Advice for a new teacher

[redmunk]

I am 19 and have just finished the first year of a guitar degree. While at college I haven't been able to get any teaching experience, partly because of the large amount of guitar teachers working in london already and also because i tended to go away every couple of weeks. This summer I'm not in one city for more than 2 weeks at a time so I have the same problem. I've decided that the only way I'll ever get any teaching experience is to go for it and do it all in one week.

I've decided to run a 1 week course at a local community center. Today i am going into 2 local schools to do a guitar workshop as advertisment. This is all very well apart from the fact that I've never ever taught before, or at least I've only taught beginners. So to go into a full class of school children is going to be very tough. I don't know what to expect. Fortunately, the fact that I'm doing a guitar degree seems to impress small children and make them think they should listen to me. But the fact of the matter is, a some of them will be close to my standard and because I usedto go to that school, I know that one of them is a lot better than me. Yet i realise that a teacher does not teach well because they can play better but because they understand how to help people learn.

Any tips you could give me?

[szulc]

Being a better executer of music doesn't necessarily make you a good teacher, but it usually commands some respect from the student. You can give them information to open up their minds and ears, that is likely to be the way to make sure they are getting their money's worth.

[forgottenking2]

It's funny how that misconception has spread "if you're a great player then you're a great teacher" both things are independent skills, you can be a good at teaching and not be able to play at all (in which case you would not be a music teacher) or be an incredible player and be a very poor teacher (look at Yngwie). One of the first things I was asked whenever I applied for the teaching job was "How do you impress a student? What do you do?" I just said "I don't, students want to learn, if they wanted to watch me perform they would go to a concert, they come to the school 'cause they want to learn" The interview went really smooth after that.

What I do when it comes to teaching is I see what are the student's goals and addapt the material to that... since you're gonna do more of a group class/workshop kind of thing, what I would do is just set a reasonable goal, you should know what kind of players you'll be getting and what level and customize a mini-curriculum according to that information (Reciently I was working with young kids and they were all absolute beginners, curse lenght: 3 2 hour sessions, Objective: Get them to feel, see and hear what it is like to practice the guitar and work with others <in other words, try it out before they go and spent a ton in registration fees and stuff at a different school> My Goal: Having them perform a simple piece of music in an essemble setting by the end of the course). It's all common sense really :D . A lot of times teaching just comes from the desire to share, I don't hold back anything from my students (I had teachers who did) I WANT my students to be better than me, I want to see them on stage one day and be able to say "I taught that guy" or not even that, just smiling proudly thinking "that's my boy/girl" I guess I really am a teacher at heart :D.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Regards,

[redmunk]

Thanks guys. I took some of you advice and got and etude for the class to learn at different level because it was a group. Level 1 was a chords. Level 2 was a 1,3,5 bassline of the chords and Level 3 was some arpegios higher up the neck. This all seemed reasonable to me, but the first group i taught, only a few of them could actually play chords, and two others could play all the parts. The second group i taught, could at least all play the chords but by the end of the session none of them could play the 1,3,5 bassline correctly even a 2 notes per click, 60bpm. There were six chords in the sequence. Is this too many? These were seconday school children, i had expected something a bit more. Needless to say, i haven't got any signed up for my 1 week worshop and if this continues i might have to cancel it.

How do you gauge a students ability in a group workshop like that. If you have aimed too high for them and have to simplyfy it on the day, doesn't that make them feel inaequate?

[LarryJ]

I think the problem is that you didn't figure out your audience well enough. From the sounds of it, most of these kids have never touched a guitar before, so their shortcomings are certainly understandable, especially because of the dexterity that has to be aquired by spending time with the instrument in your hands. You should maybe sort them out a bit better, then have them play parts of the song they can handle (sort of like rhythm/lead) - this may be what you're already doing, I had a hard time understanding your lesson plan.

I would do a little 'mini-test' to sort their skill levels out, and then group them accordingly instead of just letting 15 kids sign up and try to teach them all at the same level, thats just impossible to work with. They all have to be on the same playing field, thats the only way group lessons will work. If this means spending some extra time before they sign up to get a feel for them, then that might be required.

By secondary school, I'm assuming you are referring to what we yanks call "middle school", or 6th-9th grade (or around there anyways). I think you'd be doing yourself, and all the kids an injustice to keep them going on the current course, it will just hurt their esteem more, and make you look worse if you dont simplify the plan and nobody gets anything meaningful out of it. Simply go in, prepare a little speech about how much dedication is involved in playing , how it takes time to get better, and how much it's worth it, then say that you need to go back and go over some basics to make sure everyone has them down before you move on, then stress why that is an important aspect of playing. This way, they will be under the impression they can achieve success, they just have to brush up on a few things first.

6 Chords for kids who have never played before is certainly too many. I remember taking the required music class in 6th grade for about 2 - 3 weeks, we were playing guitar those weeks, and most of the kids didn't learn a thing, I learned maybe one or two chords in that time, which I promptly forgot until I relearned them 4 years later. It took me quite a while before I could switch between chords, and consistantly finger then quickly and accuratly, so if you're trying to have them do this in the span of an hour or two, its definitly asking alot of them, think about it, they have to think where each finger goes, on what fret, in what shape...

Realise that something like this simply seperates the people who might want to pursue guitar further, and those who just signed up to see what it was like. I would probably focus on those kids who show an interest in it (as much as you can, without avoiding the other students) because those will be the ones who sign up for your week long course. Set clearer goals, and break it down into more managable pieces and you should be fine! Whats basic to us, is a whole new world to them. Good luck!

[forgottenking2]

I agree. With kids who haven't played before I don't even show them full position chords but what I call "baby chords" (can you tell I've been dealing with kids a lot?) Those are basically just 3 string chords involving one or 2 figers at a time, and for a weeks period of time I'd do just 2 or three chords (young kids don't have a huge attention spam and you have to spend a lot of time playing "the clown", otherwise they'll juts grow uninterested). For young kids here's my advice: Keep it simple, keep it fun.