Let’s be honest: education and young people have evolved a lot in recent decades.
The arrival of technology has shaken up our ways of doing things and everything is going faster. Our young people often have concentration problems, many are even diagnosed with ADHD, which was rather silent a generation or two ago.
Does that mean anything to you, dear teachers?
Of course, there are still young people who work well in the traditional learning of methods, the classic repertoire, exams and competitions.
But there are all the others. They don’t fit into the mold. They just don’t want it.
What can we do when these young people want to think outside the box, do not adapt to constraints and disperse in various activities that limit them in learning an instrument?
They must be motivated.
“How?” Will you tell me.
We try to find the repertoire that suits them: very well.
We lower our expectations: uh…not really!
Positive incentives are established to motivate them to practice: very well.
What if the solution consisted of injecting more pleasure, more creation and more peer-to-peer exchanges with them?
Last week, during an interview with an American piano teacher, she told me that she had tried some of my improvisation techniques with a highly functional autistic student. After improvising on a simple progression of chords, he dodged a smile filled with pride and contentment. He had created HIS OWN MUSIC.
His own, not that of others. Even if the melody was very simple, he had just created it by himself. With the help of his teacher, they had experienced a musical connection, a moment of happiness.
Each of us has a musical potential that is just waiting to be highlighted, to be discovered.
I hear, from the teachers: “I’m short of time!”
Improvisation does not have to be one more subject, apart from our lesson plans. It can be integrated at all times in learning. And above all, it is a way of being, a pedagogy of discovery, communication, pleasure and joy in our classes.
What if that was the key to the motivation of our students?
They will certainly keep the pleasure of playing longer, I am convinced.
And you, dear teachers, what is your way of motivating your students?