[Guest Teacher]

I am getting a lot of spam coming in this weekend from the following “individual” – please watch out; it is a set email and certainly spam.

The email says:

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Williams B
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2019 at 20:51
Subject: Private Guitar lessons
To:

Hi Andrew,

This is Williams B and i would like to know if you do Guitar lessons?
I intend booking a Private session for my teenagers and also if you do accept all major credit card?

Looking forward to your respond..
Williams

—

Also had it from another email address using the same template email. If you have received this too please comment here – I want music teachers to stay safe out there!

[Guest Teacher]

Beckie,

I have a similar student at the moment, and have worked at a learning disability school in the past.

To help me manage my current “difficult” student, I actually met with her mum out of work to discuss her condition and tactics to handle it. It was very useful to come up with a plan of action, and now we’re pretty good at managing her outbursts.

Generally, I’ve found it’s all about personal connection.
Try and find a way to understand and bond with them even if it’s over something simple like a basic melody or song they enjoy. Then when things start getting out of hand try and steer it back to the melody/song and back to having fun. Try and distract with fun exercises, and don’t be afraid to go off the beaten track, since you’ll only find out what works with this person through trial and error.

The most important thing in my opinion though is trying to understand how they feel and finding common ground.

Hope this helps, and good luck. It’s very hard not to let a learning difficulty become a teaching difficulty!

[Guest Teacher]

I have only taught 2 Children with Autism (Mild) the second one
liked coming to see my Yamaha U3 and he also liked my house!
He was very placid at that time as long as he was on his own with me(of course he also liked me!) We got on very well and he
eventually did the first MTB Exam and got 83% (A Silver Award)
After this he gave up and never came back! He said he wanted to do the exams where you didn’t have to go to a Exam Centre,
ie in a different building, and that’s why we did the MTB exam.
His mother just said he wanted to play outdoors on his new bike!
Very Confusing

[Guest Teacher]

use a structure and methods such as those others have outlined, but we all like familiarity- give the lessons a shape that becomes familiar, and free improvising may not be bad- channel the messing around if you can. Link in with methods being used in other learning and use mum to get some consistent approaches, as the child will benefit from this. he may have some form of IT support (often in the form of specific devices) that can be used as well for preparation and notes.

[Guest Teacher]

The piano lesson cannot be the only form of learning where the pupil experiences the kind of organisation and tips you see above.