March 22, 2025: Saturday Remix
Teachers and Staff: Happy Saturday!
Teaching Strategies: Meaningful Context to the Learning
Another important thing we can do as teachers in music lessons to help students learn and develop musical skills is to provide a meaningful context to the learning.
When students struggle to learn, or to develop a skill, there are almost always several factors at play. As part of our studio philosophy, we assert that if a 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 providing a meaningful context to the learning.
Context means “the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.
It is very difficult to understand or see something out of context, or when there is no discernable context.
Have you ever come across a person at the market whom you normally see in a different setting, such as at work or school, and you did not immediately recognize them? Perhaps you had to think really hard for a some amount of time before it finally dawned on you who they were.
This is because you were seeing the person in a different context from the usual one. Recognition became difficult, whereas it would have been very easy in the more familiar context.
Teaching things out of context, or with no context, significantly increases the difficulty of learning. And, sometimes we present things in multiple contexts, and struggle to understand why the student understands sometimes, but not at other times.
One example involves learning note reading. Often students will be able to name notes more easily when using flash cards or a teaching aid such as the Grand Staff Assistant, but then really struggle to recognize those same notes on the music sheet or score. This may have something to do with context. In some cases, the student may not fully understand that the grand staff in the score is the same thing as it is on the teaching aid. Even if they do, the context may feel so different that the patterns don’t seem the same.
Another example might be the student’s home instrument and practice environment versus their school instrument and learning environment. This can also happen when we perform on different instruments at different venues. I have experienced, and I have heard other pianists experience, that sometimes it is difficult to get one’s bearings on an unfamiliar piano. The keyboard looks different, even though it really is not. Nerves play a role, of course, but so does context.
Difficulty in sight reading music can arise when presented with the same music, fundamentally, but with some slight contextual difference. For example, a section that repeats, but the measures are smaller the second time, or start and end in different positions on the page. Or the same music, but on different book pages (the left hand page of the book versus the right hand page of the book). Or the same music notes, but printed with different lyrics. A slight change in overall context can alter the ease of reading the exact same music.
Historical and cultural context are often important. When we teachers hear, “Mozart,” we automatically associate all kinds of familiar contextual information with the name. Time period, people, clothing and dress, buildings, landscapes, perhaps monarchs, castles, churches, religious symbology, moods, styles, other related music, perhaps our own experiences, and more. A student may have none of this context at all. They may wonder if Mozart is a contemporary of Brittany Spears, or if he was Albert Einstein’s teacher, or a Pilgrim.
If you begin to talk about Mozart’s history and culture, you might mention Europe, Austria (Australia?), Italy, the Catholic Church (the Vatican or the one down the street?), the Renaissance, Western civilization (like Country/Western music?), harpsichords, opera… and all of these things may have no meaning, or incorrect meaning, to the student. If Mozart is important, it may be worth establishing context and meaning for all of these things, too, and teaching about Mozart in a more meaningful way.
If you discuss Beethoven, it might be a while before you realize that for a long time your student thought you were talking about the dog, and therefore thought you were being silly, or that you mistakenly didn’t realize that Beethoven was a dog, and so they were just going along or tuning the whole topic out.
Context is related with relevance. Context is one of the things that helps make learning more relevant. I will write a little bit about relevance next week.
Dr. Dennis and the Music Studios on Facebook
It is not required, but if you would like to be friends on Facebook, I will accept your friendship! I use Facebook more from a professional standpoint than a personal one.
Friend me at https://www.facebook.com/dennis.frayne
You are also encouraged to follow our music studio Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/dennisfraynemusicstudios
https://www.facebook.com/Laguna.Niguel.Music/
Music Studio Culture
We strive to establish, develop, cultivate, and nurture a culture at our school. For example, we want our school to feel “warm and cozy” as some students have described it. We want things to feel plentiful, attractive, and well-organized. We want our teachers to be kind, above all things. We want a pleasant and happy atmosphere. We want an element of formality between students, families, and teachers, but without going overboard. We have chosen to use Mr., Mrs., and Miss in front of our first names.
With your students, and when you introduce yourself to parents, and when you refer to each other in front of students and parents, you should refer to yourself with this prefix. So, Mr. Denny, Miss Suzanne, Mr. Daniel, and Miss Lilly, etc. If you have a preference, please let me know. For example, Miss Kendra in some contexts likes to be “Auntie KK.” This works, too! So, instead of just using your first name, please add your prefix in front of it. “Hi! I am Mr. Dmitry! Nice to meet you!”
(Somehow Dr. Dennis came about, because a number of students began calling me that when I got my doctorate. They were very proud of me. So I go by that name, mostly for fun, but perhaps it also adds a small element of prestige to our organization.
Studio Recital Update (Monday and Tuesday, April 14 & 15, 2025)
Please encourage your students to perform in our upcoming studio recital. Families have six options - three times each over two days.
Please look out for emails (soon) 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. Are the toys and stuffed animals in the lesson rooms only for kids?
A. No! They often make excellent props and teaching aids for many purposes, and for students of all ages. Teachers can get creative and make music lessons more colorful and fun!
Today, several stuffed animals became an imaginary audience of children for one of my adult vocal students, to practice intentional singing, and the art of communicating while singing.
—
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!