Everything But The Weed

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Linda Maze, a Wedding photography Gainesville FL in Gainesville Florida

 Music lessons plan are a key tool for teachers of music.   They are pivotal to the success of one music lesson, the lesson for the whole semester and also of the teacher.    

 Have you heard of all the proverb, “If you don’t prepare, then you prepare to fail.”   After you get some experience, then arranging music lesson plans wouldn’t be that hard.  

 For those who have just began their careers, here are some tips you can adapt to create a more engaging music lesson plan: 

 1.Put into mind the student’s age group that you will teach.   

 A perfect way to start when you design your music lesson plans is to consider the student’s maturity.   What do they love and shudder at?   What kinds of music do they have in their playlists?   What are the other factors in society that can affect them?   Were they at an age they feel diffident and shy in front of their friends? 

 These are the questions that you need to think about when writing class lesson plans.  That’s the reason off-the-rack music lesson plans don’t work.  Music lesson plans have to be created with the student’s need in mind.   Once a teacher has been teaching for a number of years they are able to do this adaptation in an instant, referencing the music lesson plans that are in their head, and adapting as they go.   Yet, when you’re just a beginner, a good plan should be able to know the age group that you will teach and also knowing how you would be able to connect with them. 

 2.Always plan more than you’ll need 

 You’ll prepare lessons, most often than not, around 10 activities.   Sometimes you finish up to the third one and bell rings for the end of the class.   Yet another day, still with the same activity and you can be off to a new class and there should still be some 25 minutes!   You just don’t know for sure, and that is why its always a good idea to have a backup plan.   Have some spare copies of worksheets for preceding activities teacher supply store with you so that you can always make use of spare minutes.   

 3.Include a mixture of activities 

 A lot of music lessons are somehow split up into set activities.   One lesson for the week will be theory, one practical, one history and one aural (or something like that).   Often this is unavoidable due to practical concerns and the length of the school lessons, however why not try and mix them around a bit?   If you’re not limited by rooms try spending half the lesson on practical, then moving into theory based on the materials you were just playing.   It’ll be exciting for the kids and it keeps them on their seats.    

 4. Have it much simpler than you might think! 

 It’s always a good idea to have simpler music sheets behind some complex chart you will present.   An example for this is that if you have a new music piece for a practice lesson and you may have to think in advance if this will be hard for the students.   This happened to me many times, and I found that if I had ready a small little section or part of the piece which I knew was very easy, that going and doing that bit would be enough to get them in and enthuse them about the piece.   It’s not always a good idea to begin at high point!   If you can start with a section that you’ll know they will do easily, then come back to the more challenging sections.    

 5. Ask for feedback 

 Students will give you feedback – even if it is extremely subtle.   Students (particularly teenagers) will never say “Mrs Jones I thought you did a brilliant job today, you gave us a lesson that was lots of fun and we learned heaps.”  Perhaps you might have a dream that your student says that – but its not going to happen in real life!   What you will see is students eager to come to your classes, and happy to have a joke with you at an appropriate time.   You might notice some student forming their own orchestra group  much ahead than the activities of the class.   When this happens, you’ll know that what you are doing is on the right track with your music lesson plans.