When you say that you teach, you always get some purveyor of wisdom shoving this old chestnut at you. ‘Well, you know what they say? Those that can do and those that can’t teach!’
So if my vision is to be the ‘can do’, by teaching am I destined to be one of the ‘can’ts’?
First Rule of Mastery
The reality is, if you ever want to master something the first step is to teach it. Or to put it a better way – teaching something enables you to learn something to an even deeper level.
This then becomes about mindset and how you approach your work. It is about your belief.
Get Your Mind Set
There isn’t an answer carved in stone that everyone agrees with. People have opinions and those opinions are always revealing their beliefs.
If you approach educational work as a means to expand what you do and augment your income you can also see it as diversifying your work as a musician.
If you come at it from the point of view of this is a backward step, that shows that i can’t really hack it, then you are limiting yourself in what you can achieve in many areas. You are limiting your own self acceptance and your self-opinion.
Define Your Artistry
Why not consider every opportunity as a way for you to develop and as a way for you to stretch. Through teaching you are not identifying yourself as the teacher necessarily, you are stretching the concept of you as a musician and you as an artist that can express themselves through a range of forms.
One of those is education.
This applies not only to teaching, you can take this idea and apply it to many areas of your life. Having the right mindset is the way to set yourself up for success. The expectations that you generate are in many ways self-fulfilling.
If you go into a teaching practice with an attitude of failure it is unlikely that many positive things are going to come out of that engagement for you or your students or clients.
However if you bristle with excitement at this new venture then your enthusiasm and your care for your own development will transmit to those that you are working with in a positive way.
Join the Masters
As the online world has become more accessible and has opened up the range of technology available it has transformed the way that we can work and connect with each other. The number of professional and master musicians who are online offering incredible educational packages is rising.
Consider the master musicians that you are looking up to and those that you see as the sort of musician you aspire to. If you look a little closer and a little deeper you will probably find that they teach as well.
Because for them it is offering some diversity and some stability.
The next time that you take some study for your own playing try this. Let’s say you join an online course for a musician that you really respect, don’t just follow the musical instruction that’s in the course but have a look at they are structuring their teaching work.
Check out how they are presenting it, marketing it, promoting it and how they are encouraging you to get on board and stay with the programme. What are the various ways they manage to get you excited about playing?
As you explore you will find additional things that you can take away from that experience. Things that you can also use to start delivering your own products, lessons, courses or meet ups and events.
Change Your Thinking
A lot of people think that teaching only means working in schools. The world of education is actually changing at great speed and you can consider other options especially if working in schools or colleges isn’t really want you want to do.
Instead you can explore the worlds of video, the world of streaming, the world of hangouts. Look into the world of on-demand multimedia using sites such as Udemy and the various hosted portals. With very little outlay you can easily upload audio video or text of pdf lessons and reach out to a number of students around the world.
This is something that you could then develop further with live events or live lessons or personal coaching or how you develop that in the future.
In Conclusion
Remember to consider your beliefs and your mindset as you approach a new venture especially when it seems that you are heading in a different direction to your vision. Instead see it as a great opportunity to not only earn some more money but also to stretch and deepen who you are as a musician and who you are as an artist.
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