Look to the experts
As an educator in any field, it is certainly tempting to make sure you can do everything. But is that really in your students’ best interest?
As an educator in any field, it is certainly tempting to make sure you can do everything. But is that really in your students’ best interest?
A lot of people want to talk about music as organised sound. And in many ways, I agree.
But are we sound teachers, or music teachers?
I have been a piano teacher since I was 15 years old. Safe to say that my first students had to deal with my teething problems. But thankfully when I graduated school and moved, they graduated me, and got the variety we all need for a good music education. One of the regrets I have from that time is that I did not sing with my first students. Instead, I taught the way I had been taught, by playing scales, exercises and pieces. Now, more than a piano teacher, I consider myself a music teacher. Whenever you have a student, you are teaching the whole child. They might end up specialising in the instrument they happen to be studying, they might switch musical specialties, or they might pursue an entirely different career. So the question that needs to be asked is: what skills do you want to leave them with? That brings us around to singing. Apart from the fact that aural skills are part of every music examination, they are also an indispensable musical …
What is the place of technology in our music classrooms? Well, it has to be included. That’s not really worth discussing any more.
It’s time that we talked about effective planning.