Wildly Successful Music Teaching to Temperament!!!
I WISH I had known about Keirsey YEARS AGO!!!
By JackDermody on 06-09-2008
As a young teacher, I was completely unaware of Keirsey, MBTI, etc. and would have had better results had I been aware of the technology!! Last month, for the very first time in 20 years, I took on an individual music student. Because of my newfound Keirsey knowledge, his progress is remarkable, if not miraculous, compared to everyone else I have dealt with before.
If this same student had been mine in my younger days, I would have judged him to be easily distracted, disobedient, rude, and “too creative” for the task at hand – and I’d probably have lost him in a six-month period.
His first day, I had him take the KTS-II. Voila, I happened to have on my hands a Rational-Inventor. This kid had all the Rational thinking and behavior imaginable: easily bored, thinking in many directions, tuning out anyone or anything that was not highly interesting, easily distracted by personal projects, etc.
I took the advice of the Learning Styles Report and set a course that made the lessons rich, interesting, and fast-paced. I helped the student set goals with only minimal options and suggestions from me for meeting those goals. I gave him plenty to do and lots of challenges to tackle at the same time. The student’s father had been forcing him to sit down for hours to practice in the past, so I encouraged him to allow the student to study for short, focused periods at his own choosing.
I can’t believe the results in only three weeks. The kid showed up today playing with more accuracy than ever, better rhythm, and much more care with his attack. He played with care, feeling, and for maximum effect on the audience. He said he really related to playing with the band I set him up in. He liked imagining he was playing for high fees. He especially appreciated the variety of tools I gave him that included keyboard backup and CDs. He wanted…and got…resources, variety, plenty of challenges, plenty of decision-making on his own, and so forth.
Amazing. One more reason why temperament technology ought to be part of every single educated person’s repertoire.
Thats really cool that you have found a new way to teach music. My music teacher dropped me when i was in HS because she thought I wasn't practicing. But, i just learned soo slow... i didnt really have a music talent.