Teaching Music to Adult Students

I have a confession. I really love teaching adult students! I love all adult learners, but this post is specifically addressing beginning and intermediate adult students. It’s refreshing and motivating and exciting to me to see them grow and learn. Adult students are truly motivated to learn in a way different from kids. They have the advantage of maturity and perspective that come from having more years on this planet. I’ve found, though, that adult learners also encounter unique challenges, which kids do not. I’d like to take a minute (just sit right there), I'll tell you how we as teachers can help.

• Lack of time. Adults can be very busy. Most of those whom I’ve taught are working full time, or are college students, or both. Many have families of their own to take care of. 

Set realistic practice goals. Because I know it’s challenging to even get started at something that is either completely brand new, or has been neglected for a long time, my first thought when an adult approaches me asking for lessons is, “Yaaay!! Good for you!!!!!!” I automatically have so, so much respect for these people. So, I really want to help them be successful and to love it.

With each student’s unique situation and schedule, I try to find a balance between high standards and attainable, realistic goals. I have to recognize that an adult student’s reachable, attainable goal for practice frequency may not be the same as a child student. And that’s okay. We take it week by week and adjust according to their needs and demands that week, and set a realistic goal for how many days they will practice that particular week. This may be different this week than it was last week, but it’s important for them to gain encouragement from seeing themselves reaching their goals. It is important to also try to set goals to make them stretch, of course, but just keep in mind that if it stretches them too far, they may get frustrated or stressed. So try to find that balance for each individual student, because the last thing we adults need is more stress.

Be flexible with lesson frequency. I work with each student’s needs and goals individually to determine how frequently we meet. I’ve had adult students come weekly, biweekly, or monthly. In the case of less frequent lessons, make a plan to follow up with the student between lessons, such as writing an email or text, or making a quick phone call to make sure they are doing okay and see what questions they have. It’s essential for the student to still feel supported by you between lessons. I find the student is more likely to practice consistently all month long (and not just the days right before the lesson), if they know they will be held accountable more often and have me following up with them.

Another option, which may suit some situations, would be to offer a lesson online in between the in-person lessons. There are many available video conferencing options, such as Skype or Google Hangout. I’ve recently learned of JamKazam, which is intended for groups of musicians to be able to rehearse remotely as if in the same room. I have yet to try it out, but if it solves the issues of sound delay and allows for the teacher and student to play together simultaneously, then this may be something of value for teaching as well. If any of you have already tried it out for teaching, please let me know of your experiences.

• Student gets frustrated, impatient, or is too hard on themselves. This often is a result of the student’s musical ear being developed beyond their actual technical playing ability. This can lead to the student having feelings of frustration, or even embarrassment about their sound (I’ll get to that second one later).

Help them see/feel their own success. One of my main goals with adult students is to keep that spark for learning alive. Something motivated them and pushed them to change up their routine and budget and comfortable life and start violin lessons. I don’t want them to ever lose site of that. I really, really want to keep them motivated, and keep them excited, which comes from helping them see and feel their own success.

When I was twenty-one, I started learning German. I had learned French and American Sign Language before, but this time was different. This time, I was going to do service abroad as a missionary for my church. I had 9 weeks to learn German. All of it. The entire language. One time, when I was feeling especially frustrated that I would never, ever learn German, my wise teacher explained to me the importance of taking a moment to not focus on what I hadn’t learned yet, but to see how far I had already come. In doing so, I realized that, yes, I had actually made tremendous progress. I had begun knowing absolutely no German, and after just a few short weeks (and a lot of hard work), I could carry on conversations and even understand native speakers.

My point in relaying that story is that we need to help all our students to see how far they’ve already come, which can give encouragement in place of frustration. [“Hey, six months ago you weren’t even taking lessons, and now you’ve learned this many pieces!! And you’ve improved this and that (be specific).”] Help them to set small goals and help them recognize when they have met them. And celebrate the small victories with them!!

Offer Rewards and Incentives. Rewards and incentives will definitely come in a different form than with young students. Why not encourage the adult student to set a goal that will make them stretch, and once they’ve reached it, they get to treat themselves to something special, whatever that may be. This can help keep them motivated and encouraged to see their progress.

• The student is embarrassed or self-conscious of playing in front of others.

Give lots of opportunities to perform. A student can gain confidence by performing over and over in low-stress situations, such as a group performance class, at recitals, in rest homes or assisted living centers. The more they do it, the more comfortable and confident they will become, as long as you keep it positive and low-stress.

Play duets with the teacher (or other advanced player). I always feel more confident when playing with someone else, which may be why I love chamber music so much. Playing with someone who is more advanced can build confidence, as the overall tone will be better, and the confidence of the teacher may rub off on the student.

Perform for kids. This one may sound strange, but it stems from my experience learning foreign languages. I found that the most patient and nonjudgmental teachers were, in fact, children. They would tell me straight up that I was saying something wrong and had no problem correcting me, but they did so with complete sincerity and caring. Although they were blunt, it was never in a way that made me feel self-conscious. Anyway, I think performing for children can be a great chance to learn and improve confidence in a friendly environment where it’s safe to make mistakes.

So, these are just a few ideas to help adult students be successful. What other challenges have you seen adult students face? And what have you been able to do to help them?

Violin String Names for Young Beginners | Printable Coloring Page

I've recently started to make some fun coloring pages for my young beginners as a take-home reenforcement for what they have been learning in the lessons. These are partly just for fun, but there is some educational benefit as well.

I'd like to share a free printable coloring page with you today. This coloring page helps teach the letter names of the violin strings using animals for each string, as follows:

G: Giraffe

D: Dolphin

A: Ape

E: Eagle

I chose these particular animals because I thought they would be familiar to most young kids. (I decided against using an eastern quoll.)

I also chose animals with beginning sounds similar to how the name of the actual letter sounds. For example, I chose giraffe (instead of gorilla) because it has a soft "G" at the beginning, similar to the way the name of the letter "G" is pronounced. I chose eagle (instead of elephant) because the beginning sound is a long "E", like we would pronounce the name of the letter. This seems to pose less confusion to very young pre-reading students who are not as familiar with alternative sounds that letters can make.

Additionally, I chose animals that might be useful in explaining the size relationship of the strings. For example, giraffes are very big and tall! Just like the G is the biggest string. Eagles are the smallest of those four animals, and E string is the smallest string. Also, Eagles fly way up high in the sky, and the E string note is way up high.

I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine have. I don't know any young kids who don't love coloring, and this is a great way to reenforce what was taught in the lesson and help the kids remember the names of the strings. Click here to download your own violin strings coloring page!

Enjoy!

Printable Music Award Certificates - Blank Template

I've had a request to make my printable music recital certificates with a blank line, so the teacher can
write in what the certificate is for. What a great idea! Now these can be used for anything, from passing off a level, to completing a music festival. The possibilities are endless, and they're free, so why not go ahead and print 'em and use 'em all up. Your students will love them, I'm sure.  Who doesn't love getting recognition for a job well done??

You can still download the original recital award certificates here or under the printables tab.

Below are the links to the new printable music award certificates with a blank line to fill in yourself to indicate what it is for (also available under the printables tab). I hope you enjoy!

Outstanding Performance Award Certificate

Certificate of Excellence Music Award

Bravo Music Award Certificate

Bravo Music Award Certificate

Setting Goals for Yourself & Your Students in the New Year

This past week, I've been setting goals with my students for the new year.  This doesn't necessarily have to be associated with the new year, that was happenstance, but it is something I like to do often to help them have a focus and a deadline and a specific thing to work toward.

As teachers, it is equally important that we set goals for ourselves for improving our playing and our teaching skills.  There are always new ideas to try and we can always get better, no matter how good we already are!

So, while we are all in new year's resolution mode, I thought I'd share again some past posts about setting goals: one to help students with setting and reaching practice goals, and one that talks about setting goals for yourself as a teacher.

Enjoy!

  

Helping Students Set and Reach Practice Goals

Wow, sorry I've been so quiet lately.  I've had a LOT of huge life-changing events taking place, including moving and having a baby.  It's been very exciting and wonderful!  So that's why I've been absent.

As I've been trying to think of what I want to write about next, I decided to write about

helping students to set and reach practice goals.  I've really been emphasizing this recently in my studio, and I've seen students gain more motivation as they see their smaller successes week by week.

Why?

Of course we all know why this is important, so I won't go into that too much.  But briefly, setting realistic, measurable goals helps students to SEE their progress, which helps them stay focused and interested.  They stay motivated and become excited as they get smaller gratifications and incentives along the way to bigger, long-term goals such as passing of or performing a piece from memory.

What type of goals are we talking about here?

I would say there are a couple types of goals to keep in mind: long-term and short-term goals.

• Long-term Goals

It's important to set long-term goals, because the short-term goals you set with the student each week will be stepping stones to reach the long-term goals.  It helps if they have a bigger picture in mind.  This could be something like preparing to perform a specific piece on a specific date.  Or long-long-term goals, like studying music in college for the long-long-long term goal of teaching music in a school (depending on the age of the student, they may or may not have these long-long-long-term goals in mind yet, but I mention this because I feel strongly that a very important part of our role as a teacher involves career prep and teaching about options).

• Short-term Goals

The short-term goals would be the practice goals each week which help prepare for the long-term goal.  I like to set a couple different types of practice goals with my students.  One would be the amount of time and frequency of practice, such as 30 minutes a day/6 days this week.  If they reach this goal, they get "Music Bucks", which you can find here.  But I also think it's important to not overemphasize the QUANTITY of time practiced at the expense of the QUALITY of practice.  The other type of short-term goals addresses this, and involves the practice tasks and assignments for the week.

For some reason, if I ask the student to set a goal for how much of the piece they want to memorize by their next lesson, rather than me giving an assignment, the student is much more happy to do it.  It is suddenly the student's idea, and he or she is much more willing and likely to actually do it!  (And to remember to do it!)  So, rather than giving an assignment, I recommend asking the student to set a goal for the piece.  This may require some guidance from you ("Let's set a goal for memorization this week.  How much can you do each day until I see you again?"), but it really is best if the student chooses the goal himself.  Even if the goal is not exactly what you would have chosen for the student, it is more beneficial if the goal is actually accomplished, due to the student having a choice in the matter, rather than you picking the absolute "perfect" goal for the student, which never actually gets done.  This also teaches the student the importance of taking charge of their musical education and they can gain important practice and goal-setting skills for the future when they don't have a teacher or parent guiding them.

So, there are just a few thoughts on goal-setting with students.  Remember to keep the following things in mind about setting goals:

1. Keep the goals realistic.  This allows the student to be successful, which obviously helps with motivation.

2. What: Make the goals specific and measurable.  "Memorize some stuff" is neither specific nor measurable.  "Memorize the first four lines of this piece by memorizing 'on purpose'" (as I call it...instead of memorizing 'on accident' - playing a piece so many times that you feel like you know it from memory...) is both measurable and specific.  It's very obvious whether or not it has been accomplished.

3. When: Set a realistic time line for accomplishment.  "Memorize the first four lines of this piece before my lesson next Thursday."  This creates a deadline, which is important for reevaluation, self-assessment, and future goal setting.

4. How: Help the student outline and understand how the goal will be accomplished.  It does no good to set a goal to memorize a piece "on purpose" if the student has no idea what that means.  Solidifying a specific passage in a piece is really hard to do if you don't help the student understand what types of drills, etc. could be used.

I hope this helps your students to set and reach practice goals.  Let me know if you have other ideas to share!

UPDATE 12/22/13: HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN THE MOST IMPORTANT PART?!?!

5. Follow up, follow up, follow up.  Make those kids accountable.  Trust me, kids learn quickly, and if they see they're not going to have to account for what they've been doing, then they will very VERY quickly just not do it.  If they know you will follow up with them every week without fail, they are much more likely to actually do it.

And finally:
6. Reevaluate and set new goals, adjusting anything where necessary.  As you follow up with the student, you'll both be able to see areas where improvement can happen.  Ask things like "What held you back from being able to do it last week?", and "What can you do differently this week so you can reach your goal?"  You can tweak anything that is not realistic and set new goals for improvement.

I hope this helps.  Let me know any other ideas you have to help your students set and reach goals.

Recital Schmecital, Part 5 - Recognition Certificates for Your Studio Recital

A little affirmation goes a long way!!  Who doesn't like to receive recognition for their achievements from time to time?  What great motivation comes from knowing you've done a great job!  Music students put so much work into preparation for a musical performance, and a little recognition can go a long way.  It can be something as simple as handing out certificates after a recital.  This is something very simple for you to prepare, but it's exciting, especially for young students, to receive an official-looking certificate to say, "well done!"

I've prepared a variety of printable recital certificates for you to use!  You can write in the student's name, the date and place of the performance, and then sign it.  I hope they can bring a smile to your students' faces and that they motivate them to keep on going strong.

Outstanding Performance Award!
This is a colorful recognition certificate, which has a slightly casual feel to it.  







 





 Certificate of Excellence
This recognition certificate has a very formal look.

Bravo! Award
This certificate is less formal and has a fun border of musical notes/symbols.

Bravo! Award in Color
This certificate is like the one directly above, but it is bright and colorful.












What other ideas have you used to congratulate your students on a great performance?

Practice Incentives - Motivate & Reward Students with Printable Music Bucks

Let's face it: not all music students are self-motivated when it comes to practicing.  Sometimes it takes motivation, coercion, incentives, encouragement...  I've used something that seems to work well with students, and so I'd like to share it with you today.  I've also seen it commonly used in other studios, which makes me believe it works for others as well (or they wouldn't be doing it, right?).  So what is this magical practicing motivator?  I'll tell you: Music Bucks!

Here's how it works.  The students record their practice time, and you "pay" them with fake money for it based on the system you set up in your studio, for example, one buck per day practiced.  Students may also earn one for passing off a polished piece, or for performing in group class, etc.  I find it's a direct, visible, tangible, and immediate way of rewarding the students for their efforts, which sometimes translates better than telling them, "If you practice lots and lots, then you'll get really good...someday...eventually."

So what do they do with the "money"?  Every so often, like once a month or every couple of months, you can hold a "store".  The kids get super excited because they know it's store week at their lesson, and they count up their bucks and bring them along.  Then they can "buy" whatever they want from the store.  They love it!

Ideas of things to have in the store: candy (duh!), small toys, stickers, coloring books/art supplies, music paraphernalia (like little notebooks with treble clefs on the cover, a name tag for their instrument case, etc.).  The sky's the limit.  Think: arcade ticket redemption counter, or anything you can find at the dollar store or Oriental Trading Company.  Try to make it fun and have a variety appropriate for the ages you teach.  You set the prices for the items in the store.  If you're needing guidance the first time, take into consideration the average amount of bucks you think your students have earned since you began, and then decide what's reasonable so they can have sufficient rewards, but so one student alone doesn't wipe out your whole store.  Maybe a candy bar is $20, and bigger toys are $50 or $100.  Sometimes kids get LOTS of music bucks, so keep that in mind.

That's it!  It's super fun, and if you change up what you have in the store, it keeps them super interested and motivated.  Sure, it will cost you a little bit to stock your store, but keep in mind that you don't have to do anything elaborate or expensive.  Keep it simple.  Think of it as an investment in your studio, because when students practice, they progress, and when they progress, they enjoy it, and when they enjoy it, they keep coming back, and when they keep coming back, you still have a job. :)

I've created some downloadable Music Bucks Practice Incentives that you are free to use in your own studio.  I'd love to hear how this motivates your students, as well as any other ideas you have to help motivate students to practice.