Better Practice Blog- Are You Using The Most Effective Learning Technique?
Are You Using The Most Effective Learning Technique?
One of the most effective and natural ways kids learn is through modeling. We’ll explore how we can incorporate modeling into teaching music - not just as a teaching tool for playing, but also to motivate and build great habits. This is a very general (but effective!) method that can be applied in many areas of life - whether you are a parent trying to help your kids learn good habits or a teacher trying to teach good technique.
The easiest way to understand modeling, I think, is by watching siblings. One sibling jumps on the couch and gets in trouble for it. The other saw all of this happen. He learned, through modeling (and not actually doing any of the actions himself), to not jump on couches. Or, maybe a sibling helps set the table for dinner and gets a little extra dessert for doing so. The other sibling now understands that helping his parents might get him some extra dessert also.
The definition of modeling as a learning strategy is “learning from observing and imitating role models, and learning about rewards and punishments that follow behavior”. So, how can we use modeling in teaching music?
First off, there are many types of modeling. It could be:
- live (for example, having your student imitate your technique in the lesson)
- symbolic (imitating photos, videos, or TV)
- covert (visualizing a model’s response to a situation and imitating that. So, if they admire the personality of an artist, they may think, “What would he/she do in this situation?” or “How would he/she play this?”)
Ways to use Modeling
Teachers, you probably already use modeling every day in your lessons. You model for them when you show them how to hold their wrists, or when you show them how to play a section “more like this”. Parents/students may record your lessons so they can bring the model home. It’s pretty self-explanatory that this is a quick and efficient method of explaining playing-related things. But modeling can be much more powerful than that, and can be used just as often in the home as well as the studio.
Be someone students want to imitate
- Have a “Currently Learning” board up in your studio. This keeps you on your toes with your own practicing and students can see what to aim for as they get better! Students often don’t know that teachers are always learning, too. It puts us in the same boat as them, making it more likely they will want to use us as a model.
- Invite your students to your gigs and/or have a photo of you performing in your studio. It shows them a possible end goal (a working musician) and the fact that you are a performer (and not just their Thursday guitar teacher) makes you a good model to follow also.
Inspire and Motivate
- You should be playing for your students often. They can learn a whole lot from and be inspired by seeing and hearing a professional play their piece up close.
- Watching videos of musicians is a great way to learn at home. Parents, always be helping your child find inspiration online! It can be videos of their favorite artists performing, or a child around their age with a higher skill level.
- Bring kids to concerts! My piano teacher would take me and a couple other students to see concerts, and my mom would take me to see concerts often as well. I got to see, for the first time, people enjoying playing music (instead of me just practicing the same line over and over) and performing it as their job!
Patience
- Sometimes it’s hard to want to continue learning music when you're stuck in a rut and practice is frustrating! Talk about your experiences when you struggled to learn something (maybe the same thing the student is struggling on) and what you learned from it. Show them the light at the end of the tunnel and model good behaviors to use!
- Maybe you’ve hit a roadblock yourself. Maybe you just had a bad gig. You can talk about it and talk about how you handled it (assuming you handled it well!). This humanizes you and teaches students what to do if they ever find themselves in a similar sticky situation.