Were Your Summer Sessions a Success?

 I always look forward to summer break. It is a time when I see students raise their music skills one, or even two, grade levels. Non-readers become music reading machines, student compositions start flowing into the studio and jazz chord/scale, and theory books, get completed in a few short weeks. The children don't have competing school or sport activities, and they often return from family trips sharing stories about new bands they discovered, or live performances they attended. It is often the greatest season for private music teachers to see and hear student success. 

As I sit here writing I am a little sad because most of my kids go back to school next week. The summers seem to get shorter every year. I only had a few students finish music compositions and theory books, unlike former summers. And adult students who were set on joining a free slow jam in my home to learn folk tunes, or learn a new instrument during the summer, were never able to find the time. Still I did see successes in a handful of young students and that is enough to encourage me. A student who always rushes  has started using her metronome in her home rehearsals and she has learned to correct herself as she plays. Another student has almost completed all of her first cycle of scales by carefully working her scales at the beginning of each rehearsal. Another student checked out books on music composers at the local library to use as her summer reading for school and now has a deeper understanding about her music. And I am happy to say a young man has tackled his upper body, hand, and arm technique and now is sounding like a young professional at the keyboard. 

I have learned not to worry about students who choose to achieve at a slower pace than others. When I was younger I would push students so they could experience the same success as self driven students. But now I let each student blossom as they desire. No more begging, no more trying to over encourage, no more pressure on them, their parents, or me. Music lessons are a good indicator of how a child will perform in their chosen field as an adult. If a child comes to lessons every week without their books, they will forget their laptop when they go in to work. If they lie about their practice time or embellish their accomplishments, they will do the same as an adult. If a child procrastinates in music, they will procrastinate on the job. If the child needs someone to push them before they complete a music task, they will need someone to puch them as an adult. I have seen this pattern over decades of teaching. The only way a person will change as an adult, is if they want to change on their own. We can not change another person.  

This year I have started a new policy that all my students are aware of: if music is not memorized 15 days prior to an assessment, competition, or exam, the student will be pulled from the opportunity. Once music is memorized and played daily, the details in the performance can be polished and the piece becomes alive. Too many students have crammed their music at the last minute and given weak performances. The parents who are not musicians are often clueless. The judges and the teachers are not. If you are a teacher I know you agree that you can easily hear the sound of a piece that has been fully digested by a student. Judges will also make comments letting the student know that they could tell how hard the student worked to prepare the piece. So this year students will receive the best from Miss Dolly but no room to cram at the last minute. 

Are you entering the new school year with any fresh ideas or new studio rules for your students? 

Should I Keep That Student?

"How do I know when to remove a music student from my private teaching studio?" This is a question I have had colleagues ask me over the years. 

A teaching professional needs to have a clear vision of what they will, and won't, allow in their studio. Studio boundaries are important and will make it easier for an educator to expel a student when necessary. 

Along with personal boundaries, it is essential for an educator to consider the needs of all studio members when forming studio boundaries.

If a student is a personal threat to an instructor, removal from the studio is clear. However, a teacher will want to be aware that, even in private lesson studios, a student's actions can influence the morale, or spirit, of the music studio as a whole.

Consider the following scenarios:

Studio Recitals: Names have been printed in the recital program and confirmations have been given. Without contact, or reason, certain students don't attend the recital. How do the participating students feel when fellow music studio members listed in the program do not show up to support them? 

Professional Assessments: Most students in private studios are required to attend a certain number of professional assessments each year where they play before a judge. Seeing other students they recognize from their studio can be an encouragement. Now imagine that, without reason, a student who registered for the assessment, decides not to attend. How does that impact the attitude of the students who participate? Many of my students would start to ask questions and be concerned about a missing student who was scheduled for the opportunity.

Fun Studio Challenges: Teachers often invite their students to take part in studio opportunities. These can range from piano-thons to raise money for a cause, writing a poem about music for a contest, drawing artwork for a magazine cover, participating in a competition, writing a song, and other fun activities. If enough students from a studio do not take part, the opportunity may no longer be available to the students who want to put in the time and were looking forward to participation in the event.

Completing weekly assignments, and regular practice habits: This is perhaps the most obvious in regards to how it impacts the instructor, but many teachers don't realize how one student's practice habits can affect the studio at large. 

Students who adhere to their teacher's individualized lesson plans each week usually show consistent progress. Members of a music studio may all be at different ages and levels but, they are all seeing one another grow in their music skills and knowledge. 

Students like to brag about others in their studios. I often hear comments like, "I saw Julie playing at the church service." "I heard Marco won a scholarship." "I met Jim at the assessment and we live close to one another and are going to play video games together." "Nancy told the class at school that she earned her first Music Theory trophy!"  All of the above are just a few examples of how studio morale can be strengthened by students who actively participate together and continue to improve their skills through completion of assignments and regular practice habits.

Students who refuse to do their weekly assignments on a regular basis, can bring the studio morale down. Keeping a non-productive student, a student who disrespects the studio by refusing to do their assignments or participate in activities, may not be a wise choice. Social media and piano forums are riddled with private piano teacher burn-out stories everyday. These teachers have given more attention to non-committed students in hopes of turning them around (and therefore have less energy to give to more involved students). These teachers have tried everything in their wheelhouse to help these uninterested students and are exhausted and ready to leave their career in teaching. I have known private music teachers, much younger than my years, who left the profession because of one, or two, piano students who should have been dismissed from their studios. 

There are many ways that a disinterested student can overburden an instructor and bring down the energy of a private music studio. And there are teachers who base removal, or retention, of a student on their personal feelings toward the child. A teacher is not a failure because a child refuses to apply themselves. Looking at how a child's lack of interest might be harming the morale of another student and, perhaps, the studio as a whole is important in deciding whether to let a student remain in your studio. 

Turning the focus toward the spirit of the studio as a whole might be a better choice. Private music lessons may be one-on-one, but every student contributes to the overall spirit of your studio. Fortunately, most students are proud of their teacher and their private music studio. Make healthy boundaries for yourself and for the good health of your active music studio members.  

 

Early Preparation is the Key for High School Seniors

I tried a new approach with my seniors this year and am happy to report that they will have their thesis pieces ready to perform by December.  Unfortunately this isn't always the result. Last year, during the thesis juries, a few of the students were held back by their own instructors. It was obvious to all on the panel that the students did not apply themselves to preparing their pieces. Yes, they knew the notes and most of the correct rhythms, but the music had not developed to an acceptable level. One student was held back because she chose a duet partner who was far below her level simply because that person was her friend. That friend was not a good contributor to the final performance. As in athletics, musicians want to choose partners who are at their level of expertise. A hard lesson learned. 

Seniors are typically overwhelmed with too much on their plates. They have visited university campuses during their junior year and are now sending in college applications (typically due in October) to their selected schools. They are preparing for a performance thesis at the school of the arts which has changing requirements every year. Many are working jobs to save for college expenses. And some still want to stay active in after school activities that they have enjoyed in their earlier high school years. The last year of high school goes by quickly.

The senior year is the one that clearly separates those who will succeed from those who may struggle in life. Fortunately, most piano students who have continued with music at this level are highly disciplined. Some of my seniors come to their music lessons with planners and dates of progress they have determined for themselves - and they achieve those dates! They continue to practice on their instrument 1.5 - 2 hours every day. They know the field in which they want to major at college, and those who don't choose music as their major often are planning to minor in piano. As an aside, throughout my years of teaching I have also found that those students who choose to major in the field of Chemistry often double major in Music. 

So how did we get ahead in our preparations this year? 

Knowing the stresses my seniors would encounter, I introduced the students to their pieces before the end of the last school year. That meant that the students knew, and/or had, the music they would be performing for their 25-26 school year events before summer break started. The summer is always a challenging season to grow through musically because of family vacations and sleep-away camps. But even a few days of practice (as opposed to regular daily practice during the school year) set their mind to the task so they could succeed. 

Students started researching their composers and analyzing their music during the summer and it has given them more confidence as they are now in the polishing segment of their work where the pieces are memorized. In the past, the students did not select their repertoire until September, when school started. This resulted in a lot of frustration and poor performances on their juries. I am hoping that I will be able to convince other rising seniors to prepare in advance as this year's group. What a difference those two extra months of concentrated work on their pieces has made. 

Another Year of Student Auditions

Every year seems to get a little more challenging with age. Last year I was dealing eye problems during my student's music exams. The year before that I struggled to walk. This year my lumbar spine was damaged which made spending volunteer hours in support of my students a painful event today. I am grateful to my co-hall monitor and the volunteer teenagers that helped with running students up and down the stairs. (And oh those stairs!) 

I often wonder how my childhood piano teacher did it all. She taught until she was in her 100s, and lived to be 107. She chaired all of the Southeastern Michigan piano teacher festivals, in cooperation with Grinnell's piano, well into her later years. She handled the logistics of; hiring conductors, procuring duet scores for hundreds of students and adult professionals, securing rehearsal space, bringing one hundred pianos, and a couple dozen organs into rehearsal spaces and performance venues like Cobo Hall and Meadowbrook, hiring a composer to write a fanfare, and then hiring a brass ensemble to play the fanfare for each year, all to create one of the largest piano orchestras in the States, every year. And I struggled to go up and down the stairs and dealt with horrible back pain today just trying to calm and help children to their exam rooms for five hours. I'm a wimp.

I always breathe a sigh of relief after this day has ended. I think it is fair to say that teachers feel as much stress in preparing their students, as the students feel on the day of the event(s). But as much as teachers may struggle leading up to this day, it is so important for students. And that's why we support it (even through physical limitations and pain.) If a student should decide to pursue music as a career without these types of experiences, they would be disadvantaged. More importantly, music exams and assessment events prepare students, not only for future music events of a higher caliber but, for many of life's expectations in the work place. The dedication of building and rehearsing business presentations, board room meetings, and more, starts with the discipline of preparing music to bring in front of a judge for both performance and written exams. Self discipline, preparation, study, research, physical practice, memorization, confidence in one's hard work, these are just some of the strengths gained from private music study and music auditions at the pre-college level. 

The board members for both the NFMC's Junior Festival, and CMTA's Achievement Day, work very hard to make these events happen. Fortunately they are all twenty to thirty years younger than me with an abundance of physical and mental energy. But that doesn't mean the work is easy for them. I have both chaired and judged music assessments in younger years and these are not tasks to be taken on lightly.

The day is done. The teachers are relieved. The students are relieved. The parents are relieved. We are grateful to all the volunteers who made the event possible. And now we wait to hear the results. 

I am heading to bed much earlier tonight along with an ice pack and a muscle relaxer. Tomorrow starts preparations for the next event on this year's list. 

Self-discipline vs. Motivation

Motivation; The first time I heard that word, used generously, was when I taught classroom music in a school for gifted children in the 1980s. It was starting to be a "buzz" word in classroom education for slower learners. The school served children with learning disabilities and recognized that many children were not able to develop tools that are necessary for success in life. It became commonplace to hear statements like, Jimmy could not finish the task because he was not motivated.  It was a gentler way of speaking about a student's learning challenges. 

Self-discipline helps an individual achieve by building constructive habits that lead to success in sports, arts, science, religion, or any other field of choice. Motivation is feeling pressed to do a task because of one's emotions. A boy is motivated to attend soccer practice because he will feel embarrassed in front of his peers if he stays home to play video games. That boy is motivated. A young girl gets up at 4:00am every morning to catch the bus to go to the skating rink, and practice by herself, before she has to go to school. This girl has self-discipline. Let's take this to the adult level.

A man is motivated to go into the office, to a mundane job, every day, because he doesn't want society to think of him as a bum. He is moved by his feelings. A young woman starts her own clothing design firm and with daily perseverance through many failures, and self-discipline, moves from a once-a-week small farmer's market tent to opening her own successful store in a popular town. She is self-disciplined.

Your grandparents called self-discipline, a good work ethic. What do you think of when you think about self-discipline? Some don't like the word and feel it is too harsh.

Like every teacher, I see self-disciplined children who do excel. But more frequently, I see children who will only do work if there is an emotional component; which means they don't progress as far in their education as they could. Only doing a task when one is triggered by fear, embarrassment, fun, companionship, peer pressure, or jealousy, is not a healthy path to success. Failure, in many areas, can start to set in if every task is approached only when the person relies on their feelings to motivate positive movement. 

When you practice self-discipline, good feelings come as you see yourself improving. Use self-discipline to bring honest feelings. Don't wait for your feelings to cause you to act. 

It is my opinion that the re-structuring of education, with motivation (doing work because of an emotional component) becoming more important than rewards of self-discipline, has produced lower standards in many fields of education. 

I have a theory as to why motivation continues to be stressed ahead of teaching self-discipline in education. 

We now have a generation of parents who were raised within an educational system that employed motivation strategies. (This is not the fault of today's parents.) These parents are now raising children using the tools they were taught which were motivational practices. 

Sometimes I see myself as a one-woman-band trying to guide students in how to succeed with self-discipline. I welcome any educator who wants to join me.