Learning Our Lesson: Visiting the Studio Just Because

Aside from teaching privately in NY I teach for a college conservatory program outside of the city
two days a week.  I have to take MetroNorth there, but occasionally I'm lucky enough to hop in my teacher-friend's car on the way back.  I love these car rides because it's a time for me to socialize.  The lady who drives is another voice teacher so we talk about our day and exchange ideas, but last week it was a full car and two of the other teachers were piano teachers.  One piano teacher was exasperated about a student who simply hates piano lessons and refuses to play.  We sympathized with her and tried to brainstorm together about how to approach the end-of-year recital, but she said something that struck me.

"It's never a lesson with him; it's always practice."

When I was a piano student I was always working towards playing at NYSSMA for a good score from a judge or I was prepping for some recital that was coming up.  I suddenly realized my own piano lessons were always practice and never lessons, too.   I then started to think about this in terms of the way I teach.  And then I came to the conclusion (and not for the first time) that because most of my students come to me when they need to prepare for something like an audition or a recital I am in a similar situation.  And I always knew that this emergency-prep for auditions was sort of an issue, but the way this teacher summed it up made me realize how big a problem it really is.

but....yum

Additionally, my Facebook feed usually consists of articles my friends have posted about common core and state testing.  One article said something about how we're giving kids "Fast Food Educations" now.  I started to think, "Am I denying my students/clients a solid education by enabling audition prep and cutting to the chase and not insisting that we warm up for 30m first? Am I feeding them garbage? Am I a quack? Am I running the Mickey-D's Voice Lesson drive-thru?!"   

The next day I had 10 lessons lined up so I did an experiment.  With the few students who were not specifically preparing emergency audition material I gave them fair warning and we spent way more time than usual on the warmup sequence.  We talked about what each exercise was actually for, not just passively going through the motions.  Then we applied what we did in those warmups and the anatomy conversations to repertoire towards the end of the lesson.  Those lessons were way more productive and those people were not evidently as itchy to get to the repertoire as I thought they'd be.  Connections were made.  Concepts were understood.  And then the moments of truth: I saw those same people again this week and what we did the week before was maintained if not improved upon for their next lesson. Eureka!

 Got a 98 on my Regents Exam.  

Have no idea what this is now. Lava?

Don't get me wrong, I always hear progress when working in those emergency prep circumstances, too, but we were all there once, right?... cramming desperately the night before a test hoping we'd retain the information.  But do any of us really remember all that crap from Earth Science? I pride myself on the fact that I remember Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic rocks.  Can I tell you what they are anymore? Absolutely not.  There's a third word that comes with that sequence:
Cram. Deliver.  Forget.

 I am guilty of booking voice lessons on a need-basis, as well, but it's good to consider taking a lesson every so often when not preparing for anything in particular either for inspiration or just some good old fashioned training. Even the best singers still take voice lessons.  Take a look at this clip I saw on TV a few months ago.

There's a reason the phrase "I'm going to teach him a lesson" is so popular.  It's insinuating that we are going to show someone exactly what to do or what not to do so that they don't repeat the same behavior in the future.  

I learned a lesson this week in that I should not feel so insecure in my teaching about spending more time on exercises.  I start panicking like, "Are my guests hungry? Should I put the food out now? OK we don't have to do lip trills -- What song do you want to sing?" Meanwhile it's like the guest just got to the house and it's 3pm.  I need to stop offering the Early Bird Special just because I think I might be boring for 5 more minutes.  Sometimes the best part of a meal is the appetizer!