How To Be A Better Student | The Millennial Edit

Conversations surrounding teaching most often start from the view point of the teacher.

How can we become better teachers? How can we be more efficient? Or tailor our skill set more finely to our students’ needs?

Often when we look back to our own educational journey, we see the flaws of teachers that we have studied with and we adjust our principles to what we would do differently, given the chance to be in the teaching position one day ourselves.

However, we do not often see the flaws in our position as a student in any deeper capacity than the obvious ‘I could have practised more’.

It is interesting. Especially as we can hardly expect to be better teachers if we do not think deeply about what we are requiring from our students.

Learning to be a better student is not just a solution for teachers, of course if you learn how to function better in the student position you will learn a lot more through the course of your education, and even on into the rest of your life.

This is massively important for artists as we are a group that hope to learn throughout our lives and will spend most of our lives as students under our own tutelage.

So how can we become better students?

Learn To Be Curious

Being curious is one of the most important parts of the learning process. A large part of honing our skill must be developing a real sense of wonder around the work that we do.

However inspired we feel we are when we begin the journey of learning something new, we must accept that the motivation levels we begin with will wane with time.

We cannot rely solely on our teachers to provide us the inspiration required to get us to where we want to be. Scratching the surface of a new skill is the first step, but we must continue to scratch away at the resources there are to be found; especially when the internet brings knowledge so much closer to us.

Especially in an artistic field, there is an unending plethora of information waiting to be uncovered, find the stories, fall down the rabbit hole, let your learning be something that exists not just in your schedule but also in your imagination.

Learn To Be Honest

We all know the feeling of wanting to be innately talented at what we do, it is a natural human reaction to being presented with new information, we do not sit happily in the position of the novice.

In order to learn, we must try to hone the skill of being honest. Learning is a two way process and it requires us to be receptive to the information we are being taught, whether we take the advice on board or not.

Learning to ask for extra help when needed, to ask your teacher to repeat an explanation or dig deeper into why they are suggesting a musical change not only allows you to really feel grounded in your knowledge foundation, it will also improve your relationship with your teacher.

After all, learning is the shared pursuit of knowledge, it shouldn’t be just being told what to do.

Learn To Be Open

Being honest about the things you don’t understand as a student is a tough and important step. The next step which is absolutely paramount to getting the most out of your study, and something that is often overlooked, is being able to be open with your teacher about what it is exactly that you want.

Often the worry of what a teacher will think of us if we want to play X piece, play in X venue, or collaborate with X will hold us back from being open about our long term goals.

It is important to bear in mind that no teacher is a mind reader, however silly you think your dream might be, the more specific you are the easier it will be for your teacher to align your trajectory to your personal definition of success.

There isn’t a right way to learn, there is no one way of doing anything in life.

Whether you are at the start of your journey or you have been on this journey for a long time, you owe it to yourself to be the best student you can be, and if you are already reading this then you are definitely more than on your way!

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