Dombroski-Coyle-Ch. 10 and Epilogue

I really enjoyed reading the football story inside of chapter 10. Martinez had a way of reaching and connecting to the kids, and I think that is one of the best things to do when teaching someone. It reminded me of the piano teacher that all the kids loved going to because she genuinely cared about them. Martinez learned who the kids are and how they thought, and then the reason behind them wanting to be taught. He taught things specifically for them, and often had to think of which way they would learn best quickly. He said "Sixty percent of what you teach applies to everybody, the trick is how you get that sixty percent to the person." I think this is so true! In a voice lesson, most students are going to be taught about breath, tone, musicality, etc but each person learns differently so hopefully a teacher has a few tricks up their sleeve to help each student individually. 

The epilogue was very interesting. In the business section, we learn that Toyota makes thousands of small changes a year. Coyle says that to do that they have to work through every little mistake and not just smooth it over. This hit for me, when I practice I have the tendency to want to sing through and ignore my mistakes but it will be more beneficial for me if I stop and fix them, even if it takes more time and patience. This also applies to teaching. I will have to make decisions on what we will "fix" each day and I don't want to completely overwhelm the student but also I think it's good to stop and take time to work on certain techniques. My goal is to never have them sing through a piece twice in a row without at least one thing to focus on the second time. The psychology section was also interesting to me. I thought it was so interesting that social skills can be taught and normalized, but it makes sense. There may be exceptions to this, but I've definitely found this to be true. When I was younger I would get so nervous when I played the piano in front of other people, my hands would shake and I felt this inner panic that made me want to hide. But I pushed through and now I've played so much in front of others it doesn't even phase me anymore. But this took lots of performing before I felt this comfortable. This might apply to how students feel about certain things in a voice lesson. For example, if they are scared to mess up then lessons will be hard because they won't be vulnerable enough to improve quickly. Their relationship with error might improve with encouragement from the teacher, but also with practice making those errors. 

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