in terms of how I teach my students. “There is no such thing as an attention span. People have infinite attention as long as you are entertaining them!” I know several students might say I’m too entertaining on occasion… 🙂 But, in […]
Music to My Ears!
What a pleasant surprise it was to me when 8-year old Joey announced part way through his lesson that he had chosen another piece to work on. “Because it will make me have to count,” he said and then quickly added, “and I need to work on my counting.” Ah, yes! An early convert to […]
