Using the Socratic Method to Teach Notation

You can ALWAYS find apparently logical reasons why things happened to be standardized in a certain way. And there usually ARE reasons. But it's naive to deduce from this that what we have now is the most logical way of doing it.

I just want to add... I don't think what I'm doing here is attempting to say what we have now regarding notation is the most logical way of doing it. I'm attempting to immerse the student within the logic -OF- the notation system as it exists. Sure, there are a thousand other ways notation -could- be done, and it's arguable whether we even need notation to teach music. But if it's worth teaching, and it is for performance reasons, it's worth teaching in a form that is understandable from the inside out. Later, deductions from these explorations can form in class and at home during practice. But the student's ability to think through notation needs to meet or exceed their level of motor development.

"You have to ask yourself, what happens when the leader of the pack in a class is completely off the wall out of the box thinker? Do you just keep saying, ok that's fine but what about this? It becomes obvious really quickly that you have a game plan and that they aren't really involved in the process, they're just getting to where you want to go, especially with something like music notation which I wager most kids have seen before."

It depends on the concept you're teaching, though. Some things naturally follow from others. For example, letting the class leader take the discussion in a different direction just to be disruptive is something you might challenge with more direct questioning. Sure, explore those thoughts of this student long enough to let him/her get those thoughts out. Involve more people in that discussion, too, if it's leading somewhere. But at some point the focus of the course and following through on the concept they need to understand in order to progress is just as important. That's a judgment call more than anything else.

You cannot accurately say that a student will have a legitimate reason for steering discussion in a different direction 100% of the time. Yeah, students are smart. They're smart enough to take advantage of an open discussion for their own amusement, too. That's the balancing act I know I'll have to deal with, and I'm fine with that. It's my academic privilege to do so as well, and when a student has invested five figures in their education, I'd be happy to let them take control of the conversation. Until that point, it's my call in the classroom on whether they're legitimately exploring the topic or just showing off to waste time.

And you know, if students are catching on that there's a game plan, if you've earned and built rapport effectively, it's not going to make a huge difference. They'll follow your game plan like football players follow their coach, because they know he knows what he's doing. If I steer discussion, well, that's a necessary condition of using something like this with adolescents. At least you're giving them an opportunity to arrive at some of the information instead of spoon-feeding it to them on a Power Point, ya know?