Time put into lesson notes is well worth it for yourself, for students, and if the students are kids, for their parents as well. Lesson notes are added when you reconcile a lesson; while you’re doing it, you can check off the box to have the notes emailed to the student. For tips on reconciling see this post.
One great benefit of lesson notes for students is that they are read on emails (if you checked the box), at a quiet time away from the lesson, when the student can think over what you say and remember pointers from their lesson to good effect.
For yourself, you’ll gain the benefit of viewing the lesson notes from the last time you saw each student when you use the Daily Summary Report, which you can view, print out, or have emailed to you each day. This is invaluable for tuning you into each student as you see them. My own preference is to print the Daily Summmary report (see earlier post for more info on this) and use that sheet as a place to make notes about the current lesson. You can use codes to speed the process: for example, circle or underline relevant comments from the previous lesson to show that these items were reviewed, along with a comment about it, or use initials or code words to help you write new lesson notes.
Below are 4 types of comments, and examples of each, that I think are worth including in your lesson notes:
1. Start by pointing out something they did well. This highlights progress they’ve made. Our ultimate goal always is to get better, so your first lesson note can point this up. You can couple your comment with a suggestion of how they can keep making progress. Examples:
“[name of music] is coming along well, especially first part. Try to nail down 2d phrase.”
“Timing much better on [music]. Focus on intonation – watch your half steps.”
“Nice work on the trouble spots from last time. Keep first fingertip away from bowstick.”
2. An exercise or comments on something you asked them to do. Remind them of a few pointers as to how to do the exercise or how to think about practicing – something to help them during the week. Examples:
“Review Reading Exercise #2, remember not to look away from page!”
“Do thumb exercise, but don’t let the other fingers help.”
“G scale, two notes in a bow, remember how we practiced the shifting.”
“Sit away from back of chair, both feet on floor.”
3. An assignment for next time or a comment on what they can expect or look forward to. Examples:
“Start [name of music], up to letter A.”
“New: Reading ex. #3.”
“Make a medley of 3 of your tunes for next time. We’ll start a new tune next lesson.”
4. Sometimes you might add a comment to a parent, or a comment about another lesson, or just a special note. Examples:
“Nice to see you again!”
“Duncan had a great lesson today, good focus.”
“Remember makeup lesson next Tuesday, reminder will be emailed.”
“A recording of this can be downloaded from the File Area.”
Keep comments brief, both so that people actually read the notes, and so that you don’t bog yourself down with too many details and too much writing. You can’t recreate the lesson in the notes, but a few reminders can bring the lesson better to mind for the student – and for yourself the next time you see that student.
Many students have commented to me how much they appreciate receiving the lesson notes by email, or viewing them online. Not only does this keep students more on track, but it also pays for your time in doing it. If lesson notes help you keep just one more student than you otherwise would have had, they are earning you a significant sum–just multiply out that student’s lesson fees for a month or a year to see how much.
If the student is a child, the lesson notes are very helpful for the parents to review. If one parent accompanies the student at lessons, the notes also clue in the other parent as to what’s going on. They stay more involved and can help the student at home.
This is great! I’m printing it out to keep me focused throughout the year!
Parents and adults students greatly appreciate e-mailed lessons notes. It is worth every effort to record the activities, encouragement and challenges set forth in each lesson. From the daily emails of summaries of my last lesson notes, I feel well-equipped for planning for upcoming lessons.
Much appreciated. I’m wondering if anyone has come up with creative ways to lay out the lesson notes, ie. font, design, colors…to make it more appealing to 6-8 yr olds. I’m not convinced that they (or even sometimes parents) always read the notes. Any thoughts?
@Nate: You ask a very good question. Yes, you can lay out the lesson notes with font, design, colors, etc. Go to your Home tab –> Email Templates –> System Email Templates. There you can click on “Lesson Notes” and for your lesson notes you can play with color, font, links, variables, anything you like. Just keep in mind that this template will be used for all of your lesson notes, for all students. As to getting them to actually read the notes–welcome to 21st century overload! It’s hard to predict who will read anything, whether on emails or paper, and as you know from lessons, sometimes people don’t listen either. But we keep trying, and some people really read and appreciate lesson notes. Some might discover them later and go back to re-read earlier ones. I don’t expect 6-8 year-olds to read them; I presume the parents will read the notes, so I usually address the lessson notes to the parents if the student is young.
[...] Ed Pearlman recommended in his blog on lesson notes, I keep my lesson notes very short and progress-based so that they are read and not ignored as more [...]
Thank you, Ed for this fascinating post.
[...] Ideas For Writing Lesson Notes (Ed Pearlman) – how to do it consistently, and how to do it [...]