Tutor handbook 2009-2010 Contents Page

Write this up on the whiteboard


and refer to it during the session to help everyone stay focused. We don


’


t do this for bureaucratic reasons


–


we do it to help keep everyone on track.



At the end of the session, summarise what has been covered and refer back to the aims; check in with students to see how well they are doing towards achieving the aims. Provide advice to those who aren’t there yet.

Make sure students leave knowing clearly what they are expected to work on during the following week. Remember – they are only with us for a few hours; they have many more hours to work and practice alone; so we need to help them use those well! Check back that they have done their work / preparation / practice each week. Celebrate success!

1. 
   Typically, in a good session, students will be engaged both in active learning activities and in thought / reflection about these. Graham Gibbs (a leading educator) comments: For learning to occur, just doing is not enough; just thinking is not enough; doing and thinking together are not even enough; you have to link the doing and the thinking together to succeed.
   
2. 
   Expect students to write during sessions. Encourage them to take necessary notes – otherwise they’ll forget what they have learned!
   
3. 
   Relate sessions to the course as a whole so students can see how each lesson fits in. Giving industry examples wherever possible is also great, as this helps students see the real-life relevance of their learning.
   
4. 
   We need to find out and keep track of where each student is in his or her development. Some will need more time than others to get up to the level. Some will never reach the same level as others, but will still have done great in terms of their own ability and potential. Don’t be too hasty to judge students by your own level of ability – set high and challenging individual targets but keep them realistic, and then move these forward over time to keep students motivated and stretched. Impossible targets (especially early in a course) are completely demotivating.
   

The final section shares some of the important lessons we have learned over the past few years about teaching music and related subjects well. These ideas are also strongly related to the principles described above.

The foundation of music teaching at BIMM consists in teaching students to play simple things incredibly well.

Set high standards and make students aware of professional levels of performance

Don’t expect student musicians to be able to perform to professional standards right away!

Ask the class to discuss and work out a strategy to help each individual progress towards defined goals.

Work with the class consistently to help them get better at giving each other focused, precise feedback and clear suggestions for how to improve. It’s not good enough for a class to give feedback saying that an individual’s playing was “Great!”; “Good”; “Well – OK” – or whatever! Encourage peers to say why they judged the performance level as they did. Don’t be put off if students are initially poor at this, or embarrassed / resistant about giving feedback. Persist! Being able to feed back accurately to your peers, and being able to be objective about your own performance, are crucial skills to develop.

For example, if a guitar line is played out or time or out of tune, ask the class to suggest specific ways of improving the performance. If a class degenerates into musicians being “played at” by a virtuoso tutor, morale will quickly fall. Lessons should always be about the



people in the class and their playing; about them being fully engaged and active; and having their own work analysed and improved.



Concentrate on detail – especially tone production, phrasing and timing. Don’t feel you always have to cover all the material in every session. Sometimes you will need to spend significant time on a couple of bars, getting the performance exactly right. If they don’t get it right in class, they won’t outside class! Conversely, knowing how to get at least some material right in class helps get the rest of the material right outside of class.

Work towards accomplished professional performances – but also don’t lose the energy, vibe and spontaneity. This is rock ‘n’ roll, after all!

Authenticity and respect for great music is important. Many students are dismissive of certain genres – challenge this and don’t buy into it. Good music is good music, and this is the message we aim to get across to students.

Try to be informed in your comments and please do not be dismissive of material in the curriculum until all the class have nailed it, in tune, in time with exactly the right note and performance style.

Use as many mock situations to recreate professional environments as you can. For example: do some recording in class; or bring in studio backing tracks you have had to perform to. You’re a producer as well as a specialist tutor.

We are aiming to help young artists become more rounded professionals. In the same way that the rock ‘n’ rollers will need to work on their sight-reading, the musicians will need help to understand performance and what is cool from an audience’s point of view. It’s vital that we put musical work in context. An out-of-tune vocal performance by Neil Young may be technically suspect but none the less emotive and powerful for many people. Classic songs and arrangements have often been produced by technically limited artists. There are many facets to great music and our job is to raise awareness and appreciation. This is one of the reasons why it’s important for teachers not to let their personal tastes sway the class debate too heavily.



Above all – enjoy your teaching! When it goes well, it is one of the most satisfying things we do.