Music

Piano Majors Teach Community Kids One-on-One

"Way cool."

"Really fun."

These are the responses of some of Ithaca College’s youngest students, 8-year-old Emily Burdett and her 10-year-old brother, Kevin, when asked about taking classes at Ithaca College. You may see these two and numerous other youngsters in the recital halls, lobbies, and practice rooms of the James J. Whalen Center for Music. These kids aren’t actually enrolled at IC, but their classes are piano lessons that they take from IC students in the teaching intern program (TIP) for piano performance majors. TIP, directed by assistant professor of piano Deborah Martin, brings piano students from the Ithaca community together with IC piano performance majors who want to learn how to give private lessons.

TIP interns teach weekly, half-hour, one-on-one lessons to students ranging in age from 6 to 14. (Last year there was one adult as well.) The majority of the students are new to piano and music instruction. Martin tries to pair similar intern and student "personality types" while juggling everyone’s scheduling needs. Beginning interns teach only one student, while more experienced interns may teach two or three students, depending on their class load. Martin supervises the lessons on a rotating basis and then holds discussion sessions with the interns, offering tips and techniques to improve their teaching. She also gives teachers written comments on each lesson that she observes.

Since the program began in the fall of 1997, it has grown from 11 students and 9 interns to 27 students and 11 interns. The positive community response confirmed one of Martin’s reasons for beginning the program: "Three years ago," she says, "I had so many calls from people in the community who wanted piano instruction for their children but couldn’t find a teacher with openings. I knew it was a good time to try to begin this venture." She thought, too, that TIP would appeal to many parents "not only because their children think it’s fun to go to college for lessons, but because they can schedule more than one lesson in a single time slot — great for parents with more than one child — and also get quality, supervised instruction at a good rate."

Martin also began TIP because she was eager to test the waters of interest in piano pedagogy at IC. She says, "The majority of piano performance majors will teach private lessons at some point" after graduation, and their course work at IC does not train them for this specifically. "Ithaca College has a strong music education department," Martin says, "but that training is for students who will be teaching music in a larger classroom setting of a school." Teaching private lessons is much different from classroom teaching, and "it’s a skill that doesn’t come naturally to all piano majors. So many people just assume that if you know piano, you know how to teach. It’s not just what you learn in class, but the experience of actually doing it [that is the best preparation]. So I thought that if I can be a mentor to these IC students, get them started with teaching and give them individual attention, it will be very beneficial to them."

After just a few lessons with students and review sessions with Martin, many of the IC interns are surprised by the amount of work that goes into teaching. They learn they have to adjust lessons to the different learning styles their students have, since what works well for one student might not work for another. These interns have to be creative, patient, caring, flexible, and fun, as well as being prepared and responsible. Interns also learn some business management skills through TIP; they are paid directly for the lessons they teach, must keep their own accounts, and are responsible for paying their taxes. And they can receive course credit for TIP as independent study.

Martin reports that the IC interns have given "lots of positive feedback" on TIP evaluations. Ellie Phillips-Burdge ’98 participated in TIP during her senior year and says she is "very grateful for the knowledge that I gained from the program." She credits the success she had with her students in TIP for the confidence to go out and teach on her own. She was able to put together her own studio of piano and voice students just after graduation. "Having Deb Martin as a mentor," she says, "was very beneficial. Getting insight, techniques, and suggestions about teaching from someone as experienced as Deb was like being in a one-on-one student teacher program."

Interns, students, and parents agree on the positive value of TIP. One parent wrote on her evaluation form that TIP "has been great as a beginning experience for my children. The enthusiasm of the interns and Debbie Martin has rubbed off on my children, who have grown to love playing the piano."

Emily Burdett agrees: "When school starts in September, I am always so excited because that means I can also start my piano lessons at Ithaca College again."