Imagine that you were given a task at work: you must record a short piece of music for tomorrow.
You have a few hours left at the office, during which your employer emails you every fifteen minutes, asking you to complete your task. He texts and calls you. He comes over to your desk and says, “Have you done your recording yet?” You want to speak but you can only do so when being called on after raising your hand. You raise your hand, and he says “… Yes?” You say, “I’m sorry, but I haven’t done the recording yet. I wanted to get to some other work first.” He responds angrily that that was not the answer he wanted to hear. He reminds you to get it done tonight, or you will fail. He eventually lets you go home to your family. When you arrive at home, your parents are there, and they say, “Do you have a work assignment to do?” When you say yes, they say that you must do that before anything else. You wanted to get some fresh air while it’s still light out, but your parents insist that you stay in to finish your work assignment. Other family members are begging you: “Please, can you just do this recording? We’ll all feel better when you get it done.” At this point, you are regretting having this assignment, having this boss, and having this job. You are not interested in doing this recording at all, let alone doing it well.
Does this scenario make you feel uncomfortable? It makes me feel uncomfortable. Yet, as an adult, it is easy to forget that many days in children’s lives can look very similar to the above paragraph. In our culture, children are often not trusted to do things on their own and in their own time. In our culture, teachers and parents are often compelled to become nags. At school, the teacher nags the child to focus, to do the assignment, to stop talking, to raise his hand when he has questions, and to ask permission for everything including to use the washroom. The child is sent home with homework assignments and report cards, triggering pressured and stressed parents to continue the nagging at home, and the cycle continues. As a piano teacher, I have thought hard about whether I want to participate in this framework of mistrust and cyclical nagging. While some might believe that this framework is the only way that children can learn, I don’t. Nobody, at any age, can do anything well when he or she is nagged, pressured, rushed, bullied, and silenced, and nor does anybody want to.
All people learn best and do their best work when they are trusted and allowed to practice independence. I believe our goal as teachers is to teach so well that our students don’t need us anymore. We can meet that goal by seeking ways to foster independent learning, so that our students have the tools to lead their own development. In my opinion, the first step to encourage this independence in our students is to show them that we trust them. In this article, I outline Five School Supplies of Trustful Teaching, to help you encourage your students’ independent learning so that they have the ability, confidence, and motivation to teach themselves.
School Supply #1: The Frontal Lobe
The largest lobe of the brain, the frontal lobe, controls decision-making. This is an essential school supply, and one that teachers can encourage students to use both in lessons and during the week. To encourage students to use the frontal lobe, a teacher must create opportunities for students to make significant choices related to their piano playing. These choices could include which pieces they want to play, what they want to focus on in the lesson, at what tempo they want to play a piece, and even whether they want to sit grumpily at the piano for the entire lesson. When trusted to make choices, students are granted greater agency, and this agency can foster more motivation for independent learning. Hint: With young children, rather than offering open ended choices, such as “What do you want to start with?” Provide options: “Do you want to start with rhythms or technique?” or “Do you want to focus on pedaling or dynamics?” or “Do you want to play this piece fast or slow?” Warning: To truly show students that you trust them enough to make their own choices, you must allow them to even when you think a better choice could be made. The student’s choice reflects what they currently want to explore, and they will learn from having made that choice. These choices don’t have to remain for eternity; they can easily be changed the following week!
School Supply #2: The Voice
The voice is an essential, and all-too-often stifled school supply. As most adults know from experience, verbal exploration of new ideas, challenges, and difficulties is a key factor in one’s growth. It is important to allow students to employ this school supply often, and it is okay, too, for there to be moments in which each voice is silent. Perhaps it is most trustful to allow students to even talk for a minute or two off-topic. I have had students blurt out a spontaneous and off-topic story, only to simply turn back to their music and play without being asked. Sometimes students just need to get something off their chest and reset! When students are trusted to share the vocal space, they are granted the ability to verbally participate in their own learning, and this participation is key for the engagement required in independent, self-led learning. Hint: The “how do you know?” question is foolproof for creating independent learners; if they can verbally communicate their method back to you, they can certainly do so for themselves. For example, you might ask, “How do you know which note to start on? How do you know what we are counting to?” It is often more productive to have students teach themselves where to find the information than for us to simply teach our students what to do. Warning: To encourage the proper use of this school supply, teachers must model its appropriate use by asking questions and listening to the answers. Teachers must also model its appropriate use by moderating their own emotions and frustration, as well as by sharing the vocal space with those in the room.
School Supply #3: The Legs
The legs are a vital school supply, and unfortunately, much leg use during school days is done so without trust. Children walk in single file lines led by a teacher between classes, or they might walk with a chaperone to the office or the library. They run on the playground or in the gym under close supervision and scrutiny. Trustful music teachers can make good use of this school supply by not immediately rushing to have children sit down, and by allowing children to dance or walk for a minute or two if needed. As with adults, walking can calm children down and provide them with a change of scenery that refreshes their engagement. Hint: Getting up from the piano bench and coming back is an essential part of at-home practice, where distractions are all around. If you notice a student is fidgety in the lesson, you could ask him or her to walk to the shelf to get a book, pencil, or piece of paper. You might ask him if he would be willing to go get the Kleenex box from the bathroom for you. Walking away from and back to the piano bench independently is essential for at-home practice. Warning: You might fear that they will never sit down again. Be strong!
School Supply #4: The Pencil
Writing, drawing, and mark-making are key modes of independent learning and teaching. With trustful teaching, teachers can let their students use the pencils themselves. Students can do their own circling of finger numbers, dynamics, clef changes, time signatures, and more. Teachers can allow their students to draw on their music pages. And, perhaps most importantly, teachers can allow students to take their own notes in their dictation books. Even young children can write some words in their dictation books, such as “play” and “count.” We can certainly fill in the rest! Hint: As your student is writing in his dictation book, ask him to think of three things that he could work on with his piece (for example, counting, saying note names out loud, and practicing hands together). I only spell words for my students if they ask me. Warning: This will take a few extra minutes in the lesson, and the final product won’t look perfect. However, it might just be worth the extra time; I have found that, when my students contribute to their own notes, they remember what was written more clearly, and they look at their notebooks more frequently during the week.
School Supply #5: The Responsibility
Gifting students with the responsibility for their own development, including for their practicing, can be scary, but it is essential. As teachers, we can help our students devise plans for practicing, learn new and effective ways to practice, and work through difficult times when practicing seems impossible. However, it is often easy to let our pride or shame be tied to our students’ development; when this happens, our push for practicing can become ineffective and even harmful to our students’ love of learning and love of music. In the long term, it is agency, responsibility, and independent practicing ability that will keep bringing our students to back to their instrument. These can be developed when we trust our students to truly take responsibility for their learning. Hint: Announce the shift of responsibility. “This month, I am not going to ask you to practice. Do you think you can practice without being asked this month?” You could even alternate weeks! Check in at the start of each week: “Were you able to get to the piano this week? What might make it easier this coming week?” Warning: Parents may not be on board with this approach. See if you can bring parents in: “This month, Jane has the challenge of independent practicing. She is going to see if she can practice without being asked!”
Independent learning is essential for our students’ continued love and joy of learning, and for our students’ sustained relationship with music. Independent learning can be fostered through trustful teaching techniques. These Five School Supplies for Independent Learning might push and stretch us teachers to let go, to trust our students more, and to offer our students more and more independence. These tools might just give our students the space, the agency, the confidence, and the responsibility needed for them to learn on their own, whether today, tomorrow, or twenty years from now.
Written by Bronwyn Schuman, Founder of Music Theory Playground™ (Originally written for ARMTA in 2022)