I have been teaching the saxophone since 1993 at the Pop & Jazz Conservatory in Helsinki (Finland). My students are mostly children and teenagers (approximately 8-18 years) with a great variety in their interest in learning to play the saxophone. Some of them just want to play once a week in the lesson, others practice a bit more at home, and a couple of them have even turned out to be professional saxophonists. 

​

For almost 20 years I was not interested in developing my teaching. It was just a job that enabled me to concentrate on my work as a freelance saxophonist and pay the bills. I used to base my teaching on the assumption that all my students were full of motivation and able to take responsibility for their learning - to be self-directed. I thought that this way of thinking was called "student-centered pedagogy". 

 

Then some 10 years ago I realized that there was one thing that threatened my personal well-being at work. It was the feeling of frustration I experienced exactly with those students who either didn´t practice at all or practiced only because their parent(s) told them to do so. To get rid of these negative emotions I started my post-graduate studies.

​

In my studies, I started gradually to understand what was the reason behind my frustration. My mistake was to think that the ability for self-directed learning and intrinsic motivation was something that every student possessed, regardless of age or individual differences. And I blamed all others (parents, students, school system, current society) but myself that the students did not have these attributes. 

​

After looking more deeply into themes like self-directedness, motivation, student/teacher-centered thinking, critical reflection, I currently look at my teaching philosophy quite differently. I believe that I - the teacher - am responsible for teaching my students the appropriate techniques and strategies for self-directed learning as well as enhancing their own motivation for making music.

 

My main tools for achieving these goals are; finding material that is interesting to the students (e.g.YouTube), making music together (me as a pianist), promoting their thinking skills (Socratic dialogue), and positive but also critical feedback (what to do next?).

​

My teaching philosophy in a nutshell is the following:

 

In my classes, I aim to create a positive atmosphere where the individual goals, needs, and values of each student are identified and respected. My final goal is to provide the students once a week a place and time to enjoy music-making together, teach them skills of practicing and thinking, and create moments where they feel they have accomplished something.