Learning and Encouragement with Children

It is very important to establish your role as the teacher, and the relationship that you want with your pupil in order to get the best out of them. For some children, being their friend, but also authoritative towards them, made them look forward to the lesson and want to please and improve. With others, a more strict and regimental approach was needed: this method usually involved the attitude that you are not there to teach for your enjoyment, and that there is very little time in the lesson that their parents hard earned cash is paying for, for idle chit chat that children can amuse themselves with endlessly. Finding a happy-medium where the child is interested, enthusiastic, attentive but not bored and frustrated, and where the parent is happy that the child is learning at a pace they are comfortable with can be hard to achieve, but once a bond and a routine within the lessons has developed this should settle into place.

Everything should be done to encourage and reinforce all good behaviour, If a child looks forward to their lesson, if they are positively reinforced and rewarded for all their good work, then this goes hand in hand with general good marks and exam passes. Talking to a child about their day but making sure they don't waste time talking throughout the lesson, making sure they play the music that they want to play without letting them solely play their choice and ensuring they still learn scales and arpeggios, and applying pressure for them to perform to a certain standard whilst always allowing a little extra time to play duets... this is a winning formula all round. It takes time to develop a relationship with each student, and once a routine is set and the rules are inderstood, then it makes for very pleasurable and rewarding lessons.

I first became a teacher by chance: I was doing my music degree and whilst back at home some family friends were looking for a saxophone teacher for their son. I agreed, and went to the first lesson without at all knowing what to expect. I had relatively no experience with children, and even less at teaching. I taught the basics at a slow pace, making each aspect of reading and understanding music simple, effective and most importantly... interesting. Most children have a short attention span, and were in some direct or indirect way gently pushed to pursue taking up instrumental lessons. If their interest was held and they interacted as much as possible within the time constraints of the lesson, then they were more likely to improve at a good pace.

Teaching children can be very rewarding and invigorating, but it can also be hard for someone who has no children of their own, or who has little experience with working with youngsters.  Patience is paramount for everyone, especially for children. Everything should be explained in a simple easy way for them to understand, being frustrated only makes things worse. There is no such thing as 'not being musical' admittedly some children are evidently very musical, and others seem to pick up things a lot slower. But that's the challenge of the job. If it takes a year to play Twinkle Twinkle...then so be it. If something isn't understood then rephrase, relate, try to explain it differently. If playing an instrument isn't fun then the pupil is more likely to quit, if it isn't simply explained then it's frustrating. Having a comprehensive knowledge of your instruments, and also a wide selection of music of all styles and levels of difficulty really help combating the primary reasons for problems: the instrument doesn't work...and 'I don't like my pieces'. Remember, some children will try to pull as fast one to get out of a lesson, or to deviate from the fact that they haven't practiced. If you can cover all bases then you're one step ahead. Take a spare instrument, theory questions, fun aural or musicianship books.

There is no rule for one child that can be applied to another. Working at their pace whilst giving an encouraging push every now and then is a good compromise. Never ask too much of them that they become irritated, nor repeat the same piece again and again to get it right, finding a similar piece to work on the particular problems usually helps. To be a good judge of character and show self initiative as a teacher will encourage positivity within relationships as teacher and student.

I hope this can be of good use to anyone teaching a child an instrument - Good Luck !