A different approach to music lessons
I love being a music therapist, but my first love was teaching. Actually, a lot of music therapists start out as music educators; those who go on to train in music therapy seem to end up with an approach to teaching that’s a little more informed by whole-person wellness.
Personally, discovering and creating a new way of approaching music lessons has been exciting and fulfilling. I love teaching even more than I did before and could talk about it for hours. Today, though, I’ll just share five things you should expect from me if I am your music teacher:
I care deeply about the wellbeing of my students as individual people. This level of care and respect does not have anything to do with or correlate with how much they practice or their level of skill.
I prioritize process over product. This is two-fold: Firstly, sometimes the most effective learning comes from experiences that don’t translate to performance. Secondly, not everyone’s goal is to be really good at playing a song. For some people the most important thing I can do for them is to help them develop an understanding and appreciation of music that just enriches their lives.
I value enjoyment and fun within learning. I could go into educational theory on this, but simply the number of parents who have told me they wished they hadn’t quit piano but they hated it because the music was boring or the teacher was mean, is reason enough.
I walk beside my students as long as they need me into a level of challenge that leads to growth and leads to believing that they can do hard things.
I’m still learning and I may let you know that I’ve made a mistake or need to make some changes. For example, recently I’ve been learning more about neurodiversity-inclusive practices and have made adjustments to lesson structures that weren’t serving the cognitive thresholds of a couple of my clients.
At Wildwood, we specialize in music lessons for kids, lessons for adult beginners, and lessons for folks with disabilities. While all our teachers may have individual approaches, we all agree that our students deserve to learn in the way that works best for them and serves their life goals. Reach out if you want to talk about your musical goals!