Your Music Teacher’s Feedback

Some Quick Thoughts on Taking Lessons, Teaching, Giving Feedback, etc…

Following insights and thoughts are geared towards people who want to teach guitar.
The thoughts expressed here might also help people who want to take guitar lessons, to find the best possible teacher they can find.
You will have a better idea of what to look for in a guitar teacher after reading this blog.

However: some of this info will also help musicians gain a better understanding of how to communicate more effectively in a recording session, band settings, or jam sessions.

Giving Feedback

The feedback you give should be:

  1. Concrete: it must be specific and not general.
  2. clear,
  3. directed to the student’s performance and behavior, not to his personality
  4. a description, not an interpretation or a judgment.
  5. Immediate. Feedback is only effective if no time has passed between the correcting issue and your feedback.
  6. You should also regularly point out that making mistakes is all part of the learning process. Make it clear to the student that he will not have as much if he is too careful or worried about making mistakes. Learning is a series of making mistakes without hesitation.

Communication

How do you explain things well?

If in response to a question, you have to first make sure that you understand what is being asked.
You also have to be sure that you accurately assessed the weakness of the student so you explain the right thing the right way.

When you teach general education topics in a school, you have to adhere to standards.
By the end of a semester or school year, there is a certain core of data and understanding the student needs to master or be proficient with.
Your success as a teacher is measured by how well the students do on their final exams.

In the case of a music teacher who teaches private music lessons, your standards are determined by different factors.
Your main standard will be determined by how much fun is the student having and by how happy they are with their progress.

You always have to teach from the student’s perspective.
What this means is that you have to be in your student’s head while you’re teaching: trying to think as he/she thinks.

Don’t explain things at an abstract level: always show concrete, real-life examples.

Psycholoy

People in a music lesson setting are always self-conscious.
Nobody “enjoys” being in a situation where you are going to make a lot of mistakes.

When a student is very negative about himself, you need to emphasize his strong points often.

Alternate between deeply focused and freely creative topics.

Don’t get in the way of the music: let the music do the teaching.
Step back after you explained what you needed to explain so the student has space to figure the rest out for himself.

Conclusion

Hit me up anytime at vreny@zotzinmusic.com if you have any questions, or if you would like to book a lesson.

These free lessons are cool, but you will never experience the progress, joy, and results that my students experience in lessons when you’re learning by yourself from blogs and videos.

That is why people take lessons: way better results and progress, much more complete information, exposed to way more creative ideas than you can get from a blog or YouTube video.
There is only so much that self-study can accomplish.

If you want to see amazing results and progress in your guitar playing, buy your first lesson here and get started ASAP.

  • 1 Lesson = 75

You’ll impress your friends and loved ones in no time with your guitar playing!

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Thank you for your support!


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