The joys of studying music: hearing from adult students and teachers of adult students.

The joys of studying music: hearing from adult students and teachers of adult students. In the middle of the afternoon, registrants participated in one ofsix break-out discussion groups that were held in six different rooms.The six facilitators were MTNA MTNA Music Teachers National AssociationMTNA Middle Tennessee Nursery Association (McMinnville, Tennessee)members who have had extensive experienceteaching adults. Participants enthusiastically shared personal storiesregarding their adult students and focused on the joys and challengesthey and their students experience when working together. Tom Pearsall closed his session by quoting one of his students,Beverly, a 59-year-old former hospital administrator. Building a caring relationship with my piano teacher is hugely important to me. That takes time from the half-hour lesson, but in my opinion it is the key to a successful experience. As a hospital administrator, I seldom was able to show confusion, fear, frustration, or poor outcomes to others. But if I am going to achieve proficiency at the piano, I must let my instructor see all my stupid mistakes, my confusion, and my clumsiness. For me to be able to do that I need trust, laughter, and friendship to be part of each lesson. Kenneth Christensen reported on collective comments and ideas fromteachers randomly assigned to his discussion group. Always encourage the enjoyment of learning music. Encourage students to minimize self-criticism. Recognize that adult students usually are taking lessons because they want to. Most adult students take music lessons to fulfill a desire to learn an instrument no matter if they are a beginner, an adult student who took lessons during high school or college, or a music teacher who is taking lessons for professional development. Most adult students who participate in group lessons are pleased about the social interaction of being involved in a group activity. Amy Rose Amy Rose (エミー・ローズ,Emī Rōzu Immerman mentioned a story shared by one of the teachersin her group. Lillian shared a story about an adult student who has been with her for over 30 years. The student went to a concert to hear a pianist perform all of Bach's Prelude and Fugues, one of which he was studying himself. He was saddened to notice that many people left at intermission. He couldn't believe it. He stayed because he got something out of the concert. When the performer played the piece the student was working on, the student concentrated on listening to the articulation and noticed the performer used a flutter pedal, just as his teacher had taught him. Lillian reminded the Pedagogy Saturday participants that music teachers are teaching appreciation of the arts and are helping to educate audiences. A teacher in Joey Hokayem's breakout group talked about anadult businessman who had never taken lessons, but was determined to beable to play the piano on his 50th birthday. He began lessons when hewas 48 and kept the lessons secret for two years. He hid a keyboard inhis office and practiced there. On his 50th birthday, he surprisedfamily and friends when he sat down at the piano and played "HappyBirthday" as well as several other pieces. Cheryl Pachak-Brooks pointed out that: When teaching adult students, we often find ourselves in the role of "cheerleader." Adult students, whether returning to their instrument or just beginning, move from a sense of competence and comfort they have developed in their daily lives to being in the sometimes uncomfortable student's seat once again. Adult students need a lot of encouragement that says, "You can succeed." One teacher in my group said her response to students who say, "I can't do it" is "You can't do it yet." When Patricia Powell Patricia Powell is an American novelist, the author of A Small Gathering of Bones, Me Dying Trial and The Pagoda. Powell is the Martin Luther King Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at MIT. She formerly taught at Harvard University. returned to Pennsylvania, she realized thatthe inspirational presentations and stimulating discussions at PedagogySaturday affected the way she interacted with her adult students inbringing to a close the spring semester of 2009: I tried something different this semester with the adult students in my Class Piano for Non-Music Majors. These classes always bring in students of various ages and stages, but this particular class of seven diverse individuals had forged a special bond with one another during the course. With humor and trust, they had opened up in class, sharing their frustrations and their joys--their highs and their lows--in their pursuit to perform well on the end-of-the-term class recital. So, I asked them to put in writing what music meant to them and told them that I planned to include their comments in the printed program. What poured out of their hearts and onto the page was as moving as what I heard their hands play. It was a wonderful way to underscore how much they had in common with one another, despite their differences in technical skills and levels of advancement. The statements of these seven adult students reflected a strong common denominator: their great love and respect for keeping music in their lives. Group Discussion Facilitators * Kenneth Christensen, NCTM NCTM National Council of Teachers of MathematicsNCTM Nationally Certified Teacher of MusicNCTM North Carolina Transportation MuseumNCTM National Capital Trolley MuseumNCTM Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage independent music teacher, Bozeman,Montana Bozeman is a city in southwestern Montana, USA. It is the county seat of Gallatin County. With a 2000 population of 27,509, Bozeman is the fifth largest city in the state. The city is named after John M. Bozeman, founder of the Bozeman Trail. * Joey Hokayem, independent music teacher, Athens, Georgia Athens-Clarke County is a unified city-county in Georgia, U.S., in the northeastern part of the state, at the eastern terminus of Georgia 316. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial creation of Athens and its subsequent growth. * Amy Rose Immerman NCTM, Cincinnati Music Academy, Cincinnati,Ohio “Cincinnati” redirects here. For other uses, see Cincinnati (disambiguation).Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. * Cheryl Pachak-Brooks, NCTM Eastern New Mexico University Eastern New Mexico University, (abbreviated ENMU), frequently called Eastern, is a state university in Portales, Roosevelt County, New Mexico, USA. It is the most recently-founded state university in New Mexico (legislated in 1927, opened in 1934). ,Portales, New Mexico Portales is the county seat of Roosevelt CountyGR6, New Mexico, with a total population of 11,131 (as of the 2000 census). It is the home of Eastern New Mexico University. * Tom Pearsall NCTM Georgia Southern University Georgia Southern University, established 1906, is a regional university located in Statesboro, Georgia, USA, and part of the University System of Georgia. It is the largest center of higher education in the southern half of Georgia and is the sixth largest institution in the , Statesboro,Georgia Statesboro is a city in southeast Georgia, United States, serving as the county seat of Bulloch CountyGR6. Statesboro was chartered in 1803, starting as a small farming community providing the basic essentials for surrounding farms. * Patricia Powell West Chester West Chester,borough (1990 pop. 18,041), seat of Chester co., SE Pa., W of Philadelphia; inc. 1799. Primarily residential, West Chester was long the trade and processing center for an agricultural region that is now mainly suburbs. University, West Chester,Pennsylvania The Borough of West Chester is the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania.GR6Philadelphia is 25 miles to the east and Wilmington 17 miles to the south. compiled by Barbara English Maris, NCTM Barbara English Maris, NCTM, is professor emerita Emerita is a honorary title retained corresponding to that held immediatey before retirement. (associated with retired from service) --Kabir4you2002 11:55, 28 September 2007 (UTC) REDIRECT Professor of the CatholicUniversity of America Catholic University of America,at Washington, D.C.; the national university of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States; coeducational; founded 1887 and opened 1889. in Washington D.C., where she coordinated thegraduate degree program in piano pedagogy. She served on the programsteering committee for the 1992 and 1993 MTNA National Conferences andchaired the 2009 Pedagogy Saturday Committee.