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Modeling is a technique that can help your students learn effectively in many situations.
Modeling is used in numerous educational settings, particularly with performing ensembles. When used appropriately, teacher modeling for student imitation is a useful tool. When used inappropriately, it can be a crutch that actually prevents students from learning. The best use of modeling is to introduce new musical concepts and performance skills before students see the printed music. (I use modeling to demonstrate concepts like articulation. Students' performance demonstrates their understanding of the idea.) Students learn the application before the theory. The new musical concept or performance skill is then practiced in various contexts and with specific printed music.
Edwin Gordon, Daniel Kohut, and Shinichi Suzuki all affirmed the efficiency of modeling and imitation, when used appropriately.1 In the United States today, rote teaching is considered an ill-favored version of modeling and imitation that is used to teach melody and rhythm patterns in specific contexts, and is perceived to require little thought on the part of the students. Perhaps the stigma of rote teaching prevents more instrumental teachers from using modeling and imitation.
A Place for Modeling
Whenever a teacher demonstrates a concept for a student, that teacher is modeling. A math teacher models each time he or she works through a problem on the board. A science teacher may demonstrate a portion of a lab experiment. People learn naturally by imitating models. Suzuki calls it the Mother Tongue,2 and Kohut calls it the Natural Learning Process.3 Implicit learning is based on the premise that cognitive processing is entirely subconscious.4 Learning by imitating a model results in learning "about the structure of a fairly complex stimulus environment, without necessarily intending to do so, and in such a way that the resulting knowledge is difficult to express."5
Modeling is used in music education with implicit learning in mind. This can be done live or via recordings, in group settings or in individual instruction, or by having older students model for younger students through peer mentoring. Music instruction lends itself to aural modeling. Bruce Torff calls it "the wordless world of music learning."6 Modeling is also more useful when it is accompanied by minimal verbal explanation of what the teacher is thinking7...