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26 Posts
Hey all,
I've seen a lot of threads riffing about 'what do I teach?' and can understand the the theory that a teacher should already know what to teach, BUT I'm still a relative newbie, and whilst I've been getting good feedback from pupils, I'd like to keep improving my teaching technique.
I was hoping for some of your thoughts on the steps to getting a beginner to a competent stage. I'm a structured person by nature and although no lesson ever goes to plan, I'd like to get some help with setting up a long term plan for my lessons.
At the moment mine goes like this (Obviously not one lessons worth!):
All this is depending on the level of the pupil when they come to me. One is set on performing with bands, so I'm focusing on performance etiquette sight reading and improvising, trying to get his confidence up by trading licks with him and then copying each others licks built from 3 or less notes. But others just want a relaxed hobby! (Someone should have told them learning music ain't relaxing eh?)
Does this sound ok to you? They seem to enjoy it and are definitely improving, but I don't want to be missing out any fundamentals and would like to see what you other guys consider to be important and what order you'd teach them!
Anything replies appreciated, figured it would be nice to get a tips and tricks for teachers thread going!
Peace and tooting,
D.
I've seen a lot of threads riffing about 'what do I teach?' and can understand the the theory that a teacher should already know what to teach, BUT I'm still a relative newbie, and whilst I've been getting good feedback from pupils, I'd like to keep improving my teaching technique.
I was hoping for some of your thoughts on the steps to getting a beginner to a competent stage. I'm a structured person by nature and although no lesson ever goes to plan, I'd like to get some help with setting up a long term plan for my lessons.
At the moment mine goes like this (Obviously not one lessons worth!):
- Setting up the sax
- Posture and breathing
- Getting a sound from the mouthpiece
- Getting a sound from the sax
- Long tones around low E gradually expanding on these as their note knowledge grows.
- Getting used to tonguing
- Learning the notes of C Major
- Learning basic music theory
- Simple studies, pieces and duets
- Expanding note knowledge with scales
- Basic improvisation, first on pentatonics and then blues
- Then gradually advancing all of the above as they do....
All this is depending on the level of the pupil when they come to me. One is set on performing with bands, so I'm focusing on performance etiquette sight reading and improvising, trying to get his confidence up by trading licks with him and then copying each others licks built from 3 or less notes. But others just want a relaxed hobby! (Someone should have told them learning music ain't relaxing eh?)
Does this sound ok to you? They seem to enjoy it and are definitely improving, but I don't want to be missing out any fundamentals and would like to see what you other guys consider to be important and what order you'd teach them!
Anything replies appreciated, figured it would be nice to get a tips and tricks for teachers thread going!
Peace and tooting,
D.