I gave my first ever music lesson the other week … in the boardroom of The Pure Sky Club – Warsaw’s premier business venue … for two children and their parents / mentors. The comparison with Jack Black in the film “School of Rock” was palpable. It was made more interesting because both the children read music and have music lessons, whereas I’ve never had a lesson and I don’t read …. (music) …
The most unusual practice room – The boardroom of The Pure Sky Club in Warsaw – with Filip Sobiecki, Agnieszka Kupczynski and her daughter Ariana, Malgorzata Krukowska and her daughter Amelia (not pictured)
Teaching children is much harder than adults. Especially when the two children involved had never met and had completely different temperaments and skills. I had just one hour to gain rapport, find out their wants and needs and provide some kind of learning that they could use. Being put on the spot and given a challenging goal is a great way to learn rapidly. After some initial floundering around, trying to discover what they wished to learn, we found the groove and here are some of the results on youtube:
Research by Professor Adrian Furnham at University College London demonstrates that coaching works when certain conditions apply:
- Good chemistry between the protégé and coach
- An agreed, potent and valuable goal to pursue
- A belief by the protégé that the coach has the required knowledge and skill in order to help, whether in a directive or non-directive way
- The coach has a wide repertoire of relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes to help the protégé
It’s much harder to do when you only have an hour till take off though and your clients don’t quite know what to expect !! And I even got a reference for Linkedin from an 11 year old !!
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For “grown up music lessons” in the context of a corporate jam session contact us via The Academy of Rock.
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