Group Lessons - Structuring a Lesson

I have outlined lesson structure in an earlier post, so this post is specifically about structuring a lesson for a group class.

Warm-up

The warm up in a group lesson is the time when everyone comes together and begins to focus on the lesson.  The students have all come from different places – home, ballet lesson, t-ball game and it is your job to knit them into a cohesive unit.  The warm-up is also the time anyone running late can join in without missing any new learning.

Main body

The main body of a group lesson is for learning new material/skills.  If the group is using a tutor book, then I’ll focus on this now.  Often tutor books just have solo pieces (with a few duets/trios sprinkled in).  I’ll usually spend say ½ - ¾ of the lesson on the tutor book.  The aim isn’t really to get through the book as fast as possible, but rather to make sure students understand all the concepts. 

I’m happy to go back in the book to reinforce concepts already learned.  Chances are someone hasn’t understood it fully the first time, and it’s always fun to play songs that you already know.  It’s good to point out that once upon a time we found these songs tricky, but now they’re easy!

One game I like to do with a group is play through the piece, but with each person taking turns to play each bar.

Ensemble

One of the best advantages of group lessons is working on ensemble playing.  Most students will end up playing in some kind of orchestra or band at some point, so why not teach these skills now.  From the beginning you can play simple duets/trios, or have one student picking the tune while the others play the chords. 

Students learn to listen to each other and to listen to themselves.  They learn that even if they make a mistake, they have to keep playing; no one is going to wait for them to catch up.  They learn about intonation and rhythmical accuracy.  Usually I end a group lesson by playing an ensemble piece.