All month long, we are going to be focusing on group lessons…
In fact, I’m going to deal with 5 common fears next week that studio owners have about starting (or fully committing) to a group lesson program.
These will apply to you whether you are a small studio or a giant school!
They will apply no matter what instrument or discipline you teach.
Today - however - we’re going to talk about recital and exam prep.
How Do You Prepare Students for Recitals and Exams in Group?
Here are some thoughts for you:
1. I prepared students for 2 recitals and 1 Royal Conservatory exam every single calendar year.
2. To save time, I had prepared repertoire lists saved on a LOT of YouTube playlists.
3. I would assign students to go listen to the playlists and pick their song. (I would email parents the link).
4. I gave students about 4 more weeks of prep than I would if I was in a 1-on-1 program
5. I would focus on only that one song for a week or two until I was satisfied that they had plenty of time to get it down.
6. Most of my students would have their song learned, memorized, and internalized with several weeks to spare. Never had any “close calls” or “recital disasters” the final 7 years that I was teaching lessons.
7. Students in my 5-person groups were trained to be really independent… thus, I treated these songs like normal repertoire and they worked on the songs with me in the group class.
8. I treated RCM exam prep the same way. They would pick their exam songs from pre-made YouTube playlists.
9. All exam requirements were worked on during lesson time, except for some of the aural skills…. Those required work at home. However, I would test those aural skills during lesson time.
10. Most years 70%+ of my students were getting 1st Class Honors or above… so my exam prep regimen was working for them… even though I was teaching 5 kids at a time in group!!!
Overall, the students didn’t find exam prep to be that hard.
I believe this was because the “baseline” skill level and preparation I gave the kids made the exam requirements quite achievable.
Conclusion
I hope this was helpful! If you have further questions about exam or recital prep in group, send a reply!
And… if you’d like to learn more about how to implement groups in your studio (or improve an existing program), keep an eye on your inbox… I’m going to be sending nuggets of wisdom each day.
And - I will be registering for my group lesson training at the end of December…
If you’d like to learn more about that, click the button below
It will signal your interest and it will take you to a free resource I’ve created about group lessons!
