by Jamey Mann, Catoctin School of Music One of my favorite teaching techniques is letting my students teach me. This is valuable to the teaching process as it allows students an opportunity to verbalize what they’ve learned. It is an opportunity for teachers to gauge their student’s comprehension of topics covered during lessons. In addition, it helps with a student’s communication skills which gives them the...
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by Jamey Mann, Catoctin School of Music 0ver the course of my playing and teaching career I’ve developed a couple rules. These rules are simple, but effective for the students that follow them. I’ve developed these rules to help students think about and process the information they are seeing in their music, to help them understand the importance of listening to what they are doing and...
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by Jennene Estes, Catoctin School of Music Almost all of my most successful motivational ideas are borrowed, stolen, or are a modified version of another teacher’s idea. “Listen Like a Maniac” is no exception. Michelle Horner and her daughter were practicing daily. Together, they were carefully following the advice of her daughter’s violin teacher. But even though Michelle is an accomplished guitar teacher, her daughter’s progress on...
Read Moreby Alyssa Cowell, The Catoctin School of Music While everyone is at home under quarantine, now is the time to get in some extra practice! Build practice into your new routine: As the days at home feel longer and longer, try creating a new schedule that incorporates scheduled practice time. See how many days in a row you can practice without missing any days. If you have trouble practicing daily, try...
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Students have asked me on multiple occasions what it means to listen analytically/critically. Students often equate this idea with comparing one’s ability to that of another. Have you ever watched a video of someone playing a piece on your program and thought that person played it better? That’s a comparison based on an emotional response to what you’ve heard. That is also a perfectly natural...
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