Begin Again: The Case for Experimentation in Your Music Teaching Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning

Happy New Year!

The change in the calendar year reminds us that there are things in life that ebb and flow. There's comfort in that familiar rhythm, the cyclical nature of our seasons, our routines. What does the beginning of a New Year signify for you? What kind of season do you find yourself in these days?

I recognized recently that I am in a season of learning.

Of course, I am still actively teaching five days a week, but at the same time, I'm reflecting, jotting down stories and realizations at the end of the teaching day—things I'd like to do differently next time or things I didn't plan but observed or participated in that ended up teaching me something as well as my student.

I'm reading and incorporating a few new teaching approaches and testing them out in particular lessons. I'm studying new repertoire and brushing up on my music history to share with my intermediate students this semester. I'm also embracing being a beginner in something outside of music.

This season is marked by experimentation—that desire to try something new, play with it, and study the results. How does it work? How does it feel? What are the benefits and challenges? What will I do differently next time?

Do you go through seasons like this, where you want to explore and uncover new ways of doing things? Where you want to study something, take it apart, and put it back together? Where you want to remind yourself what it feels like to be a beginner?

Here are four ways I'm embracing experimentation in my music teaching this season.