How Teaching Jazz is One of the Most Powerful Ways to Learn Jazz
Teaching other people is one of the best and most powerful ways to learn.
By having to articulate and explain a subject, you clarify the subject in your own mind.
You stumble upon new connections and analogies.
You increase your depth of understanding and achieve mastery.
Here are a few ideas to apply this concept to your own musical growth.
Find 'students' and teach them about what you're working on.
Teach your parents, your little brother or your girlfriend.
Teach your musical buddies and your friends about what you're working on.
Now a question you might be thinking is "what if they don't know anything about jazz drumming, how am I going to teach them about it?" All the better.
Some times a student with no background in your subject can be very advantageous.
It means you will have to simplify down to basic principles and explain it with out the use of jargon.
You'll be forced to come up with creative everyday analogies that they can relate to.
By going through this process of explaining, simplifying and answering questions you will gain a deeper understanding of the basics and fundamentals of your subject.
Their questions will bring to light the areas you are unclear about, thus informing you where to focus next.
Go into a lesson assuming or pretending that you are going to have to teach a class about that topic.
Whether you are attending a class at the local music school, taking a lesson or simply watching an instructional DVD think about how you would teach the material to a student.
This will help to keep you focused and give you a purpose.
Having a purpose always intensifies the learning process.
You will be searching for the principles and for ways to explain them.
Write a lesson plan.
Create a lesson plan for what ever it is you are working on.
Even before you completely understand it.
Write down an outline with bullet points that you could use to present a lesson on the material to a student or class.
Next write down all of the potential questions that your students may have.
Simply going through this process of organizing the material will greatly increase your understanding and clarity.
If you want you can go further and teach this lesson plan to someone (as mentioned above).
Or you could record yourself giving the lesson, then listen back and decide if your points were clear and concise.
Was your information clear and meaningful? Have someone else listen to it and critique it.
Using these methods will greatly increase your depth of understanding and mastery of any subject.
It will also prepare you to work as a teacher.
For many musicians teaching and performing go hand in hand.
It's a great way to supplement your income, help others achieve their goals and it's an extremely powerful tool to enhance your own musical development.
By having to articulate and explain a subject, you clarify the subject in your own mind.
You stumble upon new connections and analogies.
You increase your depth of understanding and achieve mastery.
Here are a few ideas to apply this concept to your own musical growth.
Find 'students' and teach them about what you're working on.
Teach your parents, your little brother or your girlfriend.
Teach your musical buddies and your friends about what you're working on.
Now a question you might be thinking is "what if they don't know anything about jazz drumming, how am I going to teach them about it?" All the better.
Some times a student with no background in your subject can be very advantageous.
It means you will have to simplify down to basic principles and explain it with out the use of jargon.
You'll be forced to come up with creative everyday analogies that they can relate to.
By going through this process of explaining, simplifying and answering questions you will gain a deeper understanding of the basics and fundamentals of your subject.
Their questions will bring to light the areas you are unclear about, thus informing you where to focus next.
Go into a lesson assuming or pretending that you are going to have to teach a class about that topic.
Whether you are attending a class at the local music school, taking a lesson or simply watching an instructional DVD think about how you would teach the material to a student.
This will help to keep you focused and give you a purpose.
Having a purpose always intensifies the learning process.
You will be searching for the principles and for ways to explain them.
Write a lesson plan.
Create a lesson plan for what ever it is you are working on.
Even before you completely understand it.
Write down an outline with bullet points that you could use to present a lesson on the material to a student or class.
Next write down all of the potential questions that your students may have.
Simply going through this process of organizing the material will greatly increase your understanding and clarity.
If you want you can go further and teach this lesson plan to someone (as mentioned above).
Or you could record yourself giving the lesson, then listen back and decide if your points were clear and concise.
Was your information clear and meaningful? Have someone else listen to it and critique it.
Using these methods will greatly increase your depth of understanding and mastery of any subject.
It will also prepare you to work as a teacher.
For many musicians teaching and performing go hand in hand.
It's a great way to supplement your income, help others achieve their goals and it's an extremely powerful tool to enhance your own musical development.
Source...