When you first started teaching, did you ever feel like you needed to share everything you know with your students? Every insight. Every technique. Every shortcut to success. After all, isn’t that what great teachers do - we equip students with all the knowledge we’ve worked to acquire? In this blog, I take a look at a compelling topic for music teacher discussion: What I Wish I’d Known from the Start.
Music teachers may often feel pressure to prove our worth, thinking that the more we share, the more value we offer. When I first started teaching during my university student years, I felt an enormous pressure to share everything I knew with my students. But here’s what I’ve learned since: teaching isn’t about passing on everything I know. Effective teaching involves making choices about WHAT to teach and recognizing that students don’t need to know everything we know.
Of course, there are certain skills and knowledge we want to pass on. That goes without saying. At the same time, we also need to take into consideration what’s meaningful for students. That means successful music teaching is always an interweaving of two vital threads - one from teachers and one from students. It’s about teachers sensing what students need in order us to help them make progress, spark curiosity, and support their journey. What students need most isn’t encyclopedic knowledge or a massive list of musical skills. They need meaningful input and support all throughout out their musical journey.
Like with my student Anna Marie whose musical journey was driven by her desire to explore certain pop songs. She followed a completely different path than my student Jonathan’s passion for “fast and loud” repertoire. They both received a foundation of basics from me without turning them into replications of myself, and they both followed their own distinct paths. My priority is to make sure students feel musically supported with space to grow at their own pace and in their own direction. I trust that "less" can lead to "more" - less control from me can mean more explorations that are personally meaningful for them.
What’s something you wish you’d known when you first started teaching? Something about students? About yourself? About music, or practice, or pedagogy? What comes to mind?
If you’ve got a moment, send me your thoughts. I'm curious to know about your teacher journey.
