I believe students are in music lessons because they want to play music, and given the proper environment, students love to learn. When teaching, I

– Focus on the skills necessary for the student to learn music on his or her own, including note-reading, ear-training, technical skills and interpretation.
– Keep students motivated by helping them choose music that they love to play, but is also within their current skill level.
– Challenge students to increase their skills by introducing them to great sounding music requiring more knowledge or technical ability than they currently have, but is within reach with a little extra effort. “If you learn the chord inversions for the key of Eb really well, you’ll be able to play this song!”
– Make sure students learn to play rhythms correctly. Also, show them why and when it is appropriate to take “artistic license” with the rhythm. Since music happens in time, timing is one of the most important expressive elements.