When I get a new student I immediately become excited. The thought of introducing someone to their eventual love of music is what gets me up in the morning! There is also something so refreshing and exciting about working with a student who is an absolute blank slate. Meaning a child who has no music education at all and is simply ready to be moulded by my curriculum. It’s a lot of pressure, but something that I find very exciting. The real problem that I face at this first stage of lessons with a student is what I call Blank Slate Syndrome. This for me is the feeling of “with all the paths and lesson plans in the world, where do I start and what is the right journey for this student?”
Obviously you need to start at the beginning. We need to build a proper and sturdy foundation in order for the house to withstand the test of time. However, every child is different and not every child is as willing to work on whatever you throw at them. The two biggest questions I will constantly ask myself within the first few weeks or months of lessons with a student is “are they learning to love music or to just hit a drum? And “Is this direction that we are going on going to bite us in the butt?” With every possible lesson plan on the table it is often hard to know which one to chose that will engage the child and also set them up for success.
There are a few ways I try to manage both. The first is I always interview the child on our first lesson. I learn their homework schedule, extra curriculars, hobbies and learning strategies. This helps me initially identify the ratio of fun to work. To me, it doesn’t matter how fast a kid learns the drums if they are not enjoying it. A success story for Johnny could be that he loves coming to lessons and learned paradiddles in a month, while a success story for Sally could be that she spent 5 hours practicing paradiddles this week and felt really accomplished.
I also listen to the child and check in constantly. I always ask “was this weeks assignment hard?” Or “Did you have fun working on this?” Or “What has been your favourite lesson plan so far?” The child will always tell me what things they don’t like, therefore I know I need to rethink the way we are learning that thing.
Lastly I try to incorporate their likes into our lesson plans. You like Imagine Dragons? (Which is every kid I have ever taught) Let’s work our way up to learning a song of theirs. You like Star Wars? Let’s do a outer space soundscape.
At the end of the day my decisions are based on me observing their successes, engagement and failures. I like to give them as much control as possible in leading our curriculum. I listen to their opinions and try to make that work. I think one of our biggest failings as music teachers is trying to fit every kid into the same product. The success of one student is completely different than what is success to another. Often the best way to find that out is to listen to them and follow their lead. That’s how I break out of Blank Slate Syndrome.
Hilary