Group teaching

[Anna02]

I am actually teaching with groups of three students in a private music school and I am compelled to teach pupils of different levels (for example, two students of Grade 2 and 1 student of Grade 4 for Royal Schools exams).  One of the Grade 2 students is weak in performance compared to the other one.  Do you think it possible to teach a group of students of different levels in one hour?  How may I make all of them participate to the class?  The classroom is equipped of a piano (Clavinova) and three keyboards for the rest of the students.    Awaiting for your answer.  Thank you.

[m1469]

Welcome to the forum 

Well, you seem to have a fine set up.  What is the focus of your teaching ?   Theory, technique, memorization, acquisition of repertoire, performance, all of the above ?

m1469

[abell88]

At one point I taught group lessons to "beginners" through the Parks and Rec department. I had up to eight kids in a class, aged 6-12; some of them were absolute beginners and some were in their 2nd or 3rd primer book.

 I would give a group theory lesson at the beginning of the class, and maybe a music game, then give them theory papers to work on while I had each of them at the piano (only instrument in the room) for five minutes of individual attention. The miracle was that some of them actually learned and progressed! I had to have lots of theory papers available (mostly naming notes and that sort of thing), because some of them who'd been doing it for a while really knew their notes. If I'd had more music games (that would reinforce their theory concepts), they could have played them during this solo time as well.

I currently teach a program called Music for Young Children. which has classes of 4-6 children, but all the same level. Makes it much easier, although the weaker performers still struggle when we're trying to play together. (They do get solo time as well.) Because we also do rhythm ensembles, solfege, and lots of theory everyone has a chance to shine at something.

[anja]

Nobody doubts that children learning piano in a group learn stuff. The question is how much stuff, and would they learn more privately? Of course they would learn more privately.

Group lessons are a money making proposition. Rarely will things go evenly for long even if everybody starts off at the same point. We accept this in our school system for economic reasons, but most people can afford private piano lessons and should go this route.

I'd go as far as saying group lessons are a racket. Even if's it's cheaper for a particular student, they get far less attention and don't learn as much as a counter-balance to this advantage.

However, an occasional group lesson on a specific topic could work.

[abell88]

There may be some group lessons that are rackets. I don't believe that MYC is one of them.  Parents are included (required to attend) in all levels; none of them has accused me of racketeering!  I do make more money per teaching hour than I do for my private lessons, but I also have extensive prep time planning lessons and making games and teacher aids.

My graduating level MYC students will all do their RCM Grade 1 Piano exam this spring.  For the exam, they are required to play three pieces and two studies. They have learned nine Grade 1 pieces and 2 Studies this year, and we're starting another piece tomorrow. They are required to know scales and triads in five keys: C, G, D, a, e. This year they have also studied F, d, B flat, g, E flat and c.

Two of them are also doing their Preliminary Rudiments exam (key signatures and scale writing up to 4 sharps or 4 flats; tonic, subdominant and dominant triads; simple analysis; basic musical vocabulary; completing bars with rests, etc. ) All of them have studied this theory and I believe all of them could pass the exam.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we also do solfege and rhythm ensembles, as well as simple composition, folk songs, and a little music history.  I have taught privately for many years, and I have found that in traditional piano lessons, it's very hard to include all these other aspects of musicianship.

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know that there is at least one good music program available, that gets excellent results through group classes. Please don't tar everyone with the same brush!

Alice

 

[Anna02]

Welcome to the forum 

Well, you seem to have a fine set up.  What is the focus of your teaching ?   Theory, technique, memorization, acquisition of repertoire, performance, all of the above ?

m1469

Good evening m1469 

Thanks for your reply.  I am actually focussing on repertoire, technique and theory.  My manual is Bastien Piano Basics which I use according to the ages specified.  For pupils taking the RSM exams, I do focus on pieces of the exam book, technique and theory.  I use to make them play all the pieces in the exam book so as not to spend the whole year on three pieces only.  Not all of them succeed to learn all the pieces because some are slow pupils.  On the technical side, pupils learn the given scales and arpeggios according to their grades.  I would like to extend more on scales, i.e., by giving them additional scales, block chords, etc., but I can't manage within a group.  I should mention however that beginners that come to me for lessons do not have a knowledge of music at all.  There is no class to initiate the beginners before they come to the piano class.  Those already doing grades do have some experience, but I still get difficulties to manage.  I am very familiar to private teaching, and that's why I may experience difficulties to manage group teaching.  I guess the approach is different from that of private teaching.  I tried several times to buy Yvonne Enoch's book on group teaching, but it's very rare now.  Do you know the title of any manual, video cassette, VCD which may help?  Thanks in advance.

Anna02

[Anna02]

At one point I taught group lessons to "beginners" through the Parks and Rec department. I had up to eight kids in a class, aged 6-12; some of them were absolute beginners and some were in their 2nd or 3rd primer book.

 I would give a group theory lesson at the beginning of the class, and maybe a music game, then give them theory papers to work on while I had each of them at the piano (only instrument in the room) for five minutes of individual attention. The miracle was that some of them actually learned and progressed! I had to have lots of theory papers available (mostly naming notes and that sort of thing), because some of them who'd been doing it for a while really knew their notes. If I'd had more music games (that would reinforce their theory concepts), they could have played them during this solo time as well.

I currently teach a program called Music for Young Children. which has classes of 4-6 children, but all the same level. Makes it much easier, although the weaker performers still struggle when we're trying to play together. (They do get solo time as well.) Because we also do rhythm ensembles, solfege, and lots of theory everyone has a chance to shine at something.

Good evening Abell   

Thank you for your reply.  I shall think about your working program with young children which I find interesting and valuable.

Anna02.