Your Best Learning Style By Donna Harris © 2021

 

Explore the three learning styles and take the fun, short quiz at the end of this article to find out more about yourself

 

We all learn differently. Understanding how we learn can help us overcome barriers, which we all sometimes experience. Being aware of the different learning styles can help us progress in our lifelong endeavours.

 

Being aware of various types of learning provides us with options on how to approach what we learn. This is true for all things including piano lessons.

 

Part of improving how we learn comes from developing greater self-awareness and acting on it. And guess what, when we learn music as musicians, we learn about ourselves.

 

It is important for those of us who love to learn that we learn through various methods because doing so actually helps us to retain information.

 

Honouring our diverse learning styles also keeps things interesting, up-to-date, and effective.

 

According to scientists, there are three kinds of learning:

 

Auditory Learners, Visual Learners, and Kinaesthetic Learners.

 

Most of us benefit from a combination of these learning styles. Still, we tend to gravitate towards one particular way of learning. Which one is your favourite?

 

 

Let’s look at the learning styles:

 

Auditory Learners:

Verbal instructions are key. You like to hear information to act on it. Recordings and reading instructions out loud may also be great techniques for you to use, so try them.

 

Visual Learners:

Being able to see things is a great learning aid. You value imagery and things in print. Try colour-coding, drawing, writing things down, and other visual aids as your best methods for learning.

 

Kinaesthetic Learners:

Hands-on experience helps. You like to get physical with what you are learning. Listening to or reading instructions for extended lengths of time is not for you. Activities that enable you to touch, build, and move your body are your cup of tea, so include them.

 

At times, it depends on what you are learning as to what options you have for including your favourite learning style, but where possible tailor your learning/training methods to how you best learn.

 

In Music we use all three styles

 

As a piano teacher, I offer all three learning methods, and this is one of the great things about studying music. Musicians not only develop flexibility in learning abilities, we realise how we learn best and develop essential skills along our musical journey that are used in other areas of our lives.

 

See this article about why it is good to learn piano.

 

Get in touch with me to find out how you can learn to play by ear, improvise, read music, play the music you love, and maybe even create your own tunes during piano lessons!

 

Now, for the fun quiz! I recommend that you guess what your favourite way of learning is before you take the quiz. Maybe you could write it down. Then take the quiz. Afterwards, was it what you expected?

 

Take the quick quiz: https://www.chegg.com/play/student-life/quiz-what-type-of-learner-are-you/