As a parent working closely with our children, it's easy to point out mistakes and what is wrong. It's easy to see when things aren't going the way we think they should. When we know our children are capable of more, it's easy to talk about what is hard or get frustrated. But how do we turn things like this around and build on what is going well in order to make progress towards our goals - especially when it…
Last week I started a new blog series about keeping students inspired and motivated. You can read the first post in the series HERE.
In that article I outlined three things students need to stay motivated and inspired including seeing progress, feeling capable, and finding joy in the process. Today we’re focusing on the importance of helping students see their progress!
Students stay engaged & motivated in the process of learning their instrument by being able to see that they are, in fact, making progress.
Practicing is hard. It takes a huge amount of concentration, discipline, and persistence to get it done everyday. It’s just human nature to feel like it is not worth it if we can’t see some kind of tangible progress along the way!
I get many calls for prospective violin & viola students from parents requesting more information. I always explain my program and direct them to my website for more information.
A phrase I hear some parents use when they describe why they want to start lessons is: my child seems interested in music (or the violin) and we want to try it out to see if they will like it.
As a parent I completely understand that this is the approach we take for many things we sign our children up for. We often sign them up for many different types of activities in order to expose them to a wide variety of things and to see what they enjoy.
A word of caution though.
Review sets the foundation on which more advanced pieces can be built. It allows us to play with other people easily & it helps make our technical skills easier because we revisit them over and over.
Younger students may be more motivated by games & dice or drawing cards where teens (at least in my studio) tend to be more motivated by social situations or using review to accomplish something. That being said some of these ideas will appeal to all ages.
Leave your favorite ideas in the comments!
In my studio almost all of my middle & high school students participate in performance groups in addition to regular lessons & group classes. Some students are members of community orchestras, youth symphonies or their school orchestra. Others play as a soloist in their church or with their school's choir . . . As their teacher, I try to make sure I am preparing students to play in these groups by integrating sight reading and rhythmic studies into their lessons…
