Reply To: Teaching Private Lessons

[nafmeadmin]

Hello,

I think that when teaching that first lesson, especially to younger children, it’s about making them feel welcome in the lesson and making them want to be excited about singing or playing the instrument. When I have a student, that first lesson is used to get an idea of what they know already and what you need to teach them. For younger students, it might be that you have to teach them about music itself first, and then move on to singing when they have more general musical knowledge. I think the most important part of a private lesson is to let them do something at the end of the lesson that they want to do, that way they have some fun and feel like they are getting what they want out of the lesson as well as learning what you want them to learn. That’s my main advice to people who are giving first lessons at least.

Mark Miller, music education student at Kent State University