Planning for effective teaching in instrumental music lessons
By Saul Richardson, Principal at Jazz Workshop Australia.
This article suggests that by planning individual, sequenced instruction for each of your students, you can become a dramatically more successful music teacher. The examples used are all related to teaching jazz. because that is what I do. You can apply planning to any kind of teaching, just as professional teachers do the world over.
Planning what and how you are going to teach is a powerful tool for improving your students' results. I use planning in my own lessons and in the improvisation workshops I regulary run for young people in Sydney. Not only does it make my job as a private music teacher easier, it helps motivate my students and keeps them coming back for more lessons.
A powerful technique is to plan units of work for your students. A unit of work is a series of teaching and learning activities based around a concept or skill. It introduces the concept/skill and then takes the student through a planned sequence of activities designed to help them learn and practice it. I use planning in my own lessons and in the improvisation workshops I regularly run for young people.
Ask five basic questions:
1. What do I want the student to achieve at the end of this unit of work?
2. What skills or concepts does it involve?
3. In what order will it be best to work through these skill or concepts?
4. What activities can I work through with the student to help him or her develop each skill or concept?
5. How will I know at the end that they have learnt the skill or concept?
You might want to estimate the amount of time you will set aside for each activity. Then you can teach the material, in the order that you planned.
Here is an example of a unit of work:
Goal: The student will be able to confidently improvise in a jazz style over a min7 chord using a Dorian scale.
They will play with a strong tone, will incorporate phrases of various lengths into their playing, and will use a variety of rhythms.
Concepts:
● Fingering for the dorian mode in several, if not all keys
● It is a distinctive pattern of sounds
● Phrases are relatively self-contained ideas, like a sentence.
● Phrases come in different lengths
● Jazz musicians use a variety of different rhythms when they improvise
● Always play with a good, strong tone (unless you are deliberately trying to achieve some special effect)
Sequencing:
For this unit of work
1. The dorian scale is a distinctive pattern of sounds
2. Fingering
3. Rhythmic variety
4. Phrasing
Tone is an ongoing concept taught from the very beginning and constantly reinforced through every activity we take the student through.
Some possible teaching/learning activities:
These could go over three thirty-minute lessons. Some students will need more or less time.
Lesson 1: Activities 1 – 3.
Lesson 2: Revision and then activities 3 – 4
Lesson 3: Revision and then activity 4 in more detail.
1. Student listens to part of Miles Davis's So What. The piece, particularly during Davis's solo, is an exploration of the sound of the scale against a single chord. Maybe play another recorded tune. Demonstrate on your own instrument.
2. Teach the student how to play the scale, preferably in more than one key. If they are a very inexperienced player, it may be slow and halting at first. That doesn't matter: everything they play will be like that at first, but it will improve over time.
3. Ask the student to improvise using only crotchets; then only minims; then only quavers; then triplets; etc. Then have them solo using different combinations of rhythms. Point out that jazz players tend to use mostly quavers when they improvise. Use mostly quavers, but some other rhythms as a contrast. If there is no rhythmic contrast, the solo is likely to become boring. (This assumes you have already taught the student what improvisation is and how to start doing it, in a previous lesson. Otherwise you would need to do that first.)
4. Explain that phrases in music can be long, medium of short in length. Jazz musicians use a variety of phrase lengths to create variety in their improvisations. Have the student play for one bar, then rest for one bar. This is a one bar phrase. Repeat with other lengths of phrase and other lengths of silence between phrases. Aim to have the student improvise using a variety of different phrase lengths. Then have them incorporate rhythmic variety, etc.
This could complete a basic introduction to the dorian mode for a beginning improviser. The next step might be to teach them a tune using the dorian, perhaps So What, but there are many others. Chameleon, by Herbie Hancock is another one they often enjoy where they can use an all-dorian solo.
It might be a good idea then to move on to something new. Keeping things moving keeps the lessons fresh and interesting for the student. Revisit the dorian mode again later to introduce further concepts and to improve their performance with it.
Extension activities with the dorian mode in this example might be: melodic development; using and transposing motifs; solo structure; rhythmic displacement; repetition; side-stepping. Whatever you do, keep it appropriate to the age and stage of the student.
Some points to remember and mistakes to avoid:
No student is going to sound like a professional player right away. At first they usually sound pretty juvenile. But they improve, over a long time. Just like you did. One of the most absurd mistakes a teacher can make is to drill a basic concept or skill to death thinking that if the student doesn't sound like a professional, they haven't learnt it. Just because they don't sound like you yet does not mean they haven't learnt it. Check that they understand it, and then move on. They will probably take as long as you did to start sounding good.
Do not expect perfection from a student. That isn't realistic. Expect approximation, then consolidation and improvement and, finally, mastery. This can take weeks, months, or years. Get the student sounding close to what you want, or better than they were, and then move on. Come back to it later if needs be.
It is vital to plan what you are doing with each student. It makes your teaching effective and efficient, far more so than unplanned lessons. It also helps keep students motivated and coming back for more.
Many teachers make the grave mistake of simply making up their lessons as they go along. Maybe even just do the same thing with every student on a given day, and then the next week, do something else quite unrelated. This ad hoc approach is about the least efficient way to teach. Don't just do the first thing that comes into your head: plan individual sequenced instruction for each student.
Use planning
Planning is a powerful tool for ensuring that your teaching is effective and efficient. The better you plan, the better your students will perform and the more they will achieve. This is good for them and for you. When your students do well, they keep paying for lessons, they attend regularly, they practice, and they are motivated. Word spreads quickly about who is a good teacher and who is slack.
Unleash the power of planning to make your teaching more satisfying and financially rewarding.
Glossary of some important educational terms
Approximation
A student moves in the direction of a skill or understanding, or comes close to it. It is the first stage in trying to use a skill.
Assessment
Checking that our teaching has been effective.
Consolidation
Where a student exhibits a rough, unformed but recognisable version of a skill or understanding. This takes place during the middle of the learning process.
Generalisation
Where a student can independently apply a skill or understanding to any situation. This is one of the ultimate goals of education and one of the highest states of understanding.
Mastery
Where a student can effectively use a skill or understanding. It comes at the end of the learning process
Pacing
The rate at which we work through a sequence of activities
Sequencing
The order in which we present a series of teaching and learning activities
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