Where do we go from here? - recruiting young music students

American Music Teacher, June-July, 2002 by Brian Chung

Without heroes, we need to help our students create visionary dreams. Perhaps it is playing in their church worship band or giving a mini-concert at a birthday party? Maybe we need to change the form of recitals and make them "celebrations" in which the kids play what they want and invite their friends? We need to help create venues where our students can be "cool." And if we're not regularly asking them about their musical dreams, we certainly should be. They need our help and encouragement to live out their dreams.

Recommendation #4 Generate Fun in Groups

Quick! Name a popular activity today that normally begins with one-on-one instruction.

It's hard, isn't it? Most activities start in groups. School bands play together, choirs sing together, guitar players learn chords together. In the piano world, however, we learn alone, practice alone and play alone. In some ways, it's one of the world's loneliest activities.

Given a choice, why would a gregarious child want to choose piano when he or she could choose any number of activities that could be done with friends in a social setting?

If we're going to reach the lost millions, we have to expand group teaching!

Group instruction makes sense not just for students, but for teachers as well. Let's think it through logically. Say you were starting fresh, with no pedagogy tradition. If you wanted to maximize your income, would you begin with individual or group teaching? Probably group. If you wanted to reach more potential students, or wanted to more quickly identify gifted students, or wanted to have a wider impact in your community--which would you choose? Probably group teaching. If there were one thing that could turn the tide of the lost millions in favor of the piano world, it is group teaching.

Does it all have to be group? No. But couldn't a portion of your schedule be dedicated to group teaching? And couldn't we tell today's pedagogy students that group teaching must be part of their future plans? Also, keep in mind that groups don't have to be large. I know several successful teachers who teach in groups of three, with marvelous results.

MTNA and the Piano Manufacturers Association International have partnered together to create the "Group Teacher Training Project"--a program that offers exceptional seminars and video materials about group instruction. I encourage you all to take advantage of these resources. (Call MTNA for more information.) If you haven't already embraced group teaching, please give it a try. I believe that our future depends on it.

Recommendation #5 Create Fun Through Technology

Let me go on the record saying that I'm a firm believer in using technology for teaching music. It can be a prime ingredient in bringing fun to your studio. I see it as an essential tool of the craft in the same way that computers assist at the office and microwaves help in the kitchen. But let me approach this "technology thing" from a different direction.

How many of you have a personal website? I don't ... but I know several twelve-year-olds who do (elaborate sites that they built themselves). How many of you have had problems running your computers only to have a young teenager press a few buttons and solve everything? Who are the biggest users and experts on the computer in most homes? Children. A few years ago, the country of Finland hired 5,000 young people to "teach the teachers" how to use computers. A school district near Seattle did the same thing.