A lot of the students I teach and conduct in ensembles end up spending two, three, even four years with me in the same ensemble. How do I handle the problem of repeating myself?
My impulse is to either apologize to returning students for the repetition or to skim through it very quickly. That feels like the right thing to do to not have them feel like I’m wasting their time.
But the truth is, we all need repetition. Reviewing material you’ve already learned is one of the best ways to really lock in the understanding. There’s little guarantee that the material really landed the first time I taught it, so repetition is a way to maybe increase my percentages!
These days, I recognize the impulse to avoid repeating myself, and then lean against it. I try to teach the concepts as clearly and definitively as I can, even if they’ve heard the lesson three times before. I might include a quick “I know you’ve heard this before” but even that isn’t really necessary. Just teach the lesson and move forward. The repetition is good.
We all need repetition.