Music Lesson Studio Series- Part 7

Which Kind Music Should I Select For My Student?

In my last blog, I talked about how to set goals and expectations for you and your students in private lessons, today I’m going to talk about what kind of music should you select for your students.

Everyone has different interests in music, different skills and abilities, ranging from the very beginner to a professional musician. It’s important as a music teacher, to think about and provide a variety of repertoire (or a collection of music) that best fits each student’s needs, talents, skills and abilities.

Here are some questions to consider on what repertoire may be appropriate for your students:

How Old is My Student?

Age is very important factor because you want to make sure that the songs they sing or play are appropriate for their skill level and age. When you’re selecting music, also keep in mind the level of difficulty of the music in terms of range, tempo, time signature, key signature and even the context of the song.

What Are My Students Skills Levels, Talents and Abilities?

You will want to determine out what voice part the student sings through voice classification. The voice types in general are soprano, mezzo-soprano alto, tenor, baritone and bass.

You will want to find out the student’s voice part with range, timbre (or color) and mode of speaking as a way to determine what voice classification they are. (We’ll talk more about voice classification in specifics later with these terms.)

You will need to give students an assessment if they can read music or not. Maybe they’re beginners because they haven’t learned how to read music before. Do they have any previous music training? What are their specific talents and what skills do they have already?

What Kind of Music Do My Students Enjoy?

Find out what kind of music they’re interested in. It could be any genre such as musical theatre, jazz, classical, country, rock or opera, etc.

You want to choose that is fun students to play or sing. If the music is too difficult rhythmically or the key is too high, then it won’t be the best experience for the student, so you would want to change to another song that might be a better fit .

Check out this helpful article on choosing the best music genre for your students.

Again it’s important as a music teacher to select a variety of music music for your students is because, it’s fun, it’s engaging you want students to have the best experience in their music lessons. Music is expressive, joyful and meaningful, so selecting quality selections is an integral part of the music learning journey.

Did you find this blog helpful? Comment below and subscribe to my blogs! Let me know in the comment what genres of music you teach to your students. Thanks for reading my blog!

Photo by Ranurte on Unsplash