3 Simple Ways to make your music lessons more fun and motivating for your students!
As music teachers, we would like all of our students to show up to their classes full of enthusiasm to learn music. Some students will be like that but unfortunately that is not always the case and with some students it can feel like pulling teeth when you’re trying to teach them.
To increase the likelihood of having a great lesson where students aren’t watching the clock, we can introduce some small things to help capture their attention for the whole lesson and make teaching way more fun and fulfilling for you.
In this article, I’ll be giving you 3 simple ways you can make your music lessons way more fun for your students and for yourself!
Use Fun Music Games and Guitar Teaching Activities in your lessons
Gamification is a huge staple of my teaching method. You can clearly see this in every element of my Guitar studio’s brand, from the name (Level Up Guitar School) to the curriculum and the Guitar games I use on a daily basis. I’m always incorporating healthy competition, progress checkers and achievements into my guitar classes to engage my students and keep their motivation to learn at a high level. This isn’t exclusive to teaching kids guitar. I’ve found that encouraging these same things with adult music students leads to amazing results as they feel challenged and excited to progress through their music learning journey.
When teaching a particular concept, I use gamified worksheets, digital music games, and printed games to deepen the students’ understanding of the subject. I show them an explanation of the concept and use gamified and creative activities to show how they would use this technique in a practical sense (in a band or performing solo).
When having gamification in mind as you teach, you will transform the atmosphere of your classes and re-think how you teach particular subjects. Your goal is to have students so absorbed in the lessons and challenges that learning music just feels like play to them.
If you’d like a full list of Engaging Guitar Games you can play with your students in a private or group setting download my Guitar Games Guidebook below.
Download my Free Guitar Games Guidebook: 5 Addictive Guitar Games to Play With Your Students
Free Digital PDF File of 5 High Quality Guitar Games
Suitable for 1 on 1 and group lessons
Use as Lesson Starters or to reinforce a Guitar concept
2. Employ technology to make your lessons more visually captivating and engaging
Technology can be such a powerful tool in captivating your students’ attention. People are more visual learners now due to the increase in social media and video content. In addition to this, people have a shorter attention span due to this media, making it more difficult to capture their attention for the entirety of the guitar lesson.
I have no problem with teachers running their music lessons with a more old-school approach with pen and paper but it might be more enjoyable for you and your students to incorporate some more interactive stimulus throughout the lesson.
Here are some ways you can incorporate technology into your music lessons:
Use a TV with slideshows to visually reinforce the concepts you are teaching
Display lesson plans using Canva. Canva is a great graphic design tool that makes visually stunning slideshows with very little effort
Use YouTube tutorial clips to cut down on prep time while also teaching your students in a visual way
Use interactive software like Guitar Pro, Songsterr, and Hooktheory
You can use these softwares to drill particular parts of songs OR you can show how a particular skill can be used creatively e.g. writing melodies on Guitar Pro with 2 guitars
3. Start your class with a ‘Question/Riddle/Joke of the Day’
This sounds like such a small thing but it has been amazing for starting my classes on the right foot with a lot of positivity.
When my students walk in the door to the guitar studio, I make sure to ask them how their week has been or strike up a conversation that lets them know that I’m interested in what is going on in their lives. It normally results in stories about an amazing new Xbox game that they’ve been playing for 9 hours straight on the weekend or a comment on how their parents had given them a whole bag of sour worm lollies before the class (thanks for that, Dad) but I love it.
While my students are setting their guitars and sheet music up, I’ll quickly read out the Question of the Day. It might be a riddle, a joke or a question.
Some examples include:
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Is a hotdog a sandwich or a taco?
What gets wetter the more it dries?
What’s a mummy’s favourite kind of music? Answer: Wrap
Now when I accidentally forget to say the Question of the day, my students are always reminding me. It puts everyone in a positive headspace (including me) and normally results in a more relaxed and effective lesson.
Employ these 3 methods in your guitar teaching this week and see how your music teaching experience changes!
