So i've been teaching pretty much every instrument under the sun and in every way and form (band, group, private etc.)

I've recently started teaching keyboard, drums, singing and guitar for a company which uses large vans. I have up to 7 keyboard kids / 7 guitar kids / 6 singing / 4 drum kids at a time.

So my main problem is that I inherited all these kids (which is usually alwasy a bad thing). They are using the Bastian method, which I am beginning to hate! And some of them are on their 2nd books and can't read a single note mainly because their old teacher just wrote the notes in for them.. I however refuse to do this. I lost quite a few kids last term over this but im not budging.

So what I really want to know is how can I get these kids to really learn to read music. I have 150+ kids a week (so probably around 100 are keyboard). I want to try and avoid mass photo copying etc.
But the van/bus is also completely made out of whiteboard.

Any suggestions will do. Im getting tired of repeating myself and im starting to get really cranky!

Bex

Without wanting to sound bad, or other, are you REALLY teaching every instrument under the sun? Like the sax, and the guitar, and perhaps some drums as well?

Are you certain that you know all of these instruments at adequate level in order to teach? At least here in Greece, seeing a teacher who teaches guitar, piano, accordion, drums, flute, sax, clarinet, etc, is usually a bad sign that they know next to nothing for most of these instruments...

I've no idea about what situation you're in, and the fact that you have 150+ students weekly, means that there is a serious lack of music teachers in your area, or that in general you're probably doing more good than bad, but I think it's worth to ask you about your abilities in each instrument.

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Now, in regards to what to do: Depends on the age of the students, but I would assume that if you press on in your decision NOT to write the notes, then eventually they will give in. More over, perhaps you should take a step back and allow them to color the notes instead of writing them down (blue for C, yellow for D, etc)... Then little by little teach them about colors (how orange is red and yellow and take out orange, green is blue and yellow and take out green) and eventually leave them with no colors...

No other idea over here... I've not inherited many students with such bad habits, and those who did have them gave in to MY teaching style, rather than trying to keep to their old habits...

Yes, i've had several different jobs in which i've had to teach almost every instrument minus stings (violin etc.)

The kids are all in groups, and are at very very basic level. I have AMEB music qualifications for Piano, Recorder and Trombone and i've performed/played at a semi-professional level for Sax, Trumpet and Clarinet. I've been playing guitar for quite a while. I am moderately skilled on drums, but I only have a few students (less than 5) on drums and I have no problems teaching them.

There isn't a lack of teachers in this area, quite the opposite. Its just that my van/bus goes around to local primary school and offers quite cheap lessons in school time or before/after school time. So I see around 11 schools in the area.

As for changing their bad habits. I've tried to "wean" them off their notes but instead of writing all the notes in for the kids, i'll say ok i'll do the 1st note and the 3rd note and then you can try and work out the other notes, not only reading them but also watching whether the notes are stepping up, or stepping down or if they are jumping etc.

Some have given in and have excelled! Some of these kids were sititng on the same song for ages and ages and not really interested and now they are so excited to get through their songs and perfect them. But others just seem to be very lazy and uncaring, they just want the "easy" way out.

The BIG problem/difference is because the parents pay so little for the lessons, they a) don't make them practice b) don't encourage them and c) treat lessons just like its a novelty or something entertaining for them to do.

I have stickers galore and freely use them, they have practice charts and I also really encourage doing some "fun" songs like christmas carols!

I really can't comprehend what a so called piano teacher is trying to accomplish in writing in the note names for their students even from the very beginning. While it achieves quick and short term success (and don't even get me started on today's need to always make a child feel good and cuddly about themselves!), it can SEVERLY harm them musical development for the long term.

I took on a transfer student last January whose prior teacher wrote in all of the letter names for every song and didn't even bother teaching anything about rhythms. This child had been taking piano lessons about 2 years and should have been in Level 3 according to her books. I explained my method and style to the mother when they came for an interview. Mother agreed with me, and I should add, she plays the piano herself.

Should I have taken the student on - no (now that I am on the other side). She was VERY resistant to what I was trying to do, but did seem to be coming around after about 2 months. But then the problems started. She wanted to do a recital piece that was not even close to her skill level. I worked her toward it and believed she could accomplish her goal if she kept up her hard work.

Well, she decided to go back to old habits and would not play the piece correctly (not even close.) I chose to cut the piece from the recital and we chose another one. Long story short - the child quit with her mother's blessing. The mother acknowledged the problems and sided with me on why I did what I did. I had some on some boards counsel me that I should have let her play the piece even if she bombed it at the recital. I would not and could not do that. As I said before, should I have accepted this student? No. Sometimes you have to learn lessons the hard way.

Yep, its completely terrible. Im not out to make professional musicians, I just want the kids to have fun BUT also have a level of musicality and musical understanding.

To me its not teaching the kids to learn how to read properly. Its just cheating and I can't with good concience do it. I know another teacher that teaches from another bus/van also writes the notes in. I had one of their kids join my bus for a few lessons.. and the strangest thing was that the kid would sit there for a few minutes, write all the notes in and then play it.. she quite obviously knew the note names!

There was a teacher a couple of years ago who ran into this, and she did a kind of gradual weaning process. Something like: first all the letters were allowed to be in except for D, so they had to recognize D. Then another letter dropped out so that within a couple of months the student had all the notes without panic at the sudden loss of training wheels.

That would be a 100% valid approach to fixing a problem coming from another teacher.

The trick is to fix problems without making the student feel stupid because a previous teacher was totally incompetent...

That might be good. I think certain kids are just not going to do any practice at home, and this will mean that they are just not going to do any better, but i'm hoping they will just move on.

~ Make a chart to photocopy. Draw two treble staves and two bass staves, two for spaces, two for lines. Use a catchy memory phrase students will have fun memorizing, like Elvis' Guitar Broke Down Friday for the treble lines. Same with the other staves. Write a word on each staff line.

~ Make copies and give one to each student. Explain the chart to the class.

~ On a dry erase board, have students write the letters of the staff on the board from memory in front of the class. Divide the class into two teams and make it a game. Do this for the lesson.

~ While other students practice, have one student name all the notes in their song before they play it for you. Let them use their chart if they need it. Give it a few weeks with the chart, esp. depending on their age. Explain what needs improvement and to practice while you go to the next student. Do this every week. Give a quiz with more blank staves to fill in and grade them.

~ Bring erasers and have the students erase note names written in their book if it's in pencil.

The effort will be worth the results. :-)

What a great idea! I'll have to try that one the next time I inherit a student with the writing-the-note-names-in issues.

I feel your frustration. While I have not had the same experience as you, I have had a teaching situation where I felt like there wasn't much I could do to really get my students to learn. It was mostly because of the way the program was set up. They actually advertised that students did not need to practice or even have any kind of instrument at home! They were group classes with most of the kids keeping their books at the school on a shelf between lessons. There is only so much you can do with one lesson per week, especially in a group setting.

I think the other posts have some great solutions for solving the music reading problem. I personally use the phrases (i.e. Every Good Boy Does Fine on Treble clef lines) to teach my students to read the staves and that helps a lot.

But it seems like there might be a bigger problem. Is the program designed to be a "Music Enrichment" kind of program and not so much quality Music Instruction? If that's the case, you may just have higher expectations than the program is designed to meet. If it is supposed to be quality music instruction, are there any kind of requirements the teachers are supposed to meet? If other teachers are writing in all the notes, impeding the students progress, is this something you can bring to someone's attention in a supervisory position? I don't advocate "snitching" but this is definitely a bad teaching habit! I know that can make it an uncomfortable working environment though, so it would mean you would have to be very cautious and delicate in the words you choose. But this is just my suggestion.

Have them write in the notes and do a new song every week.

Eventually they'll get quick at writing in the notes and then you can wean them off it.

My group classes used to have a question hotseat, where one of the teachers hold up a large flashcard and the kids would line up in a row and try to answer them correctly. The group would be rewarded based on how well everyone did. This may work for you if you start with landmarks and expand from there. I definitely don't advise bringing candy, but maybe some activity where they can listen to music and play some simple percussion instruments would work. I used to teach after-school group keyboard classes (not doing that ever again) and one of the highlights for the kids was when I'd bring out the egg shakers and my iHome and crank up the volume.

If you can transfer them away from Bastien, I think you will find that the students will advance more quickly. I find that for younger students, the Alfred method works quite well. In my opinion, the Bastien method needs to be brought into the current century.

Sounds like fun! I've done something similar, and it worked quite well.



Agreed!!

If you think any of them would actually take the time to watch, I've recently created a set of videos that help students with memorizing notes. I use the guide note or landmark approach, rather than learning a saying or using some other mnemonic device. I have all of the treble clef videos posted and will have the bass clef videos up by the end of the week.

Each video focuses on just a small subset of the staff- 4 or 5 notes. Students should work to thoroughly have the notes from each lesson memorized before going on to the next.

Memorization of notes is not rocket science. It's something that all children are capable of doing. There are many reasons why children may not succeed in learning an instrument, but failure to know their notes fluently should never be one of them. No child gets out of the third grade without memorizing their multiplication facts and there are far more of those to remember than there are lines and spaces on the treble and bass staves combined.

The videos can be found here... http://www.flashnotederbyapp.com/learning-music-notes-on-the/

Good luck!

Pardon my saying this, but you listed your qualifications for teaching all the instruments except for voice. This is something very near and dear to my heart, because every student that I get who has had previous bad teaching takes YEARS to correct. Unlike other instruments - which of course also require qualified teachers - you are not just teaching the student how to use the instrument, but you are also building it. If you have not been taught how to teach the voice and can give the student feedback on what they must do based on acoustics (the kind of sound you hear them make) then you are potentially doing tons of damage.

This goes way beyond what most general ed music majors are taught. In fact, some of the worst singing habits are taught in music class/choirs. So when I hear of someone who hasn't even been given that basic information calling themselves a voice teacher, I cringe. Kids are better off not having any teacher than one who doesn't really know what they're doing. Sorry if I offend, but I feel very strongly about this.