Simpedia

Sheri R., California

I’ve been doing groups for a year and my classes aren’t so regimented as far as when and how things are done, but there are definitely some generalities I can tell you about. Did you watch the teaching groups video? That gives a good overview and then you just jump in and manage the class minute by minute. Some things remain the same. I check people’s Playlist and then I try to have everyone play one or two songs from their Playlist (they pick a stick with the name of the song so they never know what it will be). At the end, if there’s time, they get to play one song of their choice, although even this isn’t always how it goes. We may go off on a tangent if someone plays something that needs to be talked about.

I use the Keypads a lot while learning a new song. I even tell students to once a week at home play their whole playlist on the keypad or on their keyboard with the sound turned off.  If they can’t do it then they need to be able to. I tell them to work on the songs that they aren’t able to play that way.

My groups tend to be rather small (3-6). I usually play the new song and go straight to the Keypad so no one is really demonstrating at the piano at the beginning. After they’ve worked at the Keypad, with me demonstrating on my Keypad so they can see while they’re sitting down using theirs, first individually and then helping each other (watching each other to see if they’ve got it and if not showing them) then one, two, or all of them (usually all because my groups are small enough) have a go at the piano (round robin). The student playing is hopefully being watched by the rest of the group so whoever goes last has already seen it played a number of times. (I frequently have to remind the young ones to stay focused and watch the current player.) I often have one or two demonstrate controlling the events when putting hands together as this is very important, and you want everyone to see how that is done (very slowly!) The chairs are far enough away from piano (only a few feet, but it’s just enough) so there is room.

Hopefully what I have written above provides some clarity (although I’ve just been writing off the top of my head without editing, and not in any particular order. As far as the order of your questions so sorry if it’s somewhat muddled). Oh, the basics I’ve never done on the keypads, although I’m sure there’s no reason not to – I just do round robins there. I even will have 3 students at a time playing chords (earplugs might come in handy here).

Really, if you’ve taught SM privately it’s not much of a departure doing it in groups and you will catch on to what works and what doesn’t very quickly and in the meantime no one will know that anything is missing. Teaching for me has been a constant learning experience so don’t worry too much – while you’re improving you’re still doing a good job.