Instrumental Teaching

Dr Janet Mills began her career teaching music (and mathematics) in a comprehensive school in West Yorkshire. Subsequently, she was a teacher educator at Westminster College in Oxford and the University of Exeter. Her work as an HM Inspector of Schools included observation of more than 1000 instrumental lessons and the development and implementation - with instrumental teachers - of the first national system for inspecting Local Authority Instrumental Music Services. Along the way, she learnt violin and singing, and taught herself to play several other instruments. Janet Mills was a Research Fellow at the Royal College of Music in London and in 2004 won a National Teaching Fellowship. She wrote Music in the School (2005), Music in the Primary School (1991), and many articles in books, magazines, and research journals.

• Introduction ; Why teach an instrument? ; Instrumental teachers ; Why take instrumental lessons? ; What instrument? ; Instrumental lessons, music, and life ; The first lesson ; Planning a programme of lessons ; Practice makes perfect? ; Some myths of instrumental learning and teaching ; So, why teach an instrument? ; Appendix 1 - Nuts and bolts: frequently asked questions ; Appendix 2 - How not to teach musically ; Index

This thought-provoking book . . . offers constructive advice to teachers about how to communicate with students . . . Less experienced teachers, in particular, will find much useful practical advice here, and all teachers will be given plenty of opportunity to evaluate their methods.