Teaching and Teacher Training
Using both TTMs and SHMs
I’m starting to get into Level 7 and noticed there’s some good “golden nuggets” regarding the length of pieces (I was wondering about that) and also technique and fingering. Glad these were addressed! I am now learning all Foundation pieces from the TTM and also…
The value of teachers vs learning from videos
I had a student tell me this evening that I’m not a very useful teacher because “I can learn everything I need from the videos”. However, I know this isn’t true, not only by the student’s progress, but by the speed at which I’m gaining…
How do you Use the TTM’s?
How do you watch your videos? * Do you watch the entire video in one sitting? * Do you sit with the teachers notes and follow along w/each point? * Do you take notes? * How many times do you have to watch them? As…
Jazz Musician List
A few people have asked for a list of some Jazz to listen to or to have students listen to. This is a very small list but a good place to start if you want to hear a variety of Jazz styles. There are a…
Fitting it all In
Hello Teachers, I wanted to provide a bit of clarification here and repost information I’ve sent out. There are a number of questions here that I’d like to address, in no particular order. First, I want to clarify that once I start on an Arrangement Project,…
When to start Arrangements, Comp and Improv, Accompaniment
If you are a newly licensed teacher, you received specific instruction on your Licensing session on how and when to introduce Arrangements, Composition and Improvisation and Accompaniment. All of the information is also available via an audio recording in the Teacher Reference Library. I realize…
Variations and Arrangements
I’ve seen a number of related thoughts on this in Simpedia but I was curious to hear what the general consensus was: Better to introduce variations and arrangements as early as possible in order to keep students familiar with the idea that the program is not only about…
Overwhelmed with All These Streams
How do you guys do this? I spend HOURS and HOURS learning these different streams, and planning them into lessons. I’m just about to start learning Foundation 5 (I have two students right on my tail) and I can now see how wrong I’ve been…
Lessons To Learn For A New Teacher
I just concluded my first two Introductory Sessions. The sessions went very well and I’m excited about embarking on the teaching journey. My question is this: what is one thing (or more, if you want to elaborate) you’d share with a new teacher from your…
Learning SM as a Student
This is an edited outline of an email posted on the Forum by one of our teachers. She was a relatively new student herself at the time she began her Teacher Training. Her experience, as outlined below, is not uncommon. I have also included responses…