February 22, 2025: Saturday Remix
Teachers and Staff: Happy Saturday!
Teaching Strategies: Slowing Down
One of the most important things we can do as teachers in music lessons to help students learn and develop musical skills is to slow down.
When students struggle to learn, or to develop a skill, there are almost always several factors at play. As part of our music studio philosophy, we assert that if a music student is not learning or developing skills, here are the places we should look for answers:
Are we going too fast?
Have we adequately assessed prior knowledge?
Have we properly sequenced instruction?
Have we appropriately chunked the learning and practice?
Is there a meaningful context to the learning?
Is the content or skill relevant to this student?
Is it all just tedious work, or does the learning and practice bring satisfaction, joy, and short-term rewards to this student?
Today, I’ll discuss slowing down.
As teachers, we often go too fast. In all ways. We talk too fast. We sing too fast. We demonstrate too fast. We show examples of others doing things too fast. We go to the next step too quickly. We ask them to play too fast. We count too fast. We set the metronome too fast, too soon. (P.S., side note: only advanced students should be using metronomes - not beginners.)
If teachers want to see improvement in progress, the first thing to do is to slow down. Slow everything down. Way down. Way, way, down.
Examples of slowing things w a y , w a y d o w n:
Play scales, counting to 4 for every note. (C-2-3-4 D-2-3-4, E-2-3-4, F-2-3-4, G-2-3-4, A-2-3-4 B-2-3-4 C-2-3-4.)
Think of the music as half notes and quarter notes, or even whole notes and half notes, rather than quarter notes and eighth notes.
Think, “Hot 2 3 4, Cross 2 3 4, Buns 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4; Hot 2 3 4, Cross 2 3 4, Buns 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4; One 2 a 4, pen 2 ny 4, Two 2 a 4, pen 2 ny 4; Hot 2 3 4, Cross 2 3 4, Buns 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.
Instead of, “Hot Cross Buns 4, Hot Cross Buns 4, One-a pen-ny two-a pen-ny, Hot Cross Buns 4.
Teach a concept and then discuss the concept, including getting verbal feedback from the student, before expanding on the concept or putting it into practice. Don’t just talk and then move on. Listen to the student. Ask them to talk about what they know about what you just told them. Don’t go on to the next step until this step is truly understood or mastered.
Speak more deliberately. Enunciate in order to be more clear and also slow down. Pause more between phrases and sentences. Take slightly longer rests/breaks between activities in a lesson, relax the pace a little.
Use “Wait Time” strategies and practices. Wait Time refers to two specific practices where instructors deliberately pause. First, Wait Time 1 constitutes a 3-5+ second pause between asking a question and soliciting an answer. Second, Wait Time 2 is a 3-5+ second pause after a student response. (Do they have more to say?)
Many students benefit from much longer wait times, even as long as 30 seconds or more before they are ready to answer a question. Too many teachers quickly answer for a student, cut them off prematurely, or make them feel bad for not answering fast enough -- before the student has sufficient time to think, recall, remember, form thoughts, words, and sentences, and speak.
Here is a backing track demonstrating how slowly a beginner music student should practice scales. And this can be applied to all activities at all levels. (Slow practice is a useful skill for even the most advanced students and professional musicians.)
Piano Lesson 012a: C Major and A Minor Scales (Backing Track) Presto! It's Piano Magic
Theme Recital Update (Friday, March 14, 2025)
The 5:45p recital has filled up! We still have spots available in the 4:30p recital.
Please look out for emails showing students who are performing, and let me know their repertoire. Please work with them to prepare for the recital, including playing from memory to the extent possible, and performance practice (such as bowing).
—
Q. Can parents sit in on their child’s music lessons?
A. Yes, we have an open-door policy for private individual lessons: parents can sit in if they wish. However, if you suspect that a student would benefit from having more autonomy in lessons, please let me know. I can discuss it with the parents.
Note: Parents should not sit in on small group lessons, especially if there are multiple students in the class, and students in the class who are not their children.
—
Thank you, everyone, for all that you do!
Have a magical Saturday, a musical weekend, and a safe and healthy coming week.
Thank you,
Dennis Frayne
"Dr. Dennis"
Laguna Niguel School of Music
Dennis Frayne Music Studios
30110 Crown Valley Pkwy, Suites 105/107/108
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 844-9051 (office cell)
(949) 468-8040 (personal cell)
www.lagunaniguelschoolofmusic.com
Piano Lessons | Voice Lessons | Music Lessons
Music is... Creative, Thoughtful, Fun, & Rewarding!