Frustration with Group Lessons
Found in: Musicality, Pedaling, Technique, Practicing & Playlists, Shared Lessons
(Unknown)
I’d like to briefly introduce a slightly different perspective on the issue of parent frustration with shared lessons.
I can think of another concern those parents may have. As well as the somewhat misguided concerns about students showing that they understand their new material, or showing that they can play the pieces on their Playlist, there could be some concern about how well the students are playing their pieces. To me this is understandable, especially if the parent has some background in traditional lessons, where it’s likely that individual pieces have been worked on at great length, and have included attention on expression from an early stage. At the very least, having students play only part of each piece may occur to a parent like we are merely ‘checking them off’, and more concerned about quantity than quality.
Now you could say that it’s true that we’re more concerned about quantity than quality, and there’s some justification for taking that approach, especially since, through Simply Music, we remove many of the barriers to harnessing the student’s natural musicality. You can build up such a huge Playlist because the music emerges so naturally. I’ve compared SM students with students from a traditional background, and typically SM students will not only be able to play far more pieces, but they will have a natural evenness and confidence that the traditional student lacks.
But I’ve also heard traditional students who can play just a few pieces, but play beautifully. That will largely be a function of that greater degree of attention given by the teacher in the lesson. The student may play through a piece several times with detailed guidance from the teacher. Some of this might be attention on hand position, technique etc, which is not really the domain of SM, but other elements may include finer points of rhythm and expression.
I think there’s room in SM for a degree of this kind of attention to the aspects of playing that bring a piece to life. I’m talking about considering exactly how the teacher and student would like the piece to be played. It could be as simple as focusing on a strong, smooth LH in Alma Mater Blues or a little rubato in Night Storm (but without mentioning the term), or asking the student to see if they could make their classmates cry playing Tear for a Friend. This is something you probably work on when preparing students for concerts, but these days, I work with this more regularly. It certainly adds an element that parents appreciate, where they have something other than the size of the Playlist to know clearly that their child is really becoming a musician.
How do you add yet another whole conversation to an already packed lesson? Two ways:
- the occasional lesson where the students learn no new syllabus content, but play as many songs as possible from their Playlist. Have students listen closely and evaluate their classmates’ playing, and even suggest improvements. Actually, of course there will be new content, but it will be about ‘how to’ play the song this week, not ‘what to do’.
- have each student have one (or maybe two) songs that they devote extra attention to, both in class and at home, as if they were preparing for a concert. In class, they’d play the song once, which may not need to be right through. You simply have to identify some way where the piece could be more musical, then have them try it once more from that new perspective. As usual, the real work is then done at home. Obviously, you’d be careful to choose a song that they already know well for this project.
This does take up some time in the class, but I’d rather move through the program a little slower if it gives me, the students and the parents a result that is indisputably musical.
I’m not saying in Judy’s case that this is the concern of her parents (and either way, I think the parents’ comments warrant a little more probing on Judy’s part to to tease out what’s behind their concerns), but hopefully at least, with an additional emphasis on quality, they may see that the time their child spends at the instrument in class is as concentrated and productive as possible. I’m also not disagreeing with any other Forum responseon this topic, or saying that we don’t already do this stuff. I just thought I’d add another layer to the cake by suggesting it can be a valuable focus in lessons, and an effective way of using limited playing time in class.