After weeks of phone calls and emails, I finally have a scheduled interview with a local music store for the position of ukulele instructor. This is a fantastic opportunity, as this music store is regularly voted as best music store and musical lessons provider in the county (currently the most wealthy county in the US by average income). I'm super excited for the chance to teach lessons at such an awesome local store.
That said, I was hoping I could get some advice from the UU folks. As part of the interview, I have to teach a 25 minute practice lesson to one of the store employees, under the assumption that they're a complete beginner. I was wondering what I should attempt to cover in the lesson. I have taught before, but most of my experience was with special cases. Someone who was competent in uke but wanted to overcome a plateau, a 7 year old girl with ADD and dyslexia, and others who weren't terribly interested in music, etc. They've also been relatively informal lessons with flexible structure. Because of that, I'm not sure how exactly to approach a formal initial lesson with a pure beginner in mind. Obviously I know what someone needs to learn as a pure beginner (basic terms, basic strumming, basic chords), and I don't think I'll have an issue teaching those things. I'm just wondering how to structure the lesson so that its a. not boring, b. not overwhelming, and c. covers sufficient material. I have a general idea of what I want to cover, but if any of you all have any sage advice for me, I would be glad to learn from those with more experience wish me luck!
-Phil
That said, I was hoping I could get some advice from the UU folks. As part of the interview, I have to teach a 25 minute practice lesson to one of the store employees, under the assumption that they're a complete beginner. I was wondering what I should attempt to cover in the lesson. I have taught before, but most of my experience was with special cases. Someone who was competent in uke but wanted to overcome a plateau, a 7 year old girl with ADD and dyslexia, and others who weren't terribly interested in music, etc. They've also been relatively informal lessons with flexible structure. Because of that, I'm not sure how exactly to approach a formal initial lesson with a pure beginner in mind. Obviously I know what someone needs to learn as a pure beginner (basic terms, basic strumming, basic chords), and I don't think I'll have an issue teaching those things. I'm just wondering how to structure the lesson so that its a. not boring, b. not overwhelming, and c. covers sufficient material. I have a general idea of what I want to cover, but if any of you all have any sage advice for me, I would be glad to learn from those with more experience wish me luck!
-Phil