Do you lesson plan?

Edited: December 11, 2025, 6:27 PM · Generally, no, I just adapt to whatever the student is doing that week when I see them. I have a general trajectory in mind for each student.

I also really don't care much for teaching and prefer repair and gig work any day of the week. Not that I don't care for my students' success, if they put the work in. But most students are just taking lessons because their parents want them off the computer for a bit.

Edited: December 11, 2025, 9:36 PM · Once in a blue moon I'll have one piano student for a little while, never more than one at a time. I have no training as a music teacher. All of my piano students have wanted to learn something different. I feel it's important to work toward a goal. One wanted to be able to sit down at the piano surrounded by friends and "play something" selected from a short repertoire of pop tunes. One wanted to learn "real" jazz, my specialty as a "semi-pro" performer (heavy emphasis on "semi"). The most recent one wants to learn to play "blues piano." I try to make sure that each module (a lesson and an assignment to prepare for the next lesson) includes learning a new tune, something that will improve technique, however glacially, and some listening. Preparing the listening part of the assignment is the most challenging (read: enjoyable) and time-consuming for me because I need, myself, to listen to several YouTube videos and then pick out a handful of elements that I want my student to listen for, like ear-learning the basic riff of a 12-bar blues or other tasks that will require the student to listen with a critical ear. I try to provide a framework that will allow the student to get out of their lessons what they put into their own learning and advancement.

With violin teaching, I think there is a sense that the method books exist partly to help teachers maintain a studio large enough to earn one's living without having to spend half an hour scouting out the next piece for every student or writing bespoke technical exercises. The next piece (and the next study) is nearly always just the next one in the method book, which ideally adds both technical and musical content gradually over time. If you ask a Suzuki violin student what's their goal for this year, the answer is likely to be something like "Finish Book 3." If you ask the student's teacher, you're likely to get a more nuanced answer like, "Develop clean shifting among first and third position and passable intonation in diatonic passages in violin-favorable keys." Generally missing from this common formulation is critical listening. Mark O'Connor has also argued -- convincingly, in my opinion -- that improvisation is also missing.

Edited: December 11, 2025, 10:21 PM · Hah, Paul, I'd better not start talking about method books tonight :) I agree that a good method book makes a teachers life simpler! Suzuki does not really work straight up that way...a discussion I think we've had on here many times. But it does have a good progression which provides a nice framework for a lot of things!

I agree with OConnor about improv. Incorporating that in tandem with violin-facing music theory is one of the things I really work on, and something I do have to be pretty intentional about. A curriculum of listening is not something I've honestly even thought about outside of the Suzuki concept. My initial reaction is, valuable- but I don't even know where I'd start to implement!

December 12, 2025, 1:21 AM · My instructor says, “what would you like to work on today?” Maybe that’s because I’m her eldest student.
I’ve just started putting together a better lesson plan for myself. I’m not sure if I’ll show it to her.
I’ve always used a PDF lesson plan for my beginner music students.