TOOLBOX Theory / Teaching Notes

build a personal Support structure

Many students of music and musicians learn their instrument of choice or develop their musical skill on a one-to-one basis or even on a self taught basis.
This is the traditional approach and for many it has proved to be quite successful. However, we believe that progress in music can be considerably enhanced by having a well-developed support structure.
As we mentioned earlier, ours is a complementary approach and the support structure is in addition to traditional teaching methods on a one-to-one basis or as part of a class., 
The  support structure should have two dimensions,  internal and external

Turkish

The internal dimension is about how you can help yourself, and includes: –

• Identifying your strengths and your weaknesses.
  
• Clarifying what you want to do in music.
  
• Identifying the skills both musical and non-musical that you will need to progress your career
• Setting goals for yourself.
  
• Applying coaching principles to achieving these goals.

The external dimension is about how you can get help from others and includes: –

• Looking for a mentor to support to it what you want to do.
  
• Getting the support of a coach if necessary.
  
• Finding out  where you can get help to develop skills that you have identified as being necessary for your career.
• Have a number of "go to people" in areas where you are not strong. Link

Look for a mentor
One of the best ways is to seek out a person who is already established in the career to which you aspire and see would they be prepared to meet you to have a chat or act as a mentor to you.  You may consider this type of person to be unapproachable but very often people who are successful in their careers are quite willing to share their experience and act as a guide to newcomers.  Seek out such a person and don’t get disheartened if the first couple of people you approach are not interested. Many people will be delighted to help.
If you are a student you could seek out a graduate or someone who is a couple of classes ahead of you.

Consider having a number of coaching sessions
We will be encouraging you to develop an awareness of coaching principles and to apply these with the benefit of the self coaching Toolbox.  However, you could also consider having a number of coaching sessions yourself with a professional coach,  to become more aware of how the process works and to help you with any difficulties that may be arising for you. .While there will be a cost involved, it will probably will be a worthwhile investment if it enables you to move on to the next level in your career 

Next
Learn about coaching. Link

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