Reflection on Little Kids Rock lecture
I came out of today’s lecture an inspired semi-professional guitar player. I have been heavily influenced by Powell, he spoke so openly and passionately on his philosophies of teaching and that is something I hope to do in the future, to love my job that much that I would inspire people simply by talking about it.
The layout of the lecture was different to anything I have previously done, it was interactive whilst being informative I am a kinetic learner so better at learning by doing instead of being told how something works- this worked very well for me. Powell said numerous things that resonated with me, the biggest thing was making things accessible for your students changing your lesson plan to suit the type of student you have whether it be an advanced student, a beginner or mix- doing this creates a comfortable setting in the classroom and allows the teacher to help their students grow and push them to be their best.
I was appreciative that Powell addressed the issue behind the classical and pop divide and how each component can develop different skills in a musician, his approach to notation being notation whether it’s the ‘classically’ stave notation, tab or written chords. This is something I am very interested in as I have dealt with the ‘elitist’ stigma classical trained people have and the opinion that pop music is ‘easy’ my opinion is that both are good for various reasons and both can teach musicians valuable skills, so having Powell discuss this with us, knowing he has a similar opinion was something that has stuck with me.
Active lessons I believe are a thing that in music are of great importance, practical lessons and having students play together I think can combat many issues musicians have such as performance anxiety, playing in groups like we did in the lecture was more engaging and less intimidating. The type of lessons that Little Kids Rock offer would set up their students with a lot of valuable skills for the future, I am interested and slightly jealous of students taking these type of lessons especially the song writing and composition class as this was something that was not offered to us in my school back home and perhaps if I had I would not be as anxious to write my own songs and compose music. I am grateful that we were able to have this experience and have Powell as a guest speaker as I feel that he has influenced me greatly and perhaps (if I am to go into teaching) my teaching styles and the way I will be in a classroom. I also appreciate the free pick!