When I was at drum school, we had a fellow student who always seemed to be struggling. He managed to do what was asked of him, but it was at times pretty uncomfortable -- for us as much as for him.
One day after a particularly painful display, our instructor asked him, "Are you left handed?" He said that he was. So the instructor shooed him off the drums, rearranged the set for left-handed play, and had the fellow try again. It was like a miracle!
It struck me as tragic that no previous teacher had picked up on this guy's dilemma. Here was a truly left-handed person who had been expected to work against his natural wiring from day one. And for what? Drumming is hard enough without being forced to work against the grain! We often ignore our basic make-up, our wiring, peculiarities and differences, and we pay a price.
So why did this happen?
Some teachers can be a bit too rooted in tradition, and that can morph into myopia and even pedantry or a near religious dedication to the old ways. Or the teacher may be unable (or unwilling) to invest time in keeping up with current trends. Whatever the situation, the teacher ends up not focusing on the student’s current needs. A good way to distance yourself from your students is to be unaware or even dismissive* of their physiology, goals and values, and possibly shutting out their music.
Good teachers have lesson plans, but those plans need to be flexible. They must be able to adapt to any student. I have a mental map of what I plan to teach and how to teach it, but I'll throw it away in a flash if it’s not helping a student. It’s always easy to get back on track once I’ve addressed the student’s immediate needs.
Its important to continually assess a student's capabilities. How can I map out a pathway for someone if I don't understand where they are now and where they want to go. I also like to assess learning styles so I can tailor the material and the pace appropriately.
A student's interests can change, so it's important to frequently ask about goals and musical interests. The object is to set up a scenario where success is a natural outcome of the work.
I'm particularly aware of the left-handedness conundrum. As with the fellow in my performance class, it can be very difficult for some lefties to play backwards, so if a student seems to be leaning left, I'll try mixing in left-lead work. I prefer to have the student continue on a right-handed set. It solves the initial hand problem, sets the student up for open-handed playing, and allows the student to play on any set. And if the student is fully and irretrievably left-handed, only then should we reverse the kit. There are a lot of excellent left-handed players playing on right-handed kits.
* There's a great scene in the movie “The Runaways” (contains mature content) where the Joan Jett character goes for guitar lessons. She wanted to play like Suzie Quattro; the teacher insisted they work on “Michael Row The Boat Ashore”. It didn't go well.
Photo credit: © Renespics | Dreamstime.com
No comments:
Post a Comment