Getting Started

So you've gone to school, read a couple of teaching books, taken some classes.. so now what? 

Well for me, I wanted to be prepared as much as possible when I first started teaching.  I had gone to music school for my undergrad and read until I was blue in the face. I still remember the first lesson I ever taught and thought to myself, "oh no, what have I gotten myself into", and couldn't wait until it was over.  The first lesson was a little rocky, but after the second I knew that I could do it.  I have to say that nothing will fully prepare you for teaching.  You can take all of the classes and read all of the books you want, but you will still probably make mistakes, especially in the beginning.  Over two years into teaching people of all ages, and I am still learning new things almost every time I teach.  Most of this has to do with the fact that everyone is different.  Everyone has different learning behaviors, personality quirks, and are motivated by different things.  Also, teaching subjects in music that you have not taught before is always a new experience.  I could probably go on forever about the different things I have learned while teaching (will probably elaborate in more posts), but I just wanted to illustrate the point that the hardest step is the first one, and that making mistakes is a good thing so long as you learn from them.

-Tim