You can’t rock all the time sometimes you need a ballad.

Don't get me wrong, I love to rock out, but sometimes you need a ballad. In the band, I hate slow songs. They are much harder to play than fast ones. Timing is difficult to keep. Your mistakes linger out there longer for all to notice. Slow songs often clear the dance floor..... Or fill it.

When a band plans a set list it's easy to rock out. Throw in all the fast songs you know. But it wears a crowd out. It's monotonous. Everything begins to sound the same. When you are at that point it's time to play a ballad.

In a class, students and teachers need variety. It's easy to go with a simple lesson. Have kids read and answer questions. Or, you could have the kids listen to a lecture and take notes. But you need to throw something in there to add variety to the listen. You need to build a lesson like a set list. You need to rock often and then throw something different at them.

You need to fill in your lesson by thinking that lessons need to be at times silent and alone, whispering and working in pairs and, conversational and working in larger groups. Students need to get information from a variety of inputs like reading, listening, watching, talking, and writing.

Most of all as the builders of lessons we need to look for ways to provide variety in a lesson. As much as we like to teach one way or rock one way the audience needs change to keep interested and continue learning.