Keeping The Beat:

Each week, I will ask the student to think of a song they like. We’ll start the lesson by being up on our feet, and marching or clapping in time to the song.

Listening Game:

It’s important for children to develop aural skills at a young age. To make it fun, I have paddles with different pictures of animals on them. I’ll hold a paddle up, and the student will have to make the sound associated with that animal, using the instrument they’re learning. For example, a lion would be loud, and a bird would be high.

Song:

At this point, we’d take a brief look at the song the student is working on for the week.

Improvisation:

We’ll take a break from the song to work on our creativity and imagination. The student will pick a topic, character or a story and use the instrument to express it.

Song:

We’ll take another look at the song.

Practicing Plan:

We’ll discuss the practicing plan for the week. This normally consists of practicing the song or skill that we’ve been working on, along with a fun worksheet about music that involves colouring and creativity!

Student’s Choice:

I’ll end the lesson by allowing the student to choose what they would like to do from any of the fun activities we have done in the past.

Discussion:

We’ll discuss the student’s week, and how they felt about their practice time. If they didn’t enjoy it, we’ll discuss ways to make it more enjoyable.

Navigating the Instrument:

We’ll learn about different parts of the instrument, and how we create different sounds.

Clapback or Playback:

We will take turns clapping or playing a simple rhythm or melody, and having the other play or clap it back.

Scales or Improvisation:

We will alternate between learning technique one week, and working on our creativity the next week.

Brief introduction to music theory: We’ll discuss the basic aspects of music theory, such as the names of notes and the length of rhythms.

Song:

We’ll take a look at the song of the week.

Practicing Plan:

We’ll make a plan for practicing, and will discuss any potential theory worksheets that will be completed over the week.

Student’s Choice: I’ll end the lesson by allowing the student to choose what they would like to do from any of the fun activities we have done in the past.

Discussion:

We’ll discuss your week, practicing progress and goals for the upcoming week.

Warm-Up:

I’ll lead you in a brief warm-up to get ready to play.

Technique:

We’ll review the technique from last week and introduce the technique for the upcoming week.

Repertoire:

We’ll spend the majority of our time working on the repertoire that you’ve picked out, and on achieving your personal musical goals.