Without wanting to sound big-headed , it occurred to me whilst teaching this week that a majority of my students don't have some of the natural skills I always took for granted when I was learning. I sometimes wonder if I'm the best person to be teaching music as I've never had to overcome the same difficulties as my students and they might need coaching by teachers who have worked hard at solving these problems themselves?

Some of these abilities include-
Perfect pitch- I've never had trouble with singing back melodies or identifying intervals and cadences.
Reading notation- I have never found this difficult and sight-reading was often the best part of my exams!
Memory- Have never had a lapse in the 100 or so exams/ performances I have done
Learning by ear- I can reproduce most pieces I hear

None of these skills were ever taught, I just have them and I'm finding that I don't know how to teach these skills to students as I've never had to work at it. When preparing students for exams, the most difficult part is getting them to sing in tune, as I don't understand how they can NOT sing in tune. I also don't understand why they take so long to sight-read! Of course I'm always trying to put myslef in their shoes and try to talk about specific aspects they find difficult such as singing in steps vs skips and always planning ahead when sight-reading.

Would it be necessary for me to take a workshop in this? I just don't know how to teach what comes naturally to me and I'm sure many other teachers have the same dilemma too. Would like to know what others think..

You are lucky! What about CTABRSM?

I don't think you're being big-headed at all - it takes humility to realise that what you have won't actually equip you that well to pass your skills on without a bit of thought and application.

I'm sure that this is the reason the ABRSM fails to see why it would be of value to have more flexible syllabus requirements - it's probably got people at the top who take for granted that one way of doing things, and can't see that differently talented people have to reach their goals by different means: it's up to a good and insightful teacher to help pupils make the most of what they have.

I've seen teachers attempt to teach one skill in only one set way, repeating themselves over and again, and getting frustrated that their pupils appear too dim to absorb the information, when in fact it is simply that a different approach is needed. My particular problem is with rhythm, and during my childhood the methods taught to me were the wrong ones for me - only now, very slowly, in my forties, is this problem starting to be corrected, thanks to some excellent teachers. There have been a lot of threads and comments about how to get round pitching difficulties with pupils (especially with the dreaded singing tests), and others helping with memorisation strategies but if there are workshops available in which teaching skills in varied ways are taught, I'm sure they would be very useful.

I don't remember finding these things difficult, but then I've been learning for years and have probably forgotten how difficult they might have been at first. I have found much of this comes from experience, and learning that each person is different and needs to be taught things in different ways.

Not sure it's too much about the nature vs. nurture argument. I've discovered some very talented musicians who just needed me to provide an appropriate key to unlock the door to understanding.

For example, I too was considered to have perfect pitch and have found it difficult to understand why students don't always find it as easy as I did. However, much of this is due to the childs musical experience before lessons ie. have they ever been asked to sing before? (not just mouth words in school assemblies!). We just focus on finding one pitch, and I often get them to match my voice first, which is always more effective than piano. I have also found that adding silly words to melodies you're asking them to sing back, makes an incredible and surprising difference.

I really don't remember learning to read music as it was a skill I learnt at such a young age that I simply can't remember finding it difficult. I have now adopted all sorts of different strategies according to the difficulties being faced by the student, although I have to confess, this is one area in which I would like to develop more.

To finish, I find exploring ways to enable students to understand certain concepts, has aided my own development as a musician, as I now spend a lot more time thinking about those skills which appear to come easily.

I have had similar problems for the same reasons - perfect pitch, good memory and been reading music as long as been reading words, and I have had to think really hard about teaching aural tests, particularly for higher grades. Did I get it right that you teach singing? If so it must be really hard as your 'perfect pitch instrument' is a completely different animal to their non- perfect pitch one! I have seen into this a bit also with my younger daughter who has started singing lessons- she doesn't have perfect pitch - and I found helping her with sight singing a real education for me!!
I've kind of approached it the same way as for my violin pupils, learning to 'feel' the intervals and recognize them by feel as well as sound. We used some of the Trinity sightsinging material, and scales, then jumping up and down particular intervals - 3rds then 5ths- learning to spot them in the music and remembering what they feel like to sing.
I have no idea if this is the way you should do it but it seems to work for her!!!
I will read any hints with great interest...

I've PM'd you, Beagle.

Just a small thought. The key to successfully teaching something - perhaps anything - very often lies in observation. You need to be a wizard at it with children. Try to observe exactly what it is in the task that they find difficult, exactly what they can't produce or have misunderstood and how the misunderstanding came about. Then break down the task to its simplest components and deal with them one at a time.

It is actually suprising, for example, to those of us who have had no difficulty in learning to read music to find that pupils can sometimes, in spite of all our efforts, draw horrendously wrong conclusions. Some that I have discovered are poor readers who thought one or more of the following things:

That stems down means left hand plays and stems up means right hand plays.
That the lines and spaces of the bass clef are the same as those of the treble clef.
That a crotchet and a minim indicate different pitches, not lengths.
That you count lines and spaces from the top downwards rather than the bottom upwards, or that you can do either.

Some pupils find it easy to read treble and bass separately but when trying to read them together, in their brain the treble clef takes over and they read both clefs as treble.

Some children confuse the actual words "high" and "low" rather than the pitch.

Sorry if I am stating the obvious and talking about things you have already noticed but I do think watching pupils closely and asking them why they find something difficult or how they reach the answer to a given question can be quite enlightening. One of the questions I have learnt to ask is "Why do you think that?" - and I now often ask it even if their answer is correct to make sure they have reasoned correctly because the right answer doesn't always mean the right reasoning. I can then correct the wrong or reinforce the
right response.

I'm a piano teacher in fact Just that I have to practice aural tests and singing whenever students have exams, my job would be even more difficult if I was a singing teacher!

I couldn't sing in tune until I was 13 so I feel desperately for my pupils that can't yet, though I am assured it's not unusual and that the pupil will 'find their voice'.

I struggled with keeping a consistent pulse and still have great anxiety about it in my playing. I smile knowingly when pupils speed up in the bars containing longer note values.

I have pupils who can clap a minim pulse to a waltz and can't answer the 2 or 3 time with anything but a guess and others whose attitude is 'why are you asking me this - what's the problem'. Although it's easy now I do remember the internal panic when the questions came up.

We're all different and it's fascinating.

Not sure this helps the OP.

It takes time, patience and practice, to learn the skills required to pass on the skills you developed naturally, but, eventually you will be a better teacher for it.

Good relative pitch, technique and vibrato all came to me naturally on the violin. I've subsequently spent many years working on learning 'how' to teach the same skills to those who don't develop it naturally.... and learnt a lot about myself in the process too!

An analytical mind helps. Try to break a skill down into little chunks and the reconstruct it again. If you can work that bit out, then you will be half way to teaching it to someone else. However, bear in mind that not everyone learns the same thing in the same way. You could explain something to someone in one way and they understand it perfectly. Tell the same to another and you might get a blank stare in return. You need to be able to teach a skill in a variety of ways in order to be sure your message will be received and understood by another.

It does take a while to learn to teach skills we have always had and take for granted.

It came as a shock in my early teaching to discover that not all kids can come out of their first piano lesson with an easy understanding of pitch and rhythm reading. I overcame my lack of experience of this difficulty by accepting that what they can do in a lesson usually represented their natural ability.

This method has its drawback; progress in these early lessons may not be an accurate reflection of natural ability, for all sorts of reasons. After a while, we come to recognise when good\bad progress in a lesson is exceptional and can work within the framework of the pupil's capability.

Beagle, you are already well ahead of so many teachers in that you recognise you have exceptional ability and cannot expect all your pupils to be similarly blessed. There are too many who insist that what they can do is what all should be able to do. Your flexibility will stand you in good stead in the future.

It may be a small thought, but I think it's the key to everything! Sorry to harp back to medical matters again, but doctors don't prescribe without taking stock of the 'problem' at hand, and new company directors have to observe the way things are before they can begin to dictate. Teachers are the same. We aren't lecturers delivering facts from a podium; it's an ebb and flow, and the best teachers don't just think about how to teach - they think "How will they learn?" I was thinking recently about the pupils who have come to me from other teachers, and invariably the ones who have been best taught are the ones who came from young teachers who questioned everything, whatever their own abilities. I'm not meaning to be ageist, by the way! This is just my own experience, and it's probably less to do with age than with an acceptance of having to learn how to impart what we've got rather than simply assuming that because we can do it, we can teach it. We need to search for the right receptors in a pupil, and be mindful of the wally factor. (Please tell me I don't have to define that... ) So I think, Beagle, that you're on the right track there in thinking about it! But don't assume that a course in teaching will give you all the answers; often it will just give you pigeon-holes. The answers are in the pupils themselves and I think the best advice has come from Aquarelle. If you have the desire to question and learn as well as teach, then you're doubly blessed once you add that to your own abilities. Few have both of these qualities.

I think you will always come across things that a pupil finds difficult that you didn't. My Dad was blessed with perfect pitch etc etc and so much natural ability. He used to be able to help me with my music (although he did used to say 'I just don't get why you find aural tests hard- it is so obvious- which isn't helpful when you are frustrated!!!)
I have found many things that different pupils can't do that I might have done by instinct. I wasn't 'taught' much technique and have had to work out how you teach it to someone who doesn't understand.You have to break each skill/ thing down. I ask 'What is it that she/he is finding difficult?' I can tell sometimes by looking and hand position etc. I have had to think about how I do something and break it down into little chunks. You have to be patient.
When I first started teaching I was having tap dancing lessons and that helped me understand what it felt like to struggle at something that didn't come naturally. Gosh - my brain was working hard to remember routines- when my own girls, who were quite young at the time, seemed to be able to remember many.many different dance routines. Maybe you can remember struggling to learn something that didn't come naturally?
I do find that the easiest pupils to teach are the ones who learn in a similar way to the way I learn (and I have a couple of them) and it is fun and rewarding to teach them. However, I have learned the most with some of my pupils who have really struggled with something. One really struggled (clarinet this is) with playing over the break. I had to break it down into small, small chunks. I had lessons when I invited her supportive Mum in and we broke down what we were aiming for into tiny steps. It made me work out the different aspects I was trying to teach- the notation, the hand position, the embouchure issues etc and I had to work out exercises to help her with each step. She co-operated and plodded on and a year and half later, she is mastered all the issues we were struggling with then and she is now progressing in leaps and bounds. That is so rewarding- and I learned so much about learning and can apply that to my teaching.
Maybe the CT course would be a good idea- but don't think that just because you learned something with ease that you can't work out what the barriers to learning a particular pupil has, are. It gives such a buzz when you help someone who is struggling to overcome their particular barriers to learning.