Thomas J. West Music

Earlier today, I had a rather frustrating session with my middle school strings class. It seems that they want me to spoon-feed them every single measure of their performance music in class rather than put in the work and figure it out for themselves. What happened to having a work ethic?

In this age of instant gratification, having to invest long-term time and energy in building a skill is a difficult sell for many young people. It occurred to me that the veteran students in my class, with a few exceptions, did not come in the door last year or the year before with that work ethic instilled in them either. 3/4 of the class are new students, and most of them have never played a musical instrument before.

Before jumping to any self-pitying conclusions, I realized that:

• My veteran students have been through the process with me at least once and do understand how much they improved on their instrument because of it. Even though some of them do not present their new classmates with the best role models for being on task, they do "get it."
• My veteran students, in most cases, had to be convinced that the repetition process was necessary to produce quality results.
• My rookie students, with three exceptions, are coming into my program with no prior experience, a desire to learn, and absolutely no prior work ethic or expectations for performance placed upon them.

Yes, the new folks have to be convinced that hundreds of repetitions are necessary for success. Yes, the veterans have to be convinced that they don't know it all and still have a lot to learn. We'll get there - one class at a time.

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