Tips for Picking the Best Music Instructor for Your Child
Parents, by nature, desire to bring the best out of their children.
A lot of them wish to nurture them from a young age by signing up for co-curricular activities and classes outside of school, of which includes common musical skills such as he piano and the violin.
However, the same sentiments are not shared with the children themselves, evident in stories shared about how parents have to force their reluctant children to attend lessons, given that the examinations for each grade of the skills conducted are often too stressful for them. In most cases, a lot of children decides to forgo the skills as they grow up. Yet, what determines your child’s triumph in picking up music as a skill is not dependent on talent, but the music instructor that you have chosen for them. If you are able to relate to the struggles mentioned above as a parent, this article is for you. Here are three prominent tips in picking an efficient music instructor who can make your money spent worth it.
1. Choose a teacher who can get your child thrilled and electrified over music
Children, by nature, have short attention spans. Teachers need to make them passionate and excited about music by making their lessons interesting and catered to their individual needs. Learning anything can be a rather mundane process if you do not enjoy it, and learning music is a process that necessitates a fair amount of time and effort.
A good teacher should be able to make your child excited enough to pick up their musical instrument on their own to practice, just because they have grown love it. These teachers are the ones who are able to nurture musicians of the next generation. Granted, it is good to be firm and strict when it comes to teaching. However, it is also advantageous for one to put in effort to make lessons more interesting for their students.
2. Do not choose an inflexible teacher who follows the examinations syllabus strictly
Music lessons are different from academic-related ones. While it may be arguably efficient for a teacher to follow the examinations syllabus for your child to excel in school exams, it is redundant for one to merely pass the music exams if your child is not able to play anything other than the fixed
exam pieces. Ultimately, picking up and mastering the skills is what matters most. After all, the truth is that mastering the skills is far more difficult than actually being able to pass the exams. Hiring a teacher that is rigid on the exam pieces is equivalent to getting a mathematics tutor to touch on merely the 8 times table and forgoing the rest just because the school exam will be testing on that alone.
3. Figure out if the music teacher can really play well
At the very least, your teacher should be able to sight read pieces on their own or play by ear. A teacher’s certificates are not sufficient to determine if he/she can actually play. An effective method would be being there physically for the first few lessons for you to judge if the teacher is truly good or not. In this sense, you can gauge the teacher’s standards as well as the rapport between him/her and your child. Otherwise, ask the teacher to demonstrate a few songs on the spot. If you follow the three tips mentioned above, your child should be able to learn a lot of things in one lesson alone.
