Teaching music is a huge responsibility and challenge, but also reaps enormous rewards. Today there are a host of colourful tutors to choose from each with their merits and their limitations. Countless teachers of all instruments will have been influenced and inspired by respected music educationalist Paul Harris, and many will already be familiar with, and regular practitioners of, his innovative strategy of ‘Simultaneous Learning’ which he outlines in the best-selling handbook Improve Your Teaching!
Paul writes: “What is the teacher’s job? It is not simply to teach pieces. It certainly ought not be a process of correcting pupil’s mistakes – a form of passive (or reactive) teaching that is boring and de-motivating for both teacher and pupil alike. It should be to teach pupils to become better musicians – and this can come from a process I call simultaneous learning... once you are thinking along these lines lessons begin to take on a new lease of life.”
Paul is the author of numerous leading books and articles on this subject, and he’s now on the look-out for a dedicated team of ‘disciples’ to help him to spread the word. This is an open invitation to teachers everywhere, of al l instruments and musical styles, to become a practitioner and educator in the theory of Simultaneous Learning, to share your knowledge with your colleagues and to broaden the musical horizons of teachers and pupils alike. Perhaps you already use Simultaneous Learning in your teaching and you’re used to leading workshops, INSET days and providing training or you may be new to the concept and keen to find out more about how you can use it...