Comments on: Poll Results: How do you write lesson notes for your students?

By: yiyiku

yiyiku — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 07:01:30 +0000

I am not a big fan of lesson notes where I write down everything for the students. I do them for some of the younger students, and I do them for the transfer students that have had a lesson notebook since the beginning of time and can not seem to function without it. But I have to say, lesson notes in a note book format or even on the computer take up too much valuable lesson time, as you have to write down which book, which page, which measure, what to do etc. I find it much easier to just write notes onto the music itself, such as pointing out wrong notes/rhythm, alternate (better) fingering, missed accidentals, phrase marks, extra dynamics that are not printed but are inherent in the particular context, etc. I do always write the date of the lesson as well, so the student and I know where we left off. For the intermediate student and beyond, much of the lesson discussion is about subtle interpretative suggestions that are impossible and pointless to write down as some sort of one-sentence reminder, and as it is, there is never enough time to go through all the repertoire the student is working on! I don’t recall my own teachers writing lesson notes for me when I was a student, and I had great teachers! I find today’s students (and parents) are too dependent on the teacher. Students are supposed to concentrate during their lessons, and take in and remember what the teacher says; if they think they might forget afterwards, they should make a point of writing things down themselves after the lessons, in fact, I do ask my students to keep a journal for themselves, to record practice times, as well as write down things they learned in the lessons. I always tell my students that there is always homework in every book I give them, they are supposed to practice something in every book, look for the date of the lesson, that is what you need to practice, if there is no new date, that means we did not get around to that book in the lesson, so practice the piece that has last week’s date on it. After they practice the new pieces, they must spend some time to practice some of the older pieces, in order to commit them to memory. While practicing, always look at the score, as I write down on the score what they need to watch out for, including any wrong notes or bad fingering choices etc. Some of my students come to lessons with digital voice recorders to record the entire lesson. Fine by me!

By: Music Teacher's Helper: Blog: 13+1 Resources to Help You Create Lesson Notes That Rock

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:40:58 +0000

[...] Poll Results: How do you write lesson notes for your students? (Chris Foley) – the results of the poll above, along with some fascinating ideas and opinions [...]

By: Songs

Songs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:30:34 +0000

music teachers are real people who love music when they teach their students they explains everything from the notes till how it will be applied

By: Rachel Velarde

Rachel Velarde — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:18:30 +0000

Sad to say, I was one who voted that I don’t use lesson notes. But, I’ve always kept a MSWord file on my computer of everything we do in lessons (if I don’t write it down, it never happened…). After my computer crashed this summer and I lost ALL my student files, when reconciling lessons I started copying & pasting into MTH (for recreation of a file later, if needed) what I type into the student file during the lesson. Most of my students are high school & above & so have their own emails – so this doesn’t present a problem. Also, it gives the parents some accountability (even for those who only check their emails once per week) as to what the student is doing in lessons. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback from my students in the 1.5 months that I’ve been doing this – AND I’ve noticed an improvement in practice habits (although NOT in logging their practice on the website – ideas anyone??). Thanks Chris! You’re the best!