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

July 5, 2005

Table of Contents:

1. MTIPS Theme
2. Welcome Notes
3. MTIPS Development
4. Golden Nugget
5. Notable Quotables

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1. MTIPS Theme

Sometimes, a student has not created Mastery Feelings™ during his practice. There are only three reasons for this. Each reason holds a different person or persons responsible. 

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2. Welcome Notes

Welcome to Music Teachers Insightful Practices (MTIPS) Newsletter!

Welcome to all MTIPS subscribers! These past few weeks have been very busy! Setting up summer schedules for my students, attending the school concerts of my daughters, the elementary graduation of my oldest daughter, family parties, hiring new staff members! Wow! Life is full and that is good. 

This issue will further continue the series in Mastery Feelings™. In this issue I am very excited to share with you the three key questions that will make it crystal clear as to how to instill the accountability for learning in your students! These questions will exponentially increase your productivity and effectiveness as a facilitator.

Over the next two months I am setting up my late fall and winter speaking schedule. If you would like to have me speak with your group, please contact me ASAP. I delight in being the catalyst for music teachers to get even more excited about their chosen careers and welcome any opportunity I receive to help ignite that flame! Give me a call and we can discuss the needs of your group and find an exciting topic! You can reach me at 631-863-2069 ext. 62 or email me at director@musicsimplymusic.com

My goal for MTIPS is to provide you with practical tips and insights that will make your career or education in music more fulfilling, rewarding and enjoyable. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to see a certain topic covered in an upcoming issue of MTIPS. My email address is editor@musicsimplymusic.com


And a REQUEST: If you enjoy MTIPS, please encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe. Our growth over the years largely comes from "word of mouth." Anyone can subscribe by simply sending an email to: http://www.musicsimplymusic.com/newsletters.htm

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3. MTIPS Development

If you want your students focused on creating Mastery Feelings™ for themselves, the beginning of your lesson should set the stage. After creating rapport, you can accomplish this focus by asking one of these questions: “Do you remember what your feelings of mastery are?” “Remind me of a few of the feelings you feel when you have learned and played a song or part of a song particularly well.” “On what pieces that you practiced this week did you create your Mastery Feelings™?” 

Another line of questioning, for students who have a strong sense of self-esteem, is to ask, “Is it okay with you if we focused immediately on the pieces that you worked on in which you did not feel your mastery feelings? This way, I can spend most of the lesson assisting you in creating feelings of success during your practice week. What pieces did you least feel your mastery feelings?”

Sometimes, a student has not created mastery feelings during his practice. There are only three reasons for this. Each reason holds a different person or persons responsible. 

The first reason is that the tasks were too difficult. The responsibility, here, lies with the teacher. The teacher should provide the appropriate information (fingering suggestions, rhythm clarification, etc.) so that the student can accomplish the challenge independently throughout the week.

The second reason a student may not have created mastery feelings is because the assignment was too much. In this case it is the responsibility of both the student and the teacher to come up with a more reasonable challenge.

Finally, the third reason is that the practice was too little. Here, the responsibility lies with the student.

By identifying where the responsibility lies, much wasted lesson time can be avoided. If the student admits that he understands the assignment and simply did not practice enough, you can quickly leave that assignment to next week and move onto other work.

If the student feels he did not have enough information to complete the task, you can spend the majority of the lessons instilling the necessary skills so that the student can feel successful during the week.

If the student feels the assignment was too much, then you can immediately renegotiate with him, using this as an opportunity to teach the student how to set more reasonable goals.

Regardless of the reason or the course of action, your goal is to always create an environment for the student in which he can create his Mastery Feelings™ for himself!

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4. Golden Nugget

At some level, be it a measure, a line, a slower tempo, hands separately, mastery is always consistently achievable.
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5. Notable Quotable

“Promoting feelings of autonomy is often simply a question of using language that makes it clear your child has a choice.”

Motivated Minds
Deborah Stipek, Ph.D and Kathy Seal

Copyright © 2005 Nicholas Ambrosino. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute MTIPS so long as this copyright notice and full contact information about the author is attached. The author of this issue is Nicholas Ambrosino and he may be contacted at director@musicsimplymusic.com or reached by telephone at 631-863-2069

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"A sound approach to music education"
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