How Can I Be a More Creative Piano Teacher?

It’s so important to know how to nurture nurture creativity and inspiration in our music teaching lives. It’s too easy to get involved in our students and their learning and forget that we also need to practice being creative and know how to stay inspired.

But, it’s easier said than done. Plus there aren’t a lot of “how-to” guides on being creative with piano teaching resources. So I thought I’d share more about the down and dirty process of really learning to be creative. This is step-by-step method I usually follow (albeit loosely) when I’m trying to make a new game (like Music This or That), piece of music (like The Loch Ness Quest), teaching resources (like Rhythm Cup Explorations), etc.

Why do I need to be a more creative piano teacher?

First, I’d like to talk about creativity and why its so important to our profession (and I mean the independent music teaching profession–including piano, violin, voice, etc.).  Every day that we teach, a new personality, a new attitude, a new set of issues, and a new level of maturity walks through our door every 30-45 minutes!

We all know that if we approach every individual with the same problem solving techniques, the same teaching techniques, the same approach, we do not maximize the potential of all of our students.  As teachers, we have to be on our toes all the time to adjust our methods to meet the learning style and the needs of the student.  We have to be creative.  And we have to learn to be creative on the fly which is difficult to do since it is so easy to get stuck in a rut!

So how can I turn into an amazingly creative piano teacher?

1. Learn the REAL definition of creativity.

I think it is important to know what creativity is.  Because if you have an improper definition of creativity (if you believe that creativity is creating something new), you will always be discouraged and never believe that you are creative.   So, what does it mean to be creative? This is my husband’s definition that has changed my life:

Creativity is not creating something brand new.  It is recombining elements that already exist in a new way.

Realizing that we don’t have to create brand new games, ways of teaching, pieces, and incentives from nothing is really freeing! Think of the way the piano was invented. It started way back with stringed instruments. Someone noticed that when a string vibrates, it makes a musical tone. Then, they learned how to stretch the strings to make different tones. Then, someone discovered that blowing through a pipe made a musical tones…fast forward to the organ. Then, someone put two and two together and decided to use a keyboard attached to a plectra which plucked a string instead of having someone pluck it with their hands.

You can easily connect the dots from there. The idea is that each individual started with someone that they knew about and then just built on the idea!

Now, for the rest of this article, I’m going to use a very recent example of one teacher named Sara Campbell who bought something from me and then let it spawn an amazingly fun little incentive program that you might want to use or build on yourself! Read on to see how it’s done and how she did it…

2. Identify the problem to solve.

What are you trying to do? What are you trying to teach? What problem are you trying to fix? What are you trying to motivate? What issue is getting in the way of progress? What are you trying to change? What new element are you trying to add?

Gathering from what Sara mentioned in her article, she wanted to continue to motivate students to work hard even though it’s close to the end of the semester and the recital. She also wanted to motivate her students to tighten their rhythm execution. And incidentally, she’s getting her studio decorated in the process! Keep reading to find out more…

3. Start with what you already know works.

Use a game, tool, idea, word, animal, piece of music, anything with which you are already familiar and you know it works.

Sara purchased Rhythm Cup Explorations and saw how motivating and exciting it was for her students (since it’s “a thing” for kinds these days because of the “When I’m Gone” song). So, her starting point was Rhythm Cup Explorations which she knew worked well with students.

4. Change something. Add something. Subtract something.

Change anything: the game piece, the concept drilled, the question you ask the student, the order the concepts are presented, the key, etc. The idea is not that you will come up with something entirely new, but that by changing one thing, this will lead you in a new direction (though maybe not right away) and eventually help you create something that doesn’t yet exist.

In Sara’s case, she didn’t change anything about Rhythm Cup Explorations, but rather added colorful pictures of cups on the wall in which students can put colorful flowers when they complete an exercise with precision. She’s also offering the cup pictures free on her site. Keep reading….

5. Ask lots of questions.

Ask:

• “How does this work?”
• “Why does this work?”
• “How can I use this to teach xx?”
• “How would changing this part of this thing change the process?”
• “Why is this not fun?”
• “Why do kids like this?”
• “What do kids like?”
• “Will students like this?”
• Etc.

I don’t know exactly what questions Sara asked, but at some point in her teaching career, she asked enough questions and observed kids enough to know that they like being in a “club,” they like stickers, and they like to impress others!

6. Learn more.

Google everything. Look at existing books. Look what other people are doing. Get involved in piano teacher chat groups.

Don’t create in a vacuum, because chances are, it’s already been done before. But, if you get out there and learn about everything that is similar to what you are creating, you’ll stand a much better chance of being novel.

7. Create your idea and then tweak, tweak, tweak, and when necessary, discard!

One of the hardest things to do is to get rid of something in your creation that isn’t working. Even harder is to actually realize that it’s not working. Pay attention and be honest.

So Sara is trying it all out for us and maybe she’ll blog more about how it’s working soon, but I hope you can see how this process is really quite simple. Just find the problem you are trying to solve, start with what already exists, build on it and tweak things!

Here’s Sara’s blog post where she outlines all she’s doing with Rhythm Cup Explorations! You can also download her springy cup pictures for free. Thanks Sara!

As you tweak things, you’ll get more and more ideas. Creativity always begets more creativity. Sometimes the tough part is just getting out of the chair and getting started!

READ MORE:

• The Piano Teacher’s Cheat Sheet for Creative Piano Teaching
• What is Creativity?
• Am I Creative?
• Rhythm Cup Explorations