Thank you to all who participated in our poll - it is great to see the variety of ways that we teach rhythm to our students!
How do you teach beginning students to count rhythm?
Other Answers & Comments:
1: "ta-ta-half note"
2: "ta-ta-ta-ta or ti-ti"
3: "Gordon method"
4: "I start with the 1-1-1-2, but I move them to 1-2-3-4 as soon as I possibly can, based on when they 'get it.'"
This week we would like to talk about The Over-Scheduled Student and Keeping Teenage Students Interested. Although two different topics, I think that these are very related to one another in that they both fall into the category of Making Piano a Priority in a student's life.
How can teach effectively to help make piano an important part of our students' lives? Are piano lessons fun, exciting and engaging? Are our students progressing enough to keep them loving it? How can we communicate to our students and their parents the importance of consistent practice? What can we do to keep an open line of communication going with the parents to help encourage practice and continued piano study?
I just read a great post on this subject on the "Music for Tots" blog. One thing I loved about this post was that the author talked about weighing the importance of music study as a family and then prioritizing accordingly. So what does that mean to me as a piano teacher? To me it illustrates the importance of educating parents about the importance of music in their child's life and about the importance of effective and consistent practice. It reminds me of my important role in making lessons a positive part in my students' lives, in discovering each student's unique strengths and abilities and in teaching each student in such a way as to help them learn and progress.
Thoughts? Comments? :)
p.s. Don't forget to take our new poll!
Labels: Jenny Boster, Keeping Teenage Students Interested, Making Piano a Priority, Parental Participation, Poll Results, Teaching Rhythm, The Over-Scheduled Student
