People
thought being a music teacher is the same as being a academic teacher in
school, but yes for the teacher who teaches music theory in school where
everything is in the textbooks and corrected via an answer book. What I mean is
a Music Teacher, the ones that teaches Piano and guitars,instruments…etc.
Music
teachers need to be different, because music is very sensitive; it’s very hard
to put to words when you want to teach something to the students that relate to
emotion.
How can you tell your student what emotion they should be feeling when
they are playing Ode to Joy?
The feeling of Joy? How will you describe the
feeling of joy that you intended for them to feel? The joy of love? The joy of
victory? The joys of having your enemy destroy? Do they even know how to feel
when they play a tune like “Now & Forever”? as for a 12 years old kid, do
they even felt a heartbreak with a girlfriend/boyfriend when they are playing
some sad love song?
Everything
needs to be very personal; a music teacher needs to get personal with their
students. They need to know how they feel things if not 100% but at least 56%
on their point of view in things. Because what the teacher teaches or educate
will affect the student’s whole journey in learning the subject. If the teacher
starts on a bad foot, the student will even hate the guitar.
For me, the
most challenging part to teach is the groove, in playing music in any
instrument. If you don’t get the groove, you don’t get anything even if you can
play Beethoven’s moonlight Sonata perfectly that you don’t miss a note. If you
don’t have the groove you missed it all. Getting someone to have groove is the
upmost important thing that a music teacher needs. But unfortunately, most of
the teachers that I find here, neglects that. They teach what is in the books
and make the student pass exams without even telling them who is Bob Marley and
the history of Reggae when they are playing a reggae tune for an exam. The
student may have passed the exam, but they pass with an empty heart. Only on
the outside you may see them playing music but in the inside… There’s nothing.
This will always lead to giving up on music and do not care at all for the
students when they reach a certain point. But for a student that contains the
meaning of music, they will have music in their life until they breathe the
last air in this world.
