If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else" - Yogi Berra
After a childhood of going to my aunt and uncle's house for the holidays, my parents took a vacation left me and my brother home alone for the holidays. My aunt and uncle had reached out via e-mail to invite us over, which I readily agreed to.
However, a few minutes before I left, I realized I had a problem. I didn't know their address. I didn't know their phone number. And I had never driven there before.
Undeterred, I hoped for the best, hopped in the car, and took off. The first turn out of the driveway was easy. And, as I drove along, each intersection was familiar. Turn-by-turn, I made my way to a holiday dinner with my extended famliy. While I knew I had never driven myself there before, I was never worried or concerned that I had gotten lost.
I knew the way there without knowing how to get there. Just like my students.
You see, one of the most important parts of my student's success (and an idea you can use no matter where you take lessons) is that, every day, they listen to recordings of the all the pieces we'll be working on over the next 3-6 months. Just like riding in the car with my mom and dad, my students learn "the way" the music goes.
Students can focus on the physicality of learning how to play a piece. And they can avoid the incredible confusion of trying to learn how a piece goes while making the mistakes that always come with learning how to accurately physically execute a piece.
By offloading the teaching of how a piece goes to a simple recording, teachers can focus their efforts on where they can be most beneficial. Teaching students the physical skills needed to play something that the student already knows.
Learning the pieces by listening daily also allows parents and teachers to focus on helping kids develop a major life skill: Managing the frustrations that arise when presented with new challenges.
Here's an example of what listening makes possible: Most students regress over the summer due to two to three missed lessons and practice weeks caused by vacation. One student, who listened to the recording daily on the way to and form school, learned 5 songs over the course of 11 weeks without any guitar lessons. And he only stopped because the next song required new notes I hadn't taught him yet!
Instead of spending September rebuilding things he forgot, we spent September making technical adjustments to things he already figured out. His pride and motivation went through the roof.
