Benefits of Student/Teacher Duets

Performing student/teacher duets is incredibly beneficial for both student and teacher alike. Duets encourage interaction and can strengthen the musical bond between student and teacher. Duets teach teamwork and accountability. Students quickly learn that playing together with another musician requires a great deal of concentration, discipline, listening, awareness and practice! They are also a great source of motivation. Duets can sound quite impressive especially to students. Once students discover the full sound that can be achieved while performing a duet students often dive right in and practice more!

Duets can build confidence in students. Once students are able to keep up with their teacher they become quite proud of themselves. Duets can provide comfort and reduce performing anxiety during a music recital. Most students are more comfortable performing with their music teacher on stage rather than going solo. They know that their teacher will be able to help them out of tough spots if they get lost or forget passages, or mix up a song order. The very presence of a teacher sharing the stage with their student helps deflect audience attention and focus from the student and in turn can make a somewhat scary moment into a fun positive experience.

Here is a great example of a teacher helping a student on stage during a duet performance. This performance video is of guitar student Kelian and his teacher Oscar Rangel at one of our Winter Holiday Recitals last Dec. 2016. Notice how Oscar is able to calm Kelian by giving him some cues during their performance. Great job guys. We are so proud of you!