Hello dads, I copy+pasted this question from your sister community.

So, long story short: I’ve been a musician for pretty much all my life. After a massive hearing loss, I picked up drums about a year ago and I’ve had so many great teachers myself. Now the local music school asked me if I could teach drums to their kids. They lost their former teacher due to old age.

I have rarely dealt with children. Sure, I was a tutor for some when it comes down to languages, but teaching music? That is so new to me and I’m actually afraid.

I am all gauntlets right now negotiating the deal here: I want espescially girls to learn a new intrument. They must be bored out of themselves just playing the flute, organ and piano.

So, my approach is probably this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL5oBbriJuQ

:D

Any hints or tips you can give me? Please?

I’m a 38 years old lesbian with basically no clue whatsoever when it comes down to dealing with kids… ^^

EDIT: I’m afraid the girls want me to play pop music on the drums, and I get easily bored by that.

Watch one of my drumming teachers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHl_gsd0OR0

XD

  • Hereforpron2@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    0·
    2 days ago

    As far as getting easily bored by pop, a few things:

    • That’s why this is a job and you’re getting paid (hopefully?).
    • You’ve got to meet students where they are if you want them to develop a passion for drumming and eventually for better music. They won’t enjoy it and stick with it if you tell them to play music they don’t like.
    • Think about teaching the fundamentals more than songs in many cases, then find a song where those fundamentals are used. Balance progress towards proficiency, which kids don’t find fun but is the most important, with the type of progress kids like: playing along with popular songs.
    • Pop beats are honestly a great foundation for more interesting genres. You gotta start somewhere simple. Yet, as students come to see just how simple pop is, they are more likely to want to learn more interesting stuff as time goes on. Think of their first requests as gateway beats lol, and then direct them to places where they’ll find more interesting lessons once they are already enjoying the instrument.

    As far as working with kids:

    • Be ready to use traditional notation if you want to set students up for further success in more advanced studies (saying this just based on the first video).
    • It can feel like it’ll be crazy to work with kids, but it’s a lot easier in an activity they’ve chosen rather than a school course they are forced to take. They can be immature, but they will eventually understand the lesson of “this is how you get good, even if it feels more boring to spend half your practice time on techniques rather than just playing along with your Spotify library.” For the kids who really refuse to do so, it’s just “ok let’s learn a new song today,” and you’ll have to just swallow the fact that they aren’t advancing as much as they might otherwise. Those kids are there for a different reason and are still learning about drums.
    • Use stories more than you might with adults. Eg, “Practicing heel toe might feel impossible and boring, but check out this Zeppelin track where he doesn’t need a double kick to play wicked fast, and can therefore still use the hi hat. Bonzo would come home after carving furniture all day and just practice his kick technique so that one day he could play the funnest beats of all time. But he had to start with the simplest drills.”