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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Rhonda is a very organized student. She tries to clearly understand everything you tell her, and keeps a nice notebook where she makes notes at the end or even during each lesson.
She makes sure you give her the full time she is paying for, and she requires of herself a certain amount of practice per day, though she rarely manages to accomplish it. Her first comments at each lesson are usually apologies for not practicing as much as she had planned.
She started out taking lessons from you with a plan to make amazingly fast progress, which she has not, but she does make reasonable progress each week.
Often, you tailor an exercise for her, to help with a technical or musical issue. She is quite excited to write these exercises down so she can follow your directions carefully at home.
Today, as she writes down one of your personalized technical exercises, she tells you that she is so excited about your teaching ideas that she is writing them all down in a notebook she plans to share with another music teacher, who is a friend of hers, and with whom she has also taken some lessons.
Does this concern you? What would you do or say about it, if anything?
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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“.
I don’t mind if students share my IDEAS, but I ask them please NOT to share music or anything actually written on a sheet that says “Copyright”.
Ideas should be shared, I feel, among creative people, thus generating more energy and creativity among musicians… but actual PRODUCTS such as a sheet of music or sheet of vocalises are different. They are intellectual property.
That’s funny, the last paragraph surprised me.
I was expecting something more along the lines of: “You are somewhat frustrated because you think she is stifling her potential growth by using the note taking as a way of absolving herself from the responsibility of learning. What, if anything, can you do to help her let go?” I’d love to see some comments addressing this.
But to answer your actual question: I don’t mind if people share ideas–information wants to be free, and in this age of the internet it’s getting there pretty quickly.
haha, I thought the question would have been along those lines as well… or something regarding unrealistic goals that sets the student up for failure as she can’t achieve the practice or rate of progress that she planned for…
I personally don’t see anything wrong with note-taking, as everybody learns differently, and some do learn by writing things down. I would use this habit of the student’s to have her write some realistic goals and also a realistic plan for how to use what practice time she does have so that everything gets done in the most efficient way.
As for sharing with other teachers, I would ask that she acknowledges me when sharing. I think that sharing amongst teachers is a really positive thing. You also need to be mindful that your ideas are represented and interpreted correctly.
If it were me, wouldn’t say anything about it.
One thing I’ve learned over my years in teaching: There is no replacing you. Even if they notate the specific ideas and exercises, the student won’t be getting the personal experience only you can give them during their lesson time. Make it personal and they will return to you weekly. Hope this helps!