In this episode, John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) speaks with Melanie Bowes, music educator and founder of the KeyNotes Music curriculum.
John and Melanie discuss how children actually learn music and why so many traditional music education models don’t quit hit the mark. Melanie shares what she has seen firsthand in classrooms, how curriculum design shapes student confidence, and why autonomy and context can contribute greatly to success in learning.
They also explore the role of parents in a child’s musical development, why group classes can be more powerful than private lessons, and how a holistic approach creates deeper engagement that lasts well beyond exams or recital season.
In this episode:
- Melanie emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to music education.
- How KeyNotes was developed to address gaps in traditional music teaching methods.
- Parental involvement is crucial in a child’s music education journey.
- Group classes foster collaboration and socialization among students.
- Autonomy in learning leads to greater engagement and success.
- How KeyNotes adapts to different age groups and learning needs.
- Communication and context in music are essential for effective learning.
- Group learning can be more impactful than one-on-one lessons.
- Creating a fun and engaging environment is key to student motivation.
- Music education should focus on enriching lives, not just passing exams.
This conversation is a reminder that great music education starts with understanding the learner, not just delivering content. When curriculum is built around how students actually grow, when parents are treated as partners, and when learning happens in community, the results extend far beyond technique or assessment. Music becomes a shared language, a confidence builder, and a lifelong skill. That is the kind of work that sustains students, educators, and schools over the long haul.
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Episode Transcript:
John Kozicki (00:01.038)
Welcome to Rock School, Proprietor Podcast. My name is John Kozicki and joining me today is a former classroom music teacher, founder of group piano curriculum Keynotes Music, and a champion of a more holistic approach to teaching and learning music. And she is in the final stages of her PhD in music education, Melanie Bowes. How are you today?
Melanie Bowes (00:30.221)
Hello. Very well, thank you.
John Kozicki (00:33.922)
Good. I’m very pleased to have you on the podcast. And I think we’re going to talk a lot about understanding how kids learn and effectiveness of groups framed around the curriculum that you created. Keynotes, which I understand you’ve it’s about almost a decade that you’ve been teaching keynotes and offering. Has it been an offering for other studios?
Melanie Bowes (00:56.088)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (01:03.138)
for that long or is it something that you’ve been teaching for that long?
Melanie Bowes (01:07.251)
No, so I started out teaching it, absolutely had no idea where it would go, where it has come. And about three years into teaching it, had actually some teachers in the US over Facebook just saying, know, when are you going to make this curriculum available? It sounds amazing. And I thought, OK, that could happen. you know, my background is in curriculum design.
John Kozicki (01:28.75)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (01:35.405)
teacher training, all of those things that have contributed to Kinect’s music. So it kind of made perfect sense to package it up as a licensed program as I have done.
John Kozicki (01:50.625)
And because you were teaching in a classroom prior to developing keynotes, is that correct? And how did the class? OK, OK, and how did that classroom experience influence the approach that you took with developing the curriculum?
Melanie Bowes (01:58.189)
Yes, yeah, so thank you.
Melanie Bowes (02:11.735)
So that’s a really great question. So basically with my background, I think as teachers we all have our kind of areas of what that we’re particularly passionate about. And in music you can very easily walk into a classroom of 30 children as I often did. So let’s take a class of 30 11 year olds and you’ll have someone I’m teaching them general music. So not a specific instrument.
and you’ll have someone on one end of the spectrum who has been learning the piano for nearly their whole life. Grade 8, we’re very exams focused here in the UK, so they might have grade 8 on the piano, so they’re phenomenal for their age. I had lots of opportunities in music and then on the other end of the spectrum I might have someone who has never even heard a live instrument before, has never had any opportunities in music education.
John Kozicki (03:07.982)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (03:10.657)
And my job was to not only make sure that those that had not experienced music before didn’t feel completely isolated and unable to achieve in my classroom, but also to make sure that that person who probably felt like they could do everything, there’s more for them to still do, right? So I’m challenging and supporting everyone within that really big spectrum of ability and experience.
John Kozicki (03:30.413)
Yeah, yeah.
Melanie Bowes (03:38.795)
So I took that kind of experience into creating keynotes.
John Kozicki (03:44.993)
And what aspects, now you mentioned having a mix of students in that classroom and some maybe have experience playing piano already, maybe years of experience. What aspects of private lessons that one-to-one approach do you feel are beneficial to students? And then where might there be those gaps that you were alluding to?
Melanie Bowes (03:45.849)
Thank
Melanie Bowes (04:14.186)
Okay, so they were clearly really excellent at the technical aspects of playing the piano or whatever instrument it might be that they played and I would encourage them obviously to bring their instruments in if they didn’t play the piano. They could, you know, play some very difficult repertoire. They generally had very sound knowledge of the fundamentals, obviously getting to a high
level on that instrument they would need to have good theory. The way everything is set up here you have to be a certain level, have a certain level of theory knowledge to get to those higher grades. So in a sense it looked like they were an all-around brilliant musician but I always found the gap. often they couldn’t improvise, they’d never learnt how, they’d never had opportunities to improvise.
John Kozicki (05:00.024)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (05:08.79)
They can obviously then compose, which kind of is almost a follow on. I would get them accompanying the class. So accompanying is a very specific skill that they won’t have had an opportunity to practice. If they are pianists, then playing with others is going to be something that they haven’t really had experience in doing. So I would take all of those.
in a way more creative aspects of being a musician and I would develop those in those kind high level players.
John Kozicki (05:44.919)
It reminds me of a conversation I had with Tim Topham. And Tim was talking about all of those skills that you just mentioned, the improvising, the accompaniment playing together that I think they just, you know, there’s, there’s just different goals, I think, in private lessons alone. And it’s, it’s almost as if you’re in a vacuum, where this is how you
perform and you achieve those goals in that one to one setting. And the students are getting feedback from the instructor. Yes, you’re doing great on this technical aspect of it. Yes, you understand how to do these things. But it’s that working practical knowledge when you take those skills and you apply them in a different way that that I think are is missing and me coming from the rock school background. It’s almost
Melanie Bowes (06:36.696)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (06:44.726)
It’s almost like it’s flipped. We’re so focused on how do you, how do we get the students really comfortable with these practical aspects of playing so that they can communicate using music back and forth. Now,
Melanie Bowes (06:46.712)
Thank you.
Melanie Bowes (06:55.64)
and
Melanie Bowes (07:01.184)
And I think that word communication is so important because the way that, certainly in the UK, the exams based system that we have where they might take two or three years to get to grade one and then in each grade, which they’re generally expected to spend a year on each grade, so each grade they learn three pieces, they learn numerous scales and they learn a certain level of sight reading.
and now do some aural skills as well. But what happens is that it becomes just so kind of repertoire driven, these three pieces that they learn and then they go on to the next grade and they learn three more pieces. But there’s no real focus on that communication, on the context of the music. So I remember very sadly ask a girl in one of my classes not that long ago, she was…
told me she was going to do her grade eight exam that afternoon and I said and what are you playing and she didn’t know she said it’s like a 1 b 3 because you get list a list b list c and c 4 and I was like okay so who composed a 1 no idea and I just thought that is to me that is such a failure of
John Kozicki (08:07.202)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (08:23.884)
You can go and you can sit your grade eight exam and you can pass. But if you don’t even know what you’re playing and the context of the composer who created what you’re playing, then surely there’s so much communication in how you play that’s going to be missing. So I’m a mad. Yeah.
John Kozicki (08:39.966)
It’s Yeah, it’s incredibly rote. Yeah. Yeah, everything is very rote. And it’s it’s I told this story on a previous podcast about taking my daughter to her first concert and and she was jumping around and singing and dancing and I was I was sitting and watching the band. And she turned to me at one point said, Why are you just sitting down? And I realized in that moment that like,
When I’ve become so focused on the technical aspects of a performance in a band and understanding like all of those things that I in a concert setting, I’ve lost focus of why people are there. And that is to enjoy music. it is funny how easy it is to lose focus of
Melanie Bowes (09:27.157)
Mmm.
John Kozicki (09:37.443)
what it is that we’re doing, which is trying to facilitate people communicating through music. Yeah. So I want to go back a little bit to those early days when you were developing keynotes or had the idea. You’re also a parent. And from what I understand, that perspective was also instrumental in
the development of the curriculum. As a parent, not as a music teacher, as a parent, what kind of experience were you looking for for your children?
Melanie Bowes (10:09.994)
It was, yeah.
Melanie Bowes (10:22.79)
that’s a really good question. I was drawn, as lots of teachers are, by the way, to the Suzuki method, which is, well, there are very specific aspects within the Suzuki method that I really liked. One is that the parent is very involved. So the parent sits in the lesson, takes notes, and the parent is the kind of home.
John Kozicki (10:32.268)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (10:50.466)
teacher or practice, you know, the parent practices with their child every day. And so I really liked that. I thought, how does anyone learn an instrument without that input from their from their parent? I liked the fact that you could start young. My son started at age four to learn the cello. But also what’s happened within that method is that it
You do your individual lessons, but you also do group lessons. And you also do concerts, recitals, and you do group concerts and residentials where, you know, my kids every year they’ll play in a group of 120 cellists in a big hall, all playing the same thing with the more advanced kids playing a more advanced version of the piece. And the kids that have only just started just moving their bow up and down, you know, practicing their skills, not…
John Kozicki (11:46.05)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (11:47.769)
like that, but you know. And I was just so drawn to it being about the joy of music making, while still being very, you know, high quality teaching. I mean, the teaching that they have received has been absolutely phenomenal and I’ve enjoyed watching every minute of it. So that’s kind of the choice I made as a parent. Now, I’m a music teacher. I want my kids
to have a lot of music in their lives, but I’m probably not your average parent. So what’s been interesting is that when I first set Ruben up with his cello lessons, I had a few of his friends’ mums saying to me, I’d love my child to do some music, because all parents know that their children respond to music. It’s like a natural, intuitive kind of response.
John Kozicki (12:21.784)
Right.
Melanie Bowes (12:46.648)
But I don’t want them to do, I think they’re too young for one-on-one. I think that is too intense, which I would tend to agree with without the right teacher and the right training and the right format, which Suzuki has. But they didn’t want to do that. So I said, I’ll set something up. I can do, I can do some music lessons, which is how I started, part of the reason why I started Keynotes, because I just saw this need for this slightly more
John Kozicki (12:54.466)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (13:04.302)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (13:16.344)
creative, less formal kind of music class where they would learn the piano, but we would do it through topics and themes and creativity and listening to a wide variety of music. So I listened to other parents and what their kind of needs were in terms of what they wanted for their own children as well.
So it’s kind of, you know, that’s how it came about really.
John Kozicki (13:50.159)
I think there’s something beautiful in that that you understood the the technical aspects of teaching and learning music. But also you were very tuned in to what parents wanted and felt like they needed for their kids. And all of those things that you were saying about
Melanie Bowes (14:13.144)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (14:19.692)
the sort of the disconnect between the intense aspects of studying one to one that are somewhat removed from the enjoyable play based aspects of learning music. were, you you saw immediately from that perspective, both sides. I’m a parent and this is what I want because this is what all my other parent friends are talking about.
Melanie Bowes (14:29.004)
Hmm.
Melanie Bowes (14:35.126)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (14:49.528)
but also I’m a musician and this is how I can bring those two together. I think that’s amazing.
So, Keynotes then started as, what was the, I suppose the age range that was the initial focus when you first developed it.
Melanie Bowes (15:09.41)
So the initial focus was age six plus, quickly added age four to five. And for a while, those were the two kind of programs, the main age groups. There is a perception that it’s, until a child is at a certain kind of level of,
reading, like, you know, reading literature based reading. There’s no point in learning the piano. But I would argue that that is because a lot of methods are reading based and they don’t need to be. So you can indeed develop so many skills and nurture so many concepts in children before they are reading words or reading music. So that was kind of
I guess I started with the age six plus because that’s what I knew of piano learning around me. But then I quickly realized that there are so many skills that we can develop that age four is particularly, I don’t know if you can remember back to a children being age four, but they are, you know, sponges. And that is when, you know, if we can, I think instill the joy at that age and instill the…
Kids understand so much about music. They understand how it’s communicating to them. And what I really wanted to do was to nurture that, but also to give them the vocab to be able to describe what they could hear. So that’s something else that I’ve also felt really passionate about. And I realized that that can happen at age four and five. We don’t need to wait for them to be reading to…
John Kozicki (16:57.102)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (17:08.034)
teach them so many other aspects of music.
John Kozicki (17:12.846)
It’s interesting. I like to draw that parallel between music learning and reading and writing. And it’s if I were to say to any parents, no, don’t bother speaking with your child until they’re five and they’re and they can recite the alphabet. You just wouldn’t do it. It’s it’s insane to think that. And but for whatever reason, that’s been adopted.
Melanie Bowes (17:31.095)
and not
John Kozicki (17:42.827)
in some musical circles where like, yeah, don’t even start lessons until they’re six when they can actually read. There’s a whole host of things that that kids can do before then. So it’s almost like you putting them at a slight disadvantage if if you are waiting as opposed to trying to lean into those things that that can nurture and get them using that language of music before they can actually read and
Melanie Bowes (18:13.418)
Well, even if you think about even the steps that they should be taking to in order to have readiness, because that’s another huge important concept is the one of readiness. So for them to be ready to even think about reading on the staff, there are so many things that they need to understand and be able to do for that to be even meaningful to know they need to know.
the notes on the piano, the layout, the geography, the steps and skips up and down. So many pitch-based concepts that they can learn before you even show them anything visual. Now, I do show them visual things because I think if we have visual learners in our room, they might find it difficult to grasp onto those concepts without a visual prompt. So I say, let’s give them everything, but I don’t get them to rely on the reading. just say, you know,
Can you see that this moves a step upward? This is a space note, et cetera. But there are so many things we need to get to before we start going, middle C, which is very boring as well. If we are playing pieces based on what we can read as beginners, how are we going to be engaged by our instrument and the sound we’re making?
John Kozicki (19:23.928)
Hahaha
Melanie Bowes (19:37.891)
because it’s not interesting to just play endless medorsis. So therefore, there’s so much they can explore on the piano, so many techniques that we can develop before they learn to read. So yeah, I think that that’s why I feel really passionately that we can start them younger. And the group setting is so perfect for younger children because that is the best setting for them, being with their peers, et cetera.
John Kozicki (20:09.29)
Now, with Keynote starting, when you initially started Keynotes, was roughly that you mentioned six and then quickly adapted to four and five year olds with that rough four to six age range. That was the initial focus of Keynotes, but as a brand, you’ve developed it into a program for kids and teens and adults. What made you realize that
The approach you are taking with the younger kids could successfully be applied to the learners at any age.
Melanie Bowes (20:47.424)
Well, I think really just teaching the programmes myself and these kids growing up and I did, I have to say, assume that after my initial kind of beginner foundational group classes that they would then go on to the one-on-one and start their exam work or whatever it was they wanted to do, which as I say, it’s the norm here. But they didn’t leave and they didn’t want to go.
John Kozicki (20:53.634)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (21:15.158)
to one-on-one. So I then was like, OK, so let’s create another kind of level, I guess. So the way that it works is that the curriculum is spiralled so that you take your skills and concepts that are appropriate for that age and you spiral around them so that they are constantly revisiting and deepening their understanding and developing their skills and the fluency of their skills.
John Kozicki (21:15.184)
Hahaha
Melanie Bowes (21:43.993)
And then kind of with that age and the expectations we have with that age and by the way, the lesson plans being made for the attention span and the interests and you know, of those age groups, they can then move into the next kind of programme and they’ll be obviously it’s still kind of similar skills and concepts because it’s still learning to play the piano and being a musician.
but then we up level those and have a new kind of spiral, et cetera. So it just developed as my own students developed. Then, as I said, about three years in, people started licensing the programs and as their needs have developed, there was one really interesting one actually, which was that Storytellers, our program for age six plus, I was happily taking…
age 9, 10, 11 into storytellers. But I didn’t often get beginners at those ages. In the UK, we start school a whole year earlier than the rest of the world, it seems. So they kind of know that if they want to learn an instrument by age eight, right? So I didn’t often get new beginners in at that age. When the US and Australia, particularly in Canada, when they started licensing the program,
They said, well, I’ve got these 11 and 12 year olds that want to learn, but I feel like storytellers is going to be too childish for them because it’s like based on fairy tales and going, you know, goldilocks and how she skipped through the words, et cetera. So then that’s when Keynote’s play for tweens and teens was created. So it’s kind of evolved based on need in that sense as well. But at all levels, learners are learners.
and we can think about the particular learning needs of each age group and each skill level, ability level, et cetera. But we’re still spiralling, we’re still adapting and differentiating for each learner in the way that we would for any age group.
John Kozicki (23:57.177)
So hard question. If you were, well, maybe hard, if you were to take the education aspect or simply the learning and transfer of knowledge out of the equation, what is your hope that each learner or each student, whether that’s the young kids, the teens in tweens, the adults, what’s your hope that
the students are going to gain from a Keynotes class or any group music class, I suppose.
Melanie Bowes (24:33.368)
So I think the hope for any learner should be that they have autonomy over and choice over their own learning. Because as soon as a child or an adult or any learner has that sense of autonomy and has that sense of self within the learning process, then you know that they are going to succeed, you know that they’re going to enjoy learning, enjoy.
John Kozicki (24:43.362)
Mm. Yeah.
Melanie Bowes (25:03.018)
music. I think that when we’re telling kids what to do and how to do it, which we might feel the need to do because we’re experts and they’re not, I think that it can be disengaging and it can be, it can feel like it’s not for them. But I think the main aim of any teaching and learning scenario is that they want to learn.
and they understand how they can learn and they put the steps in themselves to make sure that they are progressing and achieving and that’s the dream isn’t it?
John Kozicki (25:44.429)
yeah, you just blew my mind with that one word autonomy. What you described, I think, was my early learning experience. I had piano lessons as a child, about eight years old, and I had no choice in what I was playing. And I hated the piano lessons and begged my parents to quit. Luckily, I loved music, so I sort of
dabbled here and there with piano and then played in middle school band and then picked up guitar in my early high school days. And the stark difference between my piano lessons and taking guitar lessons was in my piano lessons, I had zero choice in what I was learning or at best,
Maybe I remember around the holidays, my piano teacher would say, would you like to learn this song or this song? And I would have to choose between those two pieces of sheet music. Whereas when I started guitar lessons, one of the first questions my instructor asked me was what kind of music do you like? As if my choice was going to guide what we did.
Melanie Bowes (26:46.871)
Good.
Melanie Bowes (27:00.898)
Mm.
John Kozicki (27:06.994)
And so using that word autonomy really sums up, I don’t know, eight years of, like seven years of music learning for me. And like nice bookends from one end to having zero choice and the other end to having a say. And I think that’s a great, great answer.
Melanie Bowes (27:26.328)
Mmm.
Melanie Bowes (27:31.735)
I think your guitar teacher, know, what you felt from your guitar teacher was that your voice mattered and that your, you know, it’s not only in kind of repertoire choice, because I think people can get a bit bogged down in repertoire choice as well, like, and can be quite repertoire driven. It’s also taking a piece of a song, maybe it’s just quite a simple beginner song, and saying these are the different ways we can play this song.
So you can choose, you can play it this way or you can play it this way. And they’re just intrinsically motivated by the music. With my observations I did for my PhD, there was one boy who was constantly wanting, really determined to get to playing chords because he just loved the sound of chords. So I say, right, in order to be able to do that, you need to learn the melody first and then we can add the chords in in the left hand.
but he worked hard to get to that because he loved the sound of the chords. So that intrinsic motivation as well. And so it’s not only in kind of, as I say, the repertoire, it’s also in the way that you’re playing, the way that you’re expressing yourself. Just being asked, how, how would you’ve got a choice? And by the way, I always make it effort based. So you, you can play it this way. This is like,
challenge one, challenge two, challenge three. It’s never, I’ve got a group of six kids and you’re going to play it this way and you’re going to play it this way and you’re going to play it this way. Because that is essentially doing what we’ve just talked about in a kind of one-on-one, let’s turn the page because you’re ready to turn the page. It’s more dynamic than that. It’s more organic and it’s more based on that.
John Kozicki (29:27.682)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (29:29.142)
relationship with what they’re doing and I think that’s where the magic happens.
John Kozicki (29:32.108)
Right.
And I think what you’re describing also suggests that as as the instructors as the guides, what are we what are we training our students for? Are we training them to enjoy music for the rest of their lives and be able to apply it in a way that they want? Or are we just training them to pass a test? And I
Melanie Bowes (30:01.001)
Exactly. think music learning has become such an academic process, know, especially with the exams based or with the tutor, you know, the method book, like level one, level two, level three. You know, when you see those posts where people say, I passed level two of my book. Well, what does that actually mean? What can you actually do now that you have, you know, passed that level? But also it’s and I mean,
John Kozicki (30:07.054)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (30:30.626)
goodness me, I was so motivated by exams growing up, I loved it. I had quite an unconventional music education which I think some of the kind of pioneers in music education often have had quite an unconventional upbringing with music education themselves but once I got to the point where I was doing exams I absolutely loved it, I got my distinction.
John Kozicki (30:34.553)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (30:58.806)
you know, flew through the exams and thought it was absolutely brilliant. But again, like I wasn’t an average mum in terms of music education, I also wasn’t an average child and not everyone is going to feel motivated by that exam kind of system. And I think often as teachers, we might fall into the trap of teaching mini uss’s, but we weren’t average students because we were going to become musicians, right? So we like, you know.
John Kozicki (31:26.295)
Yes, right.
Melanie Bowes (31:29.108)
Every student is like going to be like me and become either a musician or a music teacher, but that often that is not the case at all. And we have to make sure that we’re giving everyone the opportunity to take it wherever they want to. So yes, if they want to become a musician, we have to make sure that we’re setting everything in their path for that to happen. But if, but we also need to understand and enjoy the fact that
some, there were going to be other directions for other children and if that’s just to enjoy making music and appreciate music then you know, brilliant.
John Kozicki (32:10.392)
And I’d argue that in most instances, and you alluded to this as well, but that’s what parents want for their children. Parents want them to experience music, to enrich their lives, to enjoy this art form, not necessarily be able to pass a test or go on to teach music or…
Melanie Bowes (32:19.896)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (32:38.734)
play in an orchestra or any of those other things, which can be options. But I think at the core, when most parents decide that music is for their children and they’re willing to pay the money for those lessons and those classes, it’s about enrichment and about making their lives better. And I think that’s so important.
Melanie Bowes (32:42.904)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (33:01.976)
Because they can, as I said, they can see how their child responds to music and they want them to have more opportunities. So, yeah, absolutely.
John Kozicki (33:17.774)
So I’m going to start talking a little bit about keynotes and applying that in the classroom and for instructors who might be thinking, after listening to Melanie talk, I think maybe there’s something to this. Maybe the method book and the really rote linear path isn’t necessarily the way I want to continue.
If an instructor or a studio is thinking about implementing group classes, I think the first thought process and first line of thinking is usually about profitability. I can put more students in a classroom versus these one-on-one lessons. And that is certainly a benefit. And I think that’s important. But what are those other
benefits both to the instructor and the student in the group learning. And I know we’ve talked a little bit about them, but what would you say is maybe something that these students will get in group classes that they absolutely cannot get in the one-on-one setting?
Melanie Bowes (34:37.688)
Well I think first of all I’m a very ardent believer in group learning being collaborative. So there are lessons whereby everyone is learning by themselves with children around them. So they’ve got their headphones on and they’re learning and they’re in completely different places in their linear method book to the other children in the room.
John Kozicki (34:48.632)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (35:05.76)
So I think the first thing is to clarify that when we’re talking about the benefits of groups, we are talking about the children all learning together and playing together. Because I think the real benefits are that joy that children feel when they’re singing with other children, which they often won’t do on their own, when they’re playing with other, you know, not only…
John Kozicki (35:28.834)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (35:33.283)
playing their instrument, also rhythm games, et cetera. So all these different kind of interactive games that they can play together, interactive musical games, are so, important to the benefits of groups. But I think essentially it’s just so childlike to play with other children and to be with other children. And there’s so much research that says that
you know, that peer relationship and that socialization is such an important aspect of learning and of childhood that, you know, if someone, if they’re watching and interacting with each other with the same materials, the learning that they come across is going to be far more impactful.
than someone who’s kind of on high up here who knows everything there is to know, trying to explain to a kind of five-year-old. You know, the way that they see each other interacting with music and with the teaching and learning process is just, it’s so important, it’s everything. And for teachers, it’s so much fun. Teaching a group is so much fun. I mean, I speak to teachers as you can.
John Kozicki (36:55.266)
Yeah.
Melanie Bowes (37:00.766)
imagine. I speak to a wide range of teachers and the ones I love speaking to actually are those that are kind of maybe in their 60s, maybe late 60s, early 70s who’ve just got kind of this like, I just want, they’ve got a second window, I just want to do it differently to end my career. I’m kind of, you know, they’ve seen all of those beginners, they feel like they’ve
John Kozicki (37:21.57)
Mmm.
Melanie Bowes (37:26.456)
kind of, even though in reality it’s not exactly the same, but you know, they see them one after the other and they feel like they’re the same thing to each of them. And by the way, they feel like they’re saying the same thing to each of them every week because they come back and they still don’t understand what you taught them last week because that’s, you know, the way that the learning process is. But if you set it up so that they…
they’re having a lot of fun, they’re engaging with music, they’re being creative, you know, there’s multiple opportunities to laugh, to move, to express themselves, then it is a lot more fun for the teacher. And I do believe that kids need this repetition and this spiral kind of cyclical structure for their learning, but that doesn’t mean straight repetition, which is the, I think the
the kind of, what’s the word, you know, if you’re teaching one on one and you feel like you just have to keep repeating what you’re saying to the student, that can be quite frustrating, but it also just doesn’t work. If they didn’t understand it when you told them last week, they’re not going to understand it when you’ve got the same page in front of them and you’re telling them in the same way this week. So I really believe in.
kind of iterations like let’s do the same, you know, we’re kind of communicating the same skills and concepts but instead of being a pinching crab we’re going to be a snapping alligator, whatever it might be, you know, so they think they’re doing something different but they’re still developing the same skills. So it’s just a lot of fun for teachers and I really believe it’s interesting what you said about the profitability.
for teachers and for studio owners. I think that is really important, but I think that we need to also recognise that actually this is the best way for them to learn. This is in terms of our aims and parents’ aims and the kids’ aims, this is the best setting for them. So we can, must, and I also say to teachers, don’t communicate.
Melanie Bowes (39:47.019)
about your group lessons based on affordability. It’s the same kind of thing. That’s not why they should take group lessons because it’s more affordable. They should take group lessons because it’s more impactful. It’s more engaging.
John Kozicki (39:59.629)
Yes. I want to put that those two things side by side. I’m to put the engaging group classes and the one on one lessons together and view them from a parent’s perspective. In one instance where you see week to week the children interacting together and being creative and playing music together.
from the parent’s perspective, you immediately see those benefits. Again, going back to the idea of what are parents looking for when they’re investing in music classes and music lessons for their kids. They want their children to grow up to be a more well-rounded individual. They want them to experience art and creativity. And in one instance, that group setting, they’re seeing that firsthand right there.
Melanie Bowes (40:34.2)
Mm.
John Kozicki (41:00.0)
In the other setting, those private lessons, it takes a lot of faith on the part of the parent and the student and oftentimes the instructor to say, this is the path. As long as they continue to follow this path, they will have all the skills to achieve that long term goal that you had, which is to enjoy music.
on a different level and to be more well-rounded. There’s a lot of like, boy, I hope this is working in that scenario. So I think to be able to express to families and parents in the moment, look at what your child is doing, look at what, or even your adult classes, look at what you are doing with this instrument from week to week.
Melanie Bowes (41:38.538)
Mmm.
John Kozicki (41:58.766)
that’s you’re achieving your goal week to week versus that goal is in the future. So I am I’m a huge proponent 100%. Yeah, I agree.
Melanie Bowes (42:07.159)
Yes.
And it’s really interesting when we had to go online for Covid and suddenly we’re all teaching over Zoom and my parents, don’t…
like my parents into the lessons weekly, but they do often come in at the end of a book to see us play through the various, you know, the story or the topic or whatever it might be. But on Zoom, they saw the process as it happened. In other words, obviously the joy and the interaction and the laughter and the fun, but they saw that I was very subtly kind of
John Kozicki (42:42.167)
Mm-hmm.
Melanie Bowes (42:55.64)
teaching in different ways to each child and kind of encouraging them to do different things that would develop their individual skill. Or if I’d noticed that a concept wasn’t quite embedded, developing that for each individual child. And actually that really helped the parents to see that not only is this engaging and fun and my child really loves it, it’s high quality teaching.
they are getting their needs met. And I think when you’ve got those two things, then obviously that’s the ideal kind of circumstance.
John Kozicki (43:37.665)
Yeah, yeah. With the full line of keynotes programs that you have available, let’s say a studio owner is again in that process thinking, you know, maybe group classes are the way to go. If they had to choose just one of those classes in the keynotes line, which one would you suggest?
Melanie Bowes (44:04.852)
I think most of our teachers and schools and studios absolutely love Storytellers, which is our six to eight programme. However, I would also caveat that with it kind of no one programme works in isolation because you’d really want to make sure that you’ve got that overarching structure that happens when you offer all of them.
When a new studio joins, I definitely encourage them to start with little keynotes, which is the age four to five, and then storytellers, which is the age six to eight. And then from there, they can add the younger one, which is the piano prep program, and then the older one.
John Kozicki (44:53.751)
Okay, and then what is the best way for listeners to start exploring keynotes and learn if it would be a good fit for their studio? Where can they start to check out the content that Melanie Boas is putting out into the world?
Melanie Bowes (45:10.712)
Thank
So you can visit the website which is keynotes-music.com and there is a blog on there with lots of information. You can join the email list. I send out weekly emails just around group piano more generally and my thoughts on various aspects of teaching in groups.
I would say the website is the best place to start and I love having discovery calls with studio owners and teachers who are thinking about keynotes but would like to have a good look at the materials and have a chat with me to see if it’s the right programme for them.
John Kozicki (46:00.897)
I love it. Melanie, it’s been an absolute pleasure. I love your perspective. I love your approach. Keep doing what you’re doing. And we’re going to wrap it up for this episode of Rock School for Priority Podcast. Thank you.
Melanie Bowes (46:16.61)
Thank you so much, John.
John Kozicki (46:18.926)
All right, we’ll see you next time.
