Everyone learns the songs differently.

I am a firm believer in public education. But, it does have it's share of flaws. I think public school does a great job teaching 30 kids at a time. It's lousy at teaching 1. I love that public school takes on all comers. As long as you've got a pulse and are in the school's boundaries, we'll take you. This open door policy creates a great diverse population of kids, and all of them learn differently. That great lesson you've planned is only going to be great to a part of the kids. Everyone learns the material differently.

This struck me while playing in a band. We were preparing for a gig. We needed to learn about 30 songs to fill 3 sets. Even though we were about the same age, listened to the same music, we all had our own methods to learn the songs.

Our bass player had to hear the song. He needed to have a copy of each song to hear it over and over again so he could learn it.

The lead guitarist needed the tabs. Tabs are a note for note transcription of the song.

I (rhythm guitar) needed the songs in chordpro. This showed how the chords changed when compared to the lyrics.

The singer lyrics. She needed the lyrics in large font. She just said 1 2 3 4 and started belting it out, and never missed a note.

The drummer was a seasoned pro. He'd ask me questions I did not know (like Does this swing?), and then just go for it.

Half of us did great learning in a group. They'd learn the song while we practiced it.

The rest had to go home and spend some time alone with the piece. We'd return to the next practice ready to roll.

Time spent with band members taught me a lot about learning styles, mainly that there are a lot out there. I also learned that it took all of us some time to figure out which learning style suited us best. Once we figured out our learning style we were off and running.

In school we assume too much about learning styles. We think all kids learn the way we did, or the method described in the curriculum guide, or the prepackaged program purchased by the school system. The classroom teacher needs to begin looking at the students as individuals in a group. Band members if you will. Each has their own method of learning the material. We learn the same material, just in a different style.

In a band I could learn using other methods. It was helpful if I had a better ear, or learned to read tab. But I was not an efficient learner. So I fell behind the others.

From this experience, I learned that it is good efficient teaching if students are taught to identify their learning style. It is good if teacher learn to differentiate instruction according to the learners in the class. It is good if teachers introduce new learning styles to the students. They may not be efficient at first, but could open another avenue to learning.