Teaching Guidelines

Faculty Office · Pedagogical Practice

These guidelines describe the practical rhythms of teaching at TGC — how to prepare a lesson, how to deliver it, how to document it, and how to keep growing as a teacher in a global, online, multi-traditional environment. They complement the Faculty Handbook (institutional standards) and Faculty Policies (formal terms) by addressing day-to-day craft.

The TGC teaching arc

Every TGC student is on an arc — a year, a term, a semester, or a multi-year journey. Faculty teach the lesson in front of them, but they also hold the arc. A lesson that is technically perfect but disconnected from the student's broader trajectory is a lesson that fails the student. A lesson that is imperfect in execution but meaningfully advances the student's larger journey is a lesson that succeeds.

Faculty hold the arc through three habits: clear weekly takeaways, periodic review of trajectory (every 8–10 weeks), and willingness to recalibrate when the student's life changes.

Before the lesson

Pre-lesson preparation (15–25 minutes)

• Review the previous lesson's notes
• Listen to or review any practice recordings or assignments the student has submitted
• Identify the through-line for this session (one or two specific things you want the student to leave with)
• Prepare materials: scores, accompaniment tracks, recorded examples, exercises
• Test audio/video equipment 5–10 minutes before the session

First-lesson preparation

For a first lesson with a new student, preparation is substantially more involved:

• Read the student's full intake form
• Review prior recordings, repertoire lists, and any audition or assessment material the student has provided
• Prepare two or three opening exercises calibrated to the stated level
• Develop an initial pedagogical hypothesis: what does this student likely need most? Hold the hypothesis lightly — adjust as you actually hear them play
• Plan a clear set of questions to ask in the first 10 minutes (musical background, current goals, time available, environment, equipment, repertoire interests)

During the lesson

Opening (first 5 minutes)

Begin within two minutes of the scheduled start. The opening is not throwaway time — it is where you assess where the student is today.

• Brief check-in: "How was your week of practice? What worked, what didn't?"
• Confirm the student's posture, instrument readiness, and audio quality
• Establish the focus for the session in one sentence

Core (40–50 minutes of a 60-min session)

• Mix demonstration, dialogue, student exploration, and applied practice
• Avoid one-directional lecture; lessons that flow as a conversation produce stronger student engagement and retention
• Take real-time notes (one or two phrases per significant moment) — relying on memory leads to thin lesson summaries
• Be willing to abandon your prepared plan if the student arrives with an issue or breakthrough that needs the time
• Avoid talking past the student. If the student is silent for more than ~30 seconds in a video session, check in.

Closing (last 5–7 minutes)

• Synthesise the session: name two or three specific takeaways the student should focus on
• Define the practice assignment for the coming week — concrete, specific, time-bounded ("15 minutes of [exercise], three times this week")
• Confirm next session timing and any questions the student has
• End on time. Respect the platform's session boundary and the student's day.

After the lesson

Lesson notes (within 48 hours)

Lesson notes are submitted via the faculty portal. Each note includes:

• Material covered (repertoire, exercises, technical focus)
• Two or three takeaways for the student to focus on
• Specific practice assignment for the coming week
• Any flag for the program advisor (welfare concern, scheduling, technical/equipment issue, progression observation)

Lesson notes are visible to the student and (for minors) the parent or guardian. They become part of the student's permanent academic record. Faculty who consistently submit thoughtful lesson notes see materially higher student retention and satisfaction.

Periodic review (every 8–10 weeks)

Beyond weekly lessons, faculty are expected to step back periodically and assess the student's trajectory:

• Is the student progressing toward the goals stated at intake?
• Are the goals still the right goals?
• What has changed in the student's life or musical context?
• What does the next 8–10 weeks need to look like?

Capture this review as a brief reflection in the student's record and discuss it openly with the student in a regular session.

Working across traditions

TGC faculty teach across an extraordinary range of musical traditions — Western classical, jazz, opera, contemporary, world-music, electronic, AI-assisted production, and more. Two practical principles:

Working with adult learners

Many TGC students are adult amateurs, hobbyists, or returning musicians — often in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, with full lives, demanding jobs, and limited practice time. Adult learners have specific needs:

• Time is the scarcest resource; respect every minute of practice and lesson time
• Goals are often expressive or experiential (not credentialing) — do not impose linear progression on adult students who don't want it
• Adult learners benefit from explicit articulation of why an exercise matters, not just the exercise itself
• Avoid infantilising language; address adult students as the colleagues they are

Working with young students (under 18)

Sessions with minors operate under safeguarding policy (parent observation, recording, vetted communication) — see Faculty Handbook §6.2. Beyond compliance, working with young students requires distinct pedagogical practice:

• Pace shorter, energy higher; younger students benefit from more variation per session
• Concrete, embodied instructions rather than abstract concepts
• Frequent positive specifics — "your tone in that phrase was much warmer than last week"
• Engage parents as partners, not as obstacles; their support is essential to weekly practice
• Be alert to wellbeing signals; flag any concern to the safeguarding officer

Equipment and environment

The TGC faculty's setup is part of their teaching. Students experience your space as a window into yours.

• Audio quality matters more than video quality; invest in a serviceable USB or interface mic before upgrading the camera
• Lighting from the front, not behind; daylight or a key light if your space is dim
• Background should be uncluttered, professional, and acoustically dampened where possible
• Wired ethernet over wifi where available; this prevents the most common audio dropouts
• For instrument-specific concerns (latency on piano, signal chain on guitar/bass, mic placement for voice), TGC's Zoom Audio Settings guide is the starting reference

The peer-observation programme

Faculty in their first year of TGC appointment are encouraged to participate in peer observation: invite a colleague to sit in on a session (with student consent), then exchange feedback. Observation builds calibration across faculty and surfaces tacit pedagogical knowledge that does not transfer through documents alone.

To request a peer-observation match, contact the program advisor with your division and instrument. Common matches are within division but cross-instrument (e.g., a violin teacher observing a flute teacher) — different instruments, similar pedagogical intent.