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TEACHING METHODS
LEARN HOW TO LEARN
One of my main goals with every student - no matter which instrument - is to teach the student 'how to learn'. As a teacher who makes part of his living teaching music - that's probably not the best business plan! But I've seen through direct experience that when a student learns how to figure out what they are hearing through a speaker or even an idea in their head - it gives the person an enormous amount of wind in their musical sail and encourages them to continue moving forward in their musical journey.
GO SLOW AND COUNT
I've said it a million times - 'Go slow and count'.
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Many people see the coordination of doing several things at the same time as a cumbersome task to say the least. It's been said that the mind can truly only do one thing at a time and there is no such thing as 'multi-tasking'. So when you think of playing a drum set and using the four limbs simultaneously (and maybe throw in singing as well) - it's actually one complete thing that the player has learned to do. A piano player has ten fingers and some foot action to coordinate and a guitar player has ten fingers, strumming patterns and sometimes some knobs and pedals too- but it actually develops into a single action at any given time.
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The most efficient and fastest way to learn any coordination effort is to go slow - very slow - to allow the body to accomplish the single task at hand. Go as slow as you need to allow yourself to do it at least once. Then do it again. Then gradually increase the tempo until you reach the desired speed.
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Counting out loud (different from counting in your head) is integral in the learning phase to ensure that you are doing it correctly and learning what you intend to learn.
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Chainsaw jugglers don't get the luxury of going slow but I would think they start out with something a bit less dangerous!
A SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT
Some people have special naturally built in skills that make learning an instrument easier and some people don't. But everyone gains a sense of achievement in learning to play a musical instrument. It takes dedication and disciplined regimen to learn to play any instrument. If I can keep it exciting and give everyone a 'star sticker' for doing the great things they are doing, they will walk away with a sense of achievement and pride which enables the person to know they can do anything they want to - even if it doesn't end up being a musical instrument.