I am a member of the Music Club here, and every month or so they hold a workshop addressing different aspects of teaching with guest instructors. I try to attend these whenever I can, but all too often it is a time that is hard, or I don't have babysitting.
Today there was a workshop that I really wanted to go to, and my mom was free (or as free as she ever is) so she agreed to watch the kids and pick up William from school so I could go. And I was so grateful because it was a great workshop!
The presenter was one of the newer piano professors at BYU-I and he taught how to teach students to practice. I loved the presentation because he gave such a systematic approach to teaching your students and I could see how helpful it will be if I can teach my students to practice this way. He gave measurable goals, and really broke the music down in a way that if the student follows the plan success is virtually guaranteed.
It was interesting because although I feel like I teach many of the same practice techniques and use the same way to solve problems in my teaching that he taught, I could see how having a step by step plan for the students to follow makes so much sense and could put together the things I had been teaching them more haphazardly into something simple and clear for them to follow.
His plan addresses every issue from the notes and the rhythms, hand position, technique, dynamics, phrasing, articulation...everything! All in one plan that I can make a chart of. I decided that I am going to go through one of my books of shorter classical pieces and teach them to myself using this plan and see how it goes for me at the same time that I am going to start teaching it to my students.
One thing he said that stood out to me as a new way of thinking is that the musicality of a piece of music cannot be done just by intuition. Although some people have really good intuition, it is still never going to be exactly what it should be unless you decided deliberately and specifically exactly what you want to do with each phrase, and build up the muscle memory to be able to do it. I knew this before on some level of course, but the way he explained it, and the way he explained how to practice it was really kind of a revelation to me.
Anyway, it really made me happy that I was able to attend that workshop today and I hope that I will be able to use the things I learned to improve my skills as a teacher and as a performer. Although I really miss the learning environment at college, I am glad to be able to continue my studies through workshops and through reading and simply by trial and error in my own teaching.
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