I have the privilege of investing in budding young musicians which is one of the more rewarding jobs a musician could have. I love giving private music lessons; seeing that light bulb go on when the stars aline and the "ah-ha!" moment happens. I've developed a teaching philosophy that's changed drastically over the years as I work with students with unique and individual learning styles. It's for this point alone that brings value to private lessons.
I've had over 13 paid, private music instructors which doesn't include producers and professional coaches I've worked with as a career musician. Don't do the math...it's a lot of money. Every teacher was different and had their own niche that made them "special", or the best. I've seen music teachers market their "niche" because they aren't versatile, nor do they ultimately care about the individuality and unique learning style of their students. A full time music teacher needs about 30-40 students to support themselves and it's easier to do the same thing with every students and develop a formula instead of catering to the direct needs of each student. This disappoints me because in my opinion, the value of paying for private instruction is two-fold: first, the information that's being taught, and second most importantly how the information is taught.
Think of it this way, if someone simply wanted to gain information, they could go buy a book on how to play the piano. A private instructor, on the other hand, should be able to make the information palatable and geared to the learning style of the student and more than spoon-feed the information, instill and share a passion for the skill that's being taught. It's the old teach a man to fish - feed him for a lifetime principle.
Within private music education, instead of matching a student's learning style with the correct teacher, I believe teachers should be better equipped and prepared to cater their teaching style to whatever the learning style of their students. A private educator ought to be an expert in their field - it's the point of paying for the education! By definition an expert knows a ton about their field and should be well equipped to help even an advanced student develop their craft.
This brings me to the main point of this post. We've all heard it: focus on your weaknesses because you're already good at your strengths. Musically this translated in my world to my teachers pushing me to sight read and not play by ear. Every teacher I had pushed me to read the music and as soon as they figured out that I simply needed to hear the piece played for me, refused to play for me because it was "handicapping me" from learning how to read music. To this day I struggle to sight read, I can do it, but despite their efforts to force me to sight read by refusing to use my strength, I don't really have a proficient ability to show for it.
All of my students have strengths and weaknesses and I've noticed a much more positive and effective way to help students with their weaknesses. Strengthen their strengths and find more creative ways to teach them their weaknesses. Often times a student's strengths will be strong enough to spill over to their weaknesses without us even having to focus on them resulting in the student teaching themselves.
Had my teachers done this for me growing up I would have spent more time developing and honing my ear and would have worked on developing my improvisation skills. Most of my teachers before college thought that the art of improv was simply an ability to make songs up without sheet music. When I got to college and had years of classes in ear training and improv I realized how much my teachers didn't know, or knew and didn't teach me. Instead of learning chord progression, structure and analysis in private lessons I was practicing sight reading which would have been awesome had I been a ballet accompanist, but my natural abilities and strengths don't make me an ideal candidate for this kind of job in the first place.
All this to say, one of my biggest priorities within private lessons is to help a student determine a direction for them based on their interests, passions and strengths. My job is to expose my students to opportunities and directions music could take them and widen their perspective. Within that, spend time developing and encouraging their strengths. As a career musician I am passionate and excited about music which should be contagious! If I can instill a passion and a desire to learn, a student will begin to teach themselves. If I simply feed information, a student will naturally learn the information and retain it long enough to regurgitate it to get me off their back! This isn't true and valuable learning!
I think these are principles that can be applied to our lives regardless of our craft, whether it be a mathematician, scientist, construction worker, or even a mother. Becoming self-aware is an important step and determining where we are in our walks with the Lord, where we need to be spending our time, and how we can grow and develop! We all should desire to be growing and getting better, regardless of what it is that we do!
Thanks for reading my novel!
Prof. Collin
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