I hope you enjoy this series of fictional scenarios about teaching music, and find it at times thought-provoking, familiar, and even humorous. We look forward to reading comments by yourself and other teachers at the end, about “what would you do?”
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Bob is here for his lesson. He has good energy, takes out his instrument and starts playing something he worked on this week.
It’s not what you assigned last week, and the timing is off so it’s a little hard to recognize the music. He plays a recording of it for you on his mp3 player, and you can see what he’s trying to get at.
“It’s great you’ve worked on that piece. We can get to that. What about the piece we were working on last week?” you ask.
“I didn’t get a chance to play it much, and I really wanted to do this one,” Bob says.
It’s obvious he practiced a lot on the new piece, and this is not unusual for him. However, it does feel a little odd for you as a teacher to spend time each lesson on something and not know if he will do anything with it during the week.
“I love this piece,” he says. And that’s not unusual for him either. He’s very enthusiastic. He clearly enjoys the lessons with you. Sometimes it’s a little hard for you to believe it, actually, because you have worked with him on many of the same problems, off and on, for a long time, with little success.
He wants more music to play. He practices at home. He has the initiative to bring in questions and suggest repertoire, sometimes playing it for you on an mp3 player or tape player.
You help him understand a phrase he doesn’t get. “Let’s do a D scale,” you say, and he can play that. “See how these note are a part of –”
“What about this second part?” he says. Often he interrupts you.
“Here, let me play this phrase for you, and then see how you do with it,” you suggest. You play the first measure, and then he’s already trying to play it. You were hoping he’d get a feel for the timing but he’s clearly not thinking along those lines.
“Let’s try it together,” you offer. He can play it with you, not perfectly, but he gets much of it, and after another time or two, it seems that he is absorbing the beat and timing of the phrase.
“I play every day,” Bob says, “I love this. Can you write down this piece for me?”
He’s happy to have you take lesson time to transcribe a part of the music for him. He reads the music sequentially by notes and after a while, he can absorb the timing of it, especially when playing along with you or a recording.
Over time, he has slowly picked up on some of what you’re saying during his lessons. It’s hard on you whenever you expect him to hear and follow instructions, because he may not hear you, or he may try to do what you say but not the way you’re suggesting.
In short, Bob’s focus is pretty dismal, but music clearly means a lot to him and he is dedicated, in his own way. You do wonder if your time is being spent wisely, and whether he’s getting his money’s worth, but he shows no sign of wanting to stop lessons.
What would you do? Would you adjust to Bob’s style of learning, or do you need him to adjust to your style of teaching? Are you concerned that Bob might tell others that you are his teacher, when he’s really not getting much of what you are teaching? Or are you okay with keeping him happy with his music? Would you carry on and see what happens, or would you establish certain requirements for him to continue with you?
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Please add your comments below; if you have any hesitations about it, please see the earlier post about “Adding Your Two Bits! How It Works“.
About the Author
Ed Pearlman has focused on performing, teaching, and judging fiddle music for over 30 years, offering performances and workshops throughout the USA and in Canada and Scotland. His original training was with members of the Chicago and Boston Symphonies, and he played with orchestras and chamber groups at Yale and in Boston. He currently teaches privately at two music schools affiliated with music stores in Maine. Ed directed the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club in monthly workshops for 18 years, directed major concerts and festivals, and recorded 2 solo CDs and several with a fiddle orchestra and top soloists. In addition to Scottish and Cape Breton fiddle styles, Ed plays other Celtic, American, and Canadian fiddle music, classical and some jazz, klez and Hungarian. Ed created and for 11 years ran a CD distribution company to bring music to the USA from Scotland, Atlantic Canada, Ireland, Brittany and Wales. He's the music columnist for Scottish Life magazine.
Personally speaking if the student is happy and motivated, I'm inclined to keep them- I see it as doing a real service to someone to give that that kind of time and attention. But I hear that it's frustrating for you, and I'm not surprised. Tricky one.
by Valerie — Tue Jul 28, 2009 @ 3:17 pm
Music educators should love Bob. There should be professional facilities in every major city who cater to all of the Bob's in the world. If we marketed to all of the Bob's the way say, fishing and golf has marketed to their 'fans', then we wouldn't be begging for our jobs every year in academia.
It's the student that matters - not musical results. In Bob we have a life long music lover, a life long music purchaser and a life long learner.
It's a no brain-er.
by eugene cantera — Tue Jul 28, 2009 @ 7:14 pm
by Betty Patnude — Sat Aug 1, 2009 @ 11:49 am
by Stephanie — Tue Aug 18, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
by Jim McCarthy — Mon Aug 24, 2009 @ 2:03 am
In a private lesson situation, I would be more apt to go with the student's desire. If Bob is a child, it would be good to discuss the situation with the parent. I've had conversations like this where the mom told me in effect that she's just trying to keep her kid off drugs and get him invested in something productive. Okay, so I'm not producing a Julliard applicant here.
In a school situation, for better or for worse, the students pretty much have to follow the prescribed curriculum. Maybe if Bob-the-hypothetical-student really had this much motivation, I would try to carve out some time to keep him motivated to learn his music.
I wrote post about a similar situation on my blog a few months back: http://stengel99.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/motivating-young-musicians-part-1-selecting-literature/
by Stengel99 — Sat Oct 17, 2009 @ 8:43 am