Music Simply Music - Warm Fuzzies

Welcome to Music Teachers Insightful Practices (MTIPS) Newsletter!
Written and Published by Nicholas Ambrosino
www.musicsimplymusic.com
mailto:director@musicsimplymusic.com

June 5, 2001

Table of Contents:

1. MTIPS Theme
2. Welcome Notes
3. MTIPS Development
4. Notable Birthdays
5. Notable Quotables
6. Q and A

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1. MTIPS Theme

Welcome to Music Teachers Insightful Practices (MTIPS) Newsletter!

Happy Independence Day to all our U.S. subscribers!

A warm welcome to our new subscribers! It is with much gratitude that I say
"Thank you" to all my colleagues and friends that have passed MTIPS onto your
friends and colleagues. I consider it an honor that you find MTIPS valuable
enough to pass it on. Thanks!

Your response to my request for your own person inspirational music teaching
stories was wonderful! I am going to post them in the middle of July.
So if you have not yet sent yours in, please do so before the weeks end.
Simply email the anecdotes to inspiration@musicsimplymusic.com. Make certain
to include you email address in the quote and I will add this to the posting
on the Music Simply Music site.

Shameless Marketing Plug:
If you know someone who would benefit by subscribing to MTIPS, please
forward them this copy and if they choose, they can click on the link below to
become a monthly subscriber.

http://www.musicsimplymusic.com/newsletters.htm

MTIPS is a FREE monthly newsletter that's goal is to provide piano teachers
(hopefully you!) with insightful practices that will make the career of sharing
music with soon-to-be-musicians a more rewarding and successful one. Please
let me know how I can be of further service to you. You may contact me at:
mailto:nickambrosino@musicsimplymusic.com

Be sure to check our web site at:
http://www.musicsimplymusic.com
We have lots of information, and resources you can use. We're constantly
adding and up-dating, so check it often!

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3. MTIPS Development

One of the goals of effective facilitating is placing the responsibility for the
learning in the hands of the learner. The long term outcome is to make the
student an "independent learner" Yet, many teachers, after creating rapport with
the student, begin their lessons by requesting that the student play a specific
piece or warm up exercise. While this may provide structure and a feeling
comfort for the teacher, it takes control away from the learner and places it on
the teacher. It also does not provide insight into the state of learning readiness
of the learner. The dance has begun and again the teacher is leading.

An alternate way of beginning the lesson is to use a term I have coined called
"Empowering Questions " Empowering Questions set the stage for a lesson of
give and take. They allow the student to share his desire and to provide the
facilitator with accurate feedback as to the level of success the student had in
motivating himself throughout the week. These questions empower the learner
to take responsibility for the learning.

"What did you feel most successful with this week?" "What did you feel most
challenged by?" "Are you proud of your accomplishments and how you
prepared for our time together?" "What are you most proud of?". "How can I
be of best assistance to you this week?" "Which piece would you like to start
with?" "What do you feel you learned this week?" Empowering Questions
provide insight into how the learner learns and allow the facilitator to guide
the student in achieving his own success.

It's absolutely thrilling to hear a student reflect to you his successes and
challenges and then ask for your insight into how to overcome the challenges.
To hear a student say, "Well I am really proud of how I prepared the Bach
piece.", or, "I love the way the Back Street Boys song sounds with the dominant
seven chords.", or, "I am having difficulty with the fingering on the Clementi
Sonatina. Which fingering would you use?" or, "I practiced the piece over and
over and I am just getting more frustrated. Can you make any suggestions?" is
the reward of the true facilitator for the dance has begun and both dancers lead
and follow and lead and follow and lead and follow...

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4. Notable Birthdays

Stephen Forster 07/04
Carl Orff 07/10
Gian Carlo Menotti 07/07

Notable Birthdays is taken from a wonderful book entitled "The Music
Teacher's Book of Lists" by Cynthia Meyers Ross and Karen Meyers Stangl.
The publisher is Park Publishing Company.

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5. Notable Quotable

"A teacher can help a student believe in his self-worth; therefore, his piano
playing becomes a valid means of self actualization, as it is a special skill
that has been cultivated."

- Max W. Camp
Developing Piano Performance
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6. Q and A

Q: If I give the student control, won't he just learn the easy stuff and
avoid the work that will make him a better musician?"

A: Great question!!!! This is definitely a possibility. The key to
remember is that it's a dance. If the dance is too simple, it becomes boring...
for both parties. It is the responsibility of the facilitator to reflect to the
student. You should ask the student if he would feel proud of accomplishing this
simple task. Or, would he rather take on a challenge that might at first seem
unaccomplishable (that's why it's called a "challenge"!) so that he can feel that
incredible feeling of doing that which at one time was out of his reach. It's
all about the feeling he will get from achieving his goal. One is a false feeling
of accomplishment based upon setting a challenge that is easily achieved. The
other is a feeling of increased self esteem at the risk of having some "lack of
success" along the way to the challenge. Make the student aware of his options
and then respect his choice.

Copyright © 2000 Nicholas Ambrosino. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute MTIPS so long as this cop1yright notice and full information about contacting the author is attached. The author of this article is Nicholas Ambrosino and he may be contacted at:

http://www.musicsimplymusic.com
director@musicsimplymusic.com

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