Simpedia

Sue K., Melbourne

You raise an interesting point. I have been running groups from the beginning – 2 ½ years.  Until now, I had not experienced the problem you bring up. I have had an influx of people not suited to the groups they were put in, and one not even suited to a group at all. I have shifted them around and managed it that way. With your pair who do not get it, are they actually putting the time in at home? Make a comparison between them in class to see if this is where the issue lies.

I have a sibling pair who were in a shared lesson until their mate moved too far away. The son is a slower learner and reluctant at practicing at the best of times. Since being without outside competition his performance has deteriorated. So, the benefits to your slower two is significant, although at the expense of the others. Could you split them, the slower 2 first so you know where they are up to, with an overlap in lesson time to give them all playing together time, or shared game time?  This way, they still get some of the benefits of the shared lesson.

Carrie L., Michigan

While I’ve found some challenges like this can be resolved after time I have also found it’s important to tell students that groups need to be transitory. We had some challenges over the summer with groups that weren’t good matches and we didn’t resolve them quickly enough and lost the students. You just have to be in tune with students and families and rearrange if necessary.

I’ve usually checked with families to get a vibe of how they thought things were going. Siblings in a lesson together often parents are willing to make work due to convenience. I look forward to more ideas with this as we’re moving to larger groups as well.

Mary R., Michigan

I’ve had good luck keeping those of disparate progress together. Generally involves additional assignments–improv, comp, and arrangements for the faster students. Letting them teach/re-teach classmates or at least demo a piece or passage others struggle with seems to keep everyone satisfied. Eventually slower ones sometimes put forth even greater effort as they see the strong performance of faster students. Groups do sometimes need to be split, rearranged but I’d advise hanging tough a little longer. Advantages of groups go far beyond our convenience and income. Energy, support and accountability really do yield better results.

Terah W., Kansas

Let me add my voice to the conversation here. I agree with Mary in that keeping groups together for a little longer to see how they move on is a good idea. It reminds me of raising children. Every six months they are new little beings and the dynamics change again. In managing groups, it’s kind of the same way. You can be adding the occasional extra song or project here or more importantly, the paper keyboard, etc., remembering that none of any of the extra is anything but helpful. My point is that the entire group is going to continue to evolve and the time given to the group before making changes even if one decides to do so is necessary to be sure you know if it’s actually necessary. I’d ride the wave as long as possible. “Go slow to go fast” thinking…etc.

Joy V., Texas

You gotta give it more time, Beth. Just because one pair is going faster than the other right now, it does not mean that they will always be that way. Your style of teaching and the Simply Music method may fit the learning style of one pair immediately while the other pair will take a little while to acclimate. Promise you, though, if you keep them together one pair will feed off the other — and it won’t always be the quicker learners who are doing the feeding.

I have found that around Honey Dew is when things start to level off and the students begin getting it.

To get me through the time in between, I challenge the quicker students to other things — e.g., teach them the right hand of Family Dreams (no matter how well they are learning, it’s a real challenge finger-wise that will usually take at least two weeks). Then if they get that, teach them the left hand. But always keep the foundational songs at the same pace and work around the rest.

Another thing that I do is the Australian duet / Australian waterfall. It challenges the quicker students and gives the not-as-quick students a sense of success very early on. The students don’t seem to mind one set getting it quickly, then waiting on the second set, because at the end they just played this really cool song. Or have them take turns improvising on the white notes while you play Honey Dew.

Sue C., Australia

I am finding Children’s Songs especially nursery rhymes to be a great resource to help keeping the more advanced students fulfilled. My shared lessons are mainly family members and while I spend time with slower child on a foundation song, the advanced person can be working on another keyboard using this book. After playing all songs in C, they progress to D and so thru all the keys.