Fitting all in

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Everything About Teaching and Learning the Piano : One Thread

I am a new young piano teacher who has just completed my Certificate In Music Teaching Course. In this course, I have learnt that,"an effective lesson should includes all elements from Technical Work, Aural Training, Sight Reading, Repertoire ( revision & new ), general knowledge/theory/written work. I have been tried to implement this into my teaching BUT how can I fit all these into a 45 minutes lesson ? Do you listen to all the old pieces or just let it go, even though there are still room for improvements in some of the pieces? I aim to set high standards from the start in all my students, but at the same time I want my students to enjoy my lessons - learning new pieces at every lesson ( possibly ). Most of them could play a new piece "alright"( 75%) in the following lesson and of course I wil still polish it up (* maybe add dynamics or careful articulation and etc.. ). Once they could play me the piece ( although only 75% satisfactory - in terms of notes, fingerings, rhythm, tone, touch, technique, dynamics and the overall music), I will then move on to teach them a new piece. However, deep in me, I still want the old piece to be played perfectly. If I drill too much to perfect it, I will spend too much time & the child will not enjoy the lesson. Please help, and let me know how do you structure your lessons and do you let things slip off ?

-- Kathy Kok (kathy.kok@danielspc.com.au), November 05, 2002

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