Posted by Teacher on July 24, 2002 at 11:13:36:
In Reply to: Your First Time Teaching Lessons posted by MG on July 23, 2002 at 22:13:24:
Man paul Scott said a lot, and I totally agree.
Some other points.
1. Have high expectations, students will jump through your hoops
2. Ultimately your job is to help them become their own best teacher
3. Give them as many tools to learn, and play well as you possible can (even the one's that didn't work for you)
4. Read about good teachers, ask older better teachers for help when you need it, and be a good student yourself. LEARN as much as you can!
5. When a student plays terrible, start off your comments with the one thing they did well. We all to often focus on the negative, and students
get real nervous about playing. Everytime a students plays they do something right. A little sugar helps the medicine go down.
6. Have students focus on what they can do, not what they shouldn't do. This one takes some explaining.
Example: Don't think about the color blue. Ha you did!!! Don't think about water Ha got you again!!!
If you tell a student what not to do they still have to think about something negative to not do it. You can't not think of something so give them
something very positive to think of. Good posture, good air flow, good tone, Vs. Don't slouch, don't use thin air, don't get that leak in your lips.
7. Be human, be understanding, teach them the way you always wanted to be taught
A good starting place is with tone, and moving a large amount of air with no tension in the body. Without good tone what is there to playing the tuba?
Nice thread for a change