Today I had one of my pupils turn up with their right arm in a sling! They hadn't told me in advance that they had broken their arm and I was pleased that they went ahead with their lesson rather than cancelling it. It did however remind me that no matter how much we might plan things as music teachers we always have to be willing to be flexible! Today we spent the lesson working on left hand notes and improvising some tunes based on various scales.
Very often I find a lesson going in a different direction to what I might have planned. For example, a pupil may ask a question, such as "Why are there G sharps in this piece when it ends with a C major chord? C major doesn't have G sharps!" This can then lead to a discussion about A minor scale and relative majors and minors. We can learn how a piece might move from the major key to the relative minor. We might try improvising tunes in both major and minor key and perhaps putting 2 or 3 shorter tunes together to form a longer piece which modulates between major and minor.
This is just one example but there are many ways in which, as teachers, we need to be willing to be flexible. The pupil's mood, the questions they ask and if they've broken an arm can all effect the direction of a lesson. I look forward to seeing what challenges and opportunities tomorrow's day of teaching brings!
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