Finding That Musical Connection:

I often find that music lessons connect the dots to a students' wider world. When I first send a questionnaire to gain a better understanding of a student's musical interests, I ask questions which circle around where the strongest connection is happening on a day-to-day basis. A few examples of this include:

• What are your favorite songs and artists? (It's amazing how connected younger people are these days to their generations music)

• What do your parent's / family member's listen to? (What's playing on Siri or Alexa after school, during dinner or on the radio coming home from hockey)

• Where do you most commonly hear music? (Answers usually vary from TikTok, friends at school, video games, radio in the car, movies etc)

• Does anyone in the house play music? (Turns out mom has a great voice and dad is a hobbyist guitarist)

• Do any friends play music - and if so what instruments? (Potential of a neighbourhood band 🤟)

These are just a few questions I ask initially. Throughout the course of our lessons, I frequently start a session by asking something like "what did your musical world bring to you this week?" The answers are amazing.

• "I watched a movie with my dad and now we want to learn the theme song together"

• "My mom was singing her favourite song and now I want to play it on the piano"

• "Chanukah's coming up and I want to play I Have a Little Dreidel for my Bubbie and Zaidie"

• "My best friend is learning guitar and we want to jam together"

• "My church has a choir, and they need a drummer to play in it"

The list goes on and these answers I receive are very important in understanding a student's music world. This is the connection I search for with students. Practice and all the associated benefits (improved technique, timing, reading, dynamics etc) come much easier and with more enthusiasm when we explore WHY music is so important to each student. The funny and interesting part of this is that it is not age dependent. My 5-year-olds have a breadth of knowledge and emotional connection to music comparable to my older students. It's our goal to find it and foster it.