Gospel Piano Lessons – Why Piano Students are Dropping Out in Droves
Posted on 07. Oct, 2013 by Greg Hannon in Ask Greg
As music educators, we must engage our students in every way possible. We only have a brief window of opportunity to create a greater awareness for music & arts before age of multi-media takes over.
So often we are one dimensional when it comes to music we like. We generally force what we know or how we were trained on our students. For example, if we are classically trained we generally present a formal curriculum to our student. Mostly, because it’s what we prefer or it’s the only genre we’re comfortable teaching, or they don’t offer gospel piano lessons pop or Contemporary Christian.
First let me say I enjoy classical music. The problem is our students surrounded by a culture of Pop, Country, R&B, and Jazz and Hip-hop music. They come to us for training and we force what we know on the student, rather than incorporating the music of pop culture along with traditional piano methods.
So they’re forced to learn a traditional music curriculum, (i.e. classical) and we don’t seem to get when drop out of formal music training after a year. Not once did we consider the genre of music that our students are passionate about. Sure traditional method is the best approach for teaching students how to read music, but what about “playing by ear” song writing and arranging….the vehicle in which contemporary music is created and by the way it’s generating a lot of successful careers in music.
Let’s make sure we deliver both sides of the coin to our students. Heads-Traditional method and readings, Tails – playing by ear, composition, arranging, song writing and improvisation. At the end of the day let the student decide which genre they want to embrace rather than what we are comfortable teaching, because it’s all we know. They’ll give an 100% and you get to say I a taught Alicia Keys.
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Greg Hannon
10. Dec, 2013
yuuuu9