Jessica Platt's Teaching Philosophy
My philosophy is to nurture each student’s musical ability by providing high quality education, developing individual learning plans and understanding each person’s learning styles. High quality teaching involves careful preparation, long term planning, empathy, discipline, courage, and excellent modeling. A master music teacher should be a consummate performer, a dedicated pedagogue and a caring human being.
I meet students at the level in which they enter my studio and show them what they can become. I employ a wide variety of teaching techniques taken from experience, studies, media, classes, colleagues and teachers. Along with these techniques, interpretation, improvisation, music comprehension, composition, retention and memory work are explored in order to create a strong platform for a musical career. I like to implement collaborative interactions where students can learn from each other to reinforce musical concepts. Weekly studio classes, master classes with renowned performers and pedagogies, and book studies on theory or musical sequencing all help students grow their own skills and knowledge in a safe environment. By being involved in a caring learning environment coupled with high expectations each student can realize their potential while creating an individual plan of study.
Through the study of a wide variety of musical genres, compositions, technical studies and interpretations of prominent virtuosos, my students gain a toolbox of knowledge from which to draw throughout their career. By giving students a solid basis of pedagogical necessities through scales, arpeggios, etudes, music history and theory, I find my students are able to focus on musicality, phrasing, and nuances in music instead of worrying about each technical hurdle.This empowers my students and enables them to learn and grow far after leaving my studio. Under my guidance, students learn to evaluate, create and perform at a high level. My goal is for every student to develop independent learning skills through practice, study and performance.
I find the “spark” that kindles desire in each student to pursue their passions. My favorite moments in teaching are when students come to an understanding of a concept, an “Aha!” moment. A former student struggled to perform a consistent vibrato successfully. She went home one weekend after an extensive lesson on vibrato and came back the next week with the most controlled, perfect vibrato! I was elated. As joyful as these moments are, I love the entire teaching process, especially my own continued education from my own students and of the workshops, festivals and self-growth opportunities I seek out. My teaching has made a difference when my students have learned to love the process of becoming life-long learners, as well fabulous performers and pedagogues.
I encourage all my students to give back in some way to the communities they have come from and to those they find themselves drawn to help. A vital part of a student’s education is the knowledge that service to the community and the world is fundamental. Facilitating volunteer performance opportunities at nursing homes, schools, outreach events, as well as formal concerts, and recitals allows my students to gain confidence, experience and ease as professionals. This tends to help the recruitment and retention of my program as well.
Under my guidance, students not only learn to evaluate, create and perform at a high level. They learn to develop and fulfill short-term and long-term goals as they embark on their own musical journey. In the teaching video I provided, the lesson given was one based on the goals of the student at hand. He decided to audition for a certain orchestra. We had a studio recital before his audition for him to perform his solo piece before taking his audition and have a studio class for him to perform his orchestral excerpts in public before he auditions. Practicing performing in public first and in a safe environment is crucial to build confidence, find areas in which to improve and prepare for the goal of auditioning successfully.
While I love teaching my students, I would be remiss if I did not encourage my students to learn successfully independently from me. The future generations depend on this independence. Too many times students become dependent on their teacher technically, artistically, and emotionally. They struggle when leaving their teacher’s tutelage. I make sure this is not a handicap my students acquire. They have the tools and confidence to practice, create and sustain their musical journey while under my wing and far afterwards. My own studies with Roman Totenberg, John Kendall, Sherry Kloss and William Preucil and others have taught me how to be independent of their tutelage and to use the knowledge acquired to further my own studies and musicality. I am constantly learning, teaching, creating and giving back what I have learned. This cycle should never be broken.
In addition to performance and teaching skills, students must develop business and interpersonal skills needed to organize, finance, promote, and execute events to sustain a livelihood in this ever-changing music industry. The development of music technology skills is also encouraged and almost always used at concerts and events.
My teaching philosophy involves much more than basic string technique, music theory and history. Nurturing eachstudent’s musical ability involves meeting them where they enter my studio and showing them a world where careful planning, discipline, courage, and excellent preparation can bring them to a masterful musical career. I perform on a regular basis. I am constantly researching new and better ways in which to teach and I hone this knowledge with love and kindness even on the harshest of days. I believe in molding amazing human beings as well as amazing musicians.
My philosophy is to nurture each student’s musical ability by providing high quality education, developing individual learning plans and understanding each person’s learning styles. High quality teaching involves careful preparation, long term planning, empathy, discipline, courage, and excellent modeling. A master music teacher should be a consummate performer, a dedicated pedagogue and a caring human being.
I meet students at the level in which they enter my studio and show them what they can become. I employ a wide variety of teaching techniques taken from experience, studies, media, classes, colleagues and teachers. Along with these techniques, interpretation, improvisation, music comprehension, composition, retention and memory work are explored in order to create a strong platform for a musical career. I like to implement collaborative interactions where students can learn from each other to reinforce musical concepts. Weekly studio classes, master classes with renowned performers and pedagogies, and book studies on theory or musical sequencing all help students grow their own skills and knowledge in a safe environment. By being involved in a caring learning environment coupled with high expectations each student can realize their potential while creating an individual plan of study.
Through the study of a wide variety of musical genres, compositions, technical studies and interpretations of prominent virtuosos, my students gain a toolbox of knowledge from which to draw throughout their career. By giving students a solid basis of pedagogical necessities through scales, arpeggios, etudes, music history and theory, I find my students are able to focus on musicality, phrasing, and nuances in music instead of worrying about each technical hurdle.This empowers my students and enables them to learn and grow far after leaving my studio. Under my guidance, students learn to evaluate, create and perform at a high level. My goal is for every student to develop independent learning skills through practice, study and performance.
I find the “spark” that kindles desire in each student to pursue their passions. My favorite moments in teaching are when students come to an understanding of a concept, an “Aha!” moment. A former student struggled to perform a consistent vibrato successfully. She went home one weekend after an extensive lesson on vibrato and came back the next week with the most controlled, perfect vibrato! I was elated. As joyful as these moments are, I love the entire teaching process, especially my own continued education from my own students and of the workshops, festivals and self-growth opportunities I seek out. My teaching has made a difference when my students have learned to love the process of becoming life-long learners, as well fabulous performers and pedagogues.
I encourage all my students to give back in some way to the communities they have come from and to those they find themselves drawn to help. A vital part of a student’s education is the knowledge that service to the community and the world is fundamental. Facilitating volunteer performance opportunities at nursing homes, schools, outreach events, as well as formal concerts, and recitals allows my students to gain confidence, experience and ease as professionals. This tends to help the recruitment and retention of my program as well.
Under my guidance, students not only learn to evaluate, create and perform at a high level. They learn to develop and fulfill short-term and long-term goals as they embark on their own musical journey. In the teaching video I provided, the lesson given was one based on the goals of the student at hand. He decided to audition for a certain orchestra. We had a studio recital before his audition for him to perform his solo piece before taking his audition and have a studio class for him to perform his orchestral excerpts in public before he auditions. Practicing performing in public first and in a safe environment is crucial to build confidence, find areas in which to improve and prepare for the goal of auditioning successfully.
While I love teaching my students, I would be remiss if I did not encourage my students to learn successfully independently from me. The future generations depend on this independence. Too many times students become dependent on their teacher technically, artistically, and emotionally. They struggle when leaving their teacher’s tutelage. I make sure this is not a handicap my students acquire. They have the tools and confidence to practice, create and sustain their musical journey while under my wing and far afterwards. My own studies with Roman Totenberg, John Kendall, Sherry Kloss and William Preucil and others have taught me how to be independent of their tutelage and to use the knowledge acquired to further my own studies and musicality. I am constantly learning, teaching, creating and giving back what I have learned. This cycle should never be broken.
In addition to performance and teaching skills, students must develop business and interpersonal skills needed to organize, finance, promote, and execute events to sustain a livelihood in this ever-changing music industry. The development of music technology skills is also encouraged and almost always used at concerts and events.
My teaching philosophy involves much more than basic string technique, music theory and history. Nurturing eachstudent’s musical ability involves meeting them where they enter my studio and showing them a world where careful planning, discipline, courage, and excellent preparation can bring them to a masterful musical career. I perform on a regular basis. I am constantly researching new and better ways in which to teach and I hone this knowledge with love and kindness even on the harshest of days. I believe in molding amazing human beings as well as amazing musicians.