In this post, I will explore the significance of the community we create and the language we use as string teachers. Why? Both community and the language we use are highly influential, yet we often overlook them while preparing to become a string teacher or even if we’ve been one for a number of years. Relationships in our classrooms or studios and language, or the very words we use, form part of all of our work as string teachers, besides our expertise in string music education. The relationships we foster and the words we choose set the stage or the tone of the experience as soon as students encounter us and every time they encounter us. Community and language heavily impact what students learn besides mechanics, and what will remain with students once they leave the lesson. As the saying goes, people will remember not what you tried to teach them but rather how you made them feel.
Community
When we teach one or more students, a community is born. A relationship begins; or, several relationships begin. The student and their perception of us, us and our perception of students, students and their perceptions of their instruments and experience, us and our perceptions of our teaching, us and our perceptions of the desired learning, and so on, together create crisscrossing foci and awarenesses for students and for us. This carries further, to the people who students happen to live with and encounter in their lives and their personal experiences as they practice, talk about the lessons, and progress.
Other communities also tend to influence our teaching. For example, mentors, professional string teacher associations, informal collectives or partnerships with other teachers and our own teachers, past students or alumni, relationships we build with churches, schools, theaters, retirement homes, businesses and private people who hire us or ask our students to perform. When we focus on building a love for string music, not only with a student but in the wider community, we may even consider this to be outreach.
Community is a far-extending foundation much like a taproot of a tree, which supports our work teaching strings, but how much attention do we pay to providing or incubating a sense of community? Community has the potential to support the future of our profession; paying attention to how we enhance our string community is likely to strengthen the field and foster future opportunities for our students.
Students’ experience with their learning (i.e. how they experience their learning communities) greatly affects how they proceed and that either hinders or facilitates their learning. Will we help them to look forward to their didactic experience, giving them consideration and space for their personal learning needs, sparking joy in their lives and helping them remove barriers to their excitement for the chance to learn a musical instrument? If we do not consciously consider ways to provide this loving environment and a student quits (or worse is let go by us), the damage may last for generations. Yes, generations, for when a student leaves their learning on bad terms, it is likely that they will not continue, and even worse, not encourage this opportunity in those around them like their children, grandchildren, etc. Plus, do you think that they will gravitate toward attending concerts of live orchestra or chamber music after a bad experience like being fired from a studio? Probably not. It is on us to make sure we deliver caring, substantial lessons and generate a sense of community so that we have a thriving future generation of string music learners and lovers, not just in future conservatory students but as an element of the mainstream at home and abroad. Encouraging amateurs and participating in amateur orchestras and chamber music isn’t exactly optional for our profession.
If love and consideration for students and the community to which they belong in strings come first, before external frameworks like status, exams, competitions, scholarships, rankings, auditions, etc., we stand a much better chance of future-proofing the next generation of string musicians. This applies to all teachers of all kinds of students, whether students intend to learn for fun, whether they are practicers, whether they are college-bound or not, whether they are adult learners, or whether they are some combination of the above. Keep in mind, the way we describe students is likely to change at some point anyway. We have a tremendous responsibility toward the community (besides providing professionally delivered, solid basics and technical expertise), to be loving and caring toward our students’ perceptions, experiences and needs.
Language
Have you ever considered the dimensions of language which we use as teachers and how this affects how we teach? We might even consider music itself as a language, which points toward the importance of playing for our students in their lessons. There are a lot of ways in which we communicate that we should improve and develop such as:
- Body language
- Tone of voice
- Transitions: greeting and parting
- Words we use
- Questions we raise
- Encouragement
- Musical phrasings or playing for and with students
- Between lessons – methods of delivery
- Family communication (especially when teaching young children)
- Feedback we give
- Self-reflection on our work
Each of these dimensions could be evaluated in terms of the language we use, both with ourselves internally as well as externally. Am I conscious of my feelings and how this is conveyed through my choice of words and tone of voice? Do I realize the impact of my own human, physical voice when we are live, face to face? Am I considering the student’s language experience and am I gauging mine to fit where the student is at? Have I considered that students have a different knowledge and understanding about what is necessary to listen to and hear vs what is important to them and to us? Do I ask my students to re-state concepts in their own words to check for understanding in addition to having them try an exercise or demonstrate a skill? Do I offer praise for specific concepts or musicality that the student demonstrates well? Do I greet each one with a kind look or smile so that they feel welcome?
These are only a handful of questions to help us develop the next level of our teaching, surely helpful in our teaching approach to choose our words deliberately and be willing to enhance the string learning community. There may well be no definitive answers to these questions. However, the more positive we can be–starting with the words we use with ourselves–the better the communities we will grow to help our learners become great musicians and music appreciators, for the words we choose directly influence the communities we build.
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