How To Be A 'Spider-Teacher’: Spinning With Your Students

What do spider webs and teaching methods have in common? Well, one thing all good teaching methods do is the introduction of manageable amounts of new material every lesson. Each new lesson builds on what the previous lessons have done. It's just like connecting a string to a web, strengthening and expanding it.

This sounds good in theory. But in practice, if you teach genres like pop, rock or jazz, students often come to class with songs they love and want to learn. Of course, their enthusiasm should only be encouraged! Yet it does make teaching challenging. While following an instructional book allows for a careful buildup, this incremental increase in difficulty and material every lesson is trickier to manage with music your students bring to class themselves.

As a teacher you need to be creative and use the music they like to find ways to spin their webs of skill and knowledge. And you need to spin a comprehensible amount into what they already know with every new lesson. This is challenging, but it's definitely worth trying. I keep the ‘web metaphor' in mind with every student I have. In this article I'll share how I use it to help them steadily develop while keeping it fun.

So let's tune into our spidey-senses and start spinning!

Building a web one strand at a time

The key to this approach is to have students learn one new element at a time, connecting it to what they already know. This also solidifies their existing knowledge, helping them understand it on a deeper level. It's like an extra string of silk in the web for stability, adding strength to their “web” of skills. The goal is to limit the amount of new material, while working with music that students like to keep them interested.

So, what does this look like in practice? For a beginner, who can just play a few chords, try to find a song with one new chord. Or if they bring in a song they really want to learn, use a capo to allow them to play it using chord shapes they (mostly) already know. This gives them a feeling of pace and progress, which is great for motivation.

Another example. If you have a student who's a bit more advanced, you can focus on different aspects of a song. Of course, there's technically mastering the song, but you can also train their ears by helping them to figure out the song by ear. Songs are also an excellent way to get into theory. For example, figure out the key of the song together, analyze the chord progression, or identify the scales used in the solo. These are all topics that are tricky to teach without an existing web to build off of. It's easier to teach them using songs.

It is important not to start from a completely new point with every new song a student learns. Instead, try to build connections between songs. For example, maybe the new song uses the same chord progression as an earlier one. Or you can explain how both songs use the same fretboard shapes, using the CAGED system.. This is how you weave a connection between songs with a string of theory.

Using analogies to explore new ground

Sometimes, especially when you're exploring new areas with students, it can be harder to find connections to what they already know. An effective solution can be to think outside the box and make connections to things outside of music. Language is often a great guide. There are many comparisons to be made with language that make intuitive sense and give students a rough idea of what they should be doing.

Say, you're teaching a student how to improvise over a 12-bar blues. We can tap into language and point to blues lyrics. Traditional blues lyrics follow this structure:

question (4 bars) - question (4 bars) - answer (4 bars).

This is something you can emulate while soloing. Maybe give your student three notes they can use (limiting their options makes it easier) and let them play a phrase in the first four bars (question), repeat the same phrase the next four bars (question) and let them play something else for the final four bars (answer), still using the same three notes.

The comparisons to language ('question' and 'answer') help students tell a structured story while improvising. You've used a non-musical point from which to start spinning a musical web. Next you can expand this web, allowing students to choose from more notes, a full scale, certain intervals, introducing theory about what they are playing, having them play 'patterns or statements' over a single chord. Or you can connect to their already existing web by working your way back to improvising over a song they learned before.

Future-proofing webs

Following a certain method or book with students is like working with a blueprint. So if instead, you're using the songs your students suggest, you're spinning a web without that blueprint. This means that you as a teacher should pay attention to the gaps in your students' playing and challenge them in a fun way to close those gaps with plenty of silk. What's more, a student might not be aware of what skills they will need in future musical situations. Maybe they'll start playing in orchestras or bands, and as a teacher you can prepare them for it. Sometimes, this will involve introducing directions students might not initially be interested in or drawn to. But even if they don't like certain topics or don't see the point, at least you'll have introduced a much-needed small bit of web they might be able to build on later.

Final thoughts

Teaching using a book or fixed method can cause students to lose interest. On the other hand, teaching using songs that students like might not help students develop the skills effectively, which can also sap motivation. But by being aware of this 'knowledge-and-skill-web' and trying to build on that with the music students love, you can combine the best of both worlds.