For me mentoring is one of the most effective ways of
creating a change in a pupil particularly when they have got to the point of
having some grasp of the scales and chords and basic theory: maybe at around
grade four.
I have always started from the premise that you need to find
out from the pupil what their dreams are and where they currently are in their
ability to play. That journey always has to be taken from where they are and
not from where you are. I find a lot of teachers spend a lot of time trying to make
pupils do what they can do, I personally find this inefficient and the best
results from my experience comes from igniting the pupils imagination. This can
be rather troublesome and challenging for you as a teacher because there are
things that you are less than adequate in, which you have to really brush up on
in order to help but I found in the past it enables a pupil to develop very
quickly on their chosen path.
I’ve had great successes with bass players, song writers,
singers, virtuoso rock players, classical players, jazz musicians and what we
could loosely term as musical artists. This stuff isn’t really coming from me
it’s coming from them and for me the thing that tips the balance is their
personal motivation to achieve what it is that they really like.
Many of my pupils do gradings and the grades are only a
target and an objective on the path to their personal aspirations. Once you
have them motivated and they have a goal to work towards then you have to let
them get on with it. It is them who climb the mountain, not you. You may have
the map but they have got to do the hard work and therefore if they do not achieve
what they set out to achieve that is down to them.
One last thing to consider is that your aim is to make them
better than you, do not get into the old British management style of employing
somebody is not as good as you. You really want them to be the thing that you
aspire to.
Most often the pupils will have enough skills of their own
that will develop over time, occasionally you will need to instil some new tools
to assist them. Apart from musical skills these may be personal skills such as
goalsetting time management etc. This is where I use NLP as I find this to be
the most effective way of achieving change.
Vic
www.bluescampuk.co.uk
check out the dates for next year on the website we are currently half full
within two weeks of launching the new dates to hurry this is too good to miss.
