He had them with the beat he played on the whiteboard. Sixty-five students crammed into a music class for a special presentation and workshop on music composition, and from the moment he walked in the room, they were 100% his. The presenter, Dave Clark, an eccentric drummer and band leader from the city of Toronto knew how to engage magically.
He got me too, the day I first saw him on stage. He wasn’t even performing, he was just introducing the group of musicians stepping on to the stage. It was the first time I heard the whisper yell announcement. “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday… the day to tie your socks in a knot!” All done in a mismatched leisure suit from the seventies, a necklace made from a lime juice container, and a pair of unlaced Sorel winter boots.
No smoke and mirrors were used at all. The kids were all standing around chatting when he entered the room. Saying nothing he took a pair of drum sticks out of his pocket, and starting with the class telephone, he started playing an intricate, and improvised, drum solo on every inanimate object he could find that was not an instrument. From that moment on the students couldn’t do anything that was more foolish, so they were safe to let their creative self out of its cage.
Engagement is a Performance
You’re standing in the middle of a rock concert with hundreds of other people and just when the singer hits a specific note a cannon full of tissue paper maple leaves are cannoned out over the audience. You, like the rest of the audience, are singing along at the top of your lungs, with no care in the world if the person beside you can hear you. Engagement!
You have wandered into a street performance of a juggler, who has gathered up a fairly large crowd around him. Your curiosity peaks as you peer over the crowd to see the performer getting onto a skateboard, which is on a table, which is balancing on a juice can. The juggler than lights three bowling pins on fire and starts spinning them while staying completely balanced. The crowd is dead silent, and you, once just standing as an outsider, are now 100% involved in what the death defying stunt. Engagement!
You’ve been ask to attend a meeting for work on how to engage your students and the presenter stands in front of the class with a really well put together slide show and some great notes that they are about to read from. You get a text message. The text message wins.
Your students will succeed only through engagement. What does it take? Being well prepared? No! Absolutely not! It takes passion. Plain and simple.
If you plan on being a teacher of a performing art, you better not be sitting there beside your student asking them to run drill after drill. Fighting the urge to nod off as your student plays another scale, but this time in three octave runs in CONTRARY MOTION! Your student sees you once a week, and what they get is a subdued drill based music lesson. I’m not saying that you need to shoot off some fireworks with every single lesson, but come on, I’m yawning thinking of some of the lessons I have seen.
Three Ways To Make Every Lesson Exciting Without Using Smoke and Mirrors
I’m not going to suggest you put on an old thrift shop suit and dance a jig while juggling chainsaws during your lessons, but there are three easy ways that you will be able to make your lessons WAY more engaging.
1. Start with Something Fun
“How was your week?” “Did you find anything challenging with your practice” How’s your dog doing, he didn’t run away again did he?” If you are starting your lessons with a calm adult conversation, you are that teacher that is setting up their well planned powerpoint presentation getting ready to put your audience to sleep with. Just like when you're writing a new song… start with the hook! If you take five minutes to prepare every lesson you can easily come up with a way to get your student hooked before you start that very important communication and assessment.
2. Make Boring Things Fun
Drills and repetition are important elements in getting new musical skills under the fingers, but using language like “I bet you can’t do that twice as fast… BLINDFOLDED!” will completely reframe those boring old drills. Watch how kids talk to each other, they are always making the boring tasks into little challenges, races, or death defying stunts. They are the masters of turning any activity into an imaginative adventure. Change your language and meet them where they are.
3. Move Around and Have Some Fun!
Even if you have to do your slideshow presentation, remember that if you were in the audience, by slide 5 your butt is taking a rather uncomfortable nap! Classical piano takes a great deal of sitting and patience, but at the same time, learning a new rhythm can be turned into a dancing game. A new melody contour can be taught by acting out the movement of the notes. Dynamics can be taught be sneaking around the room and when you flip over the forte card you turn on the elephant stomps. Getting up and moving around is one of the best ways to get the blood flowing again after a twenty minute skill and drill session. Once that blood is flowing, the fun level has been increased drastically!
The Takeaway
Magic is really a special power, and the best teachers know how to wield that power to increase the fun level exponentially. We don’t say that we operate music, or work at music. We say we play music. If we are to play, harness the power of magic, put on a show and enhance every aspect of their musical experience and you'll reach those hard to encourage students.
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