The Benefits Of Music Performance Evaluation
As parents, you want your children to be successful in all that they do. At school, you might pore over their homework and tests, searching for teacher comments and feedback, making sure that your kids are on track and are gleaning something —– anything! —– from their studies. At soccer practice, you attend matches and scrimmages, supervise practices, and ask the coach for updates on their abilities. At karate, you watch as your students endure belt tests to advance from belt to belt and graduate to the next level.
We know that parents are always looking for a tangible way to measure progress, so how can we gauge students’ progress at music lessons? Is it just a fun outlet for your kid to play a few fun tunes, or are you invested and interested in how well your child is learning their instrument?
Hopefully, you’re looking for the latter, and you’re looking for ways to gauge how quickly and effectively your child is learning their instrument. However, finding a comprehensive learning program can be challenging, as few extracurricular music schools and even fewer out-of-home independent music teachers have a method of assessing progress over time.
Luckily, at the International School of Music, we offer our very own Evaluation Program for our students (and their parents) to track their progress. Our music school utilizes a personalized curriculum that allows you to watch your child blossom and grow into the musician they’ve wanted to become!
Below, we’ve answered some Frequently Asked Questions to help you understand the benefits of Music Evaluation and why it’s important!
What is a music evaluation?
A music evaluation is a short, sweet, simple way for your child to be evaluated by an unbiased adjudicator at our music school. Your student will play or sing their latest and greatest repertoire, and maybe some scales or chords, for an unbiased adjudicator. The adjudicator will point out all the wonderful things your child is already doing in their playing, and will provide suggestions for improvement in the future. All students receive a written evaluation of their performance and a medal with a colored lanyard so they can collect all the different colors!
What are the benefits of music evaluations?
- Evaluations are a great way for students to celebrate their achievements and receive feedback for continued study. The positive reinforcement of earning a medal and certificate motivates students to continue studying and delve further into the music.
- Evaluations provide an invaluable opportunity for students to give a formal presentation of their prepared repertoire, technical exercises and musicianship in front of the faculty.
- Evaluations are a great model for teaching students about setting goals and achieving them. Participating in music evaluations presents an opportunity to recognize musical, technical, and mental obstacles, and plan a strategy for overcoming them.
- Evaluations show how far you’ve come! As you collect different medals and advance to higher levels of musicianship, it’s fun to track your progress and celebrate your success!
The Path to Musical Success
The path to musical success is dotted with milestones and obstacles that you can overcome. With encouragement from the right teacher, careful planning, and a positive attitude, your student will be well on their way to success! Here are some landmarks you’ll encounter on your path:
- Enroll in music lessons on the instrument of your choice with a fun, encouraging, and engaging at the International School of Music!
- Attend weekly lessons, supplemented with frequent practice (practicing outside of our music school is a must).
- Participate in recitals throughout the year.
- Complete method books and master increasingly difficult repertoire.
- Undergo a music evaluation.
- Continue lessons year round (including summer!).
- CONTINUED PROGRESS!
We know motivation to practice, to stay involved, and to come to lessons can ebb and flow over time. Scheduling gets difficult as the seasons and semesters change. Life gets in the way. But we also know that having the ability and access to a structured program is a surefire way to keep boosting morale and set students up for a positive and musical learning experience.
If you’d like to start your journey of tangible musical progress, give our music school a call and schedule an introductory lesson today! Whether you want to learn the bass guitar or the bassoon, piano or percussion, we have music lessons for everyone at The International School of Music.
