What is the MMTP?
The Music Master Teacher Program (MMTP) is a comprehensive professional development program for bass, drums, guitar, and piano teachers. It is devised for teachers who seek to combine their performing skills with a firm knowledge and advanced understanding of the principles of music education, recognizing such understanding as a the most critical element for developing and maintaining a long and successful teaching career in today’s fast-changing and diverse music culture, and complex interdisciplinary field.

Who is the MMTP for?
The MMTP address teachers who recognize the value of gaining today most innovative educational knowledge on teaching bass/drums/guitar/piano and related subjects; knowledge which is viewed indispensable for entering the contemporary music education sector and for prolonging one’s teaching career to its full potential. The MMTP is offered to: (a) schools that requires their guitar teachers to expand and deepen their current understanding of teaching theories along with a broad range of related disciplines, (b) independent teachers who aspire to widen their knowledge and experience and to apply for a teaching position in a school through a qualification that enhances their curriculum, (c) teachers who are planning to start their own guitar teaching practice.

How will I be taught?
The MMTP is conceived to offer its participants the opportunity to explore a vast array of significant topics and cultivate the essential skills by engaging with a team composed of lecturers with an academic background and/or a well-established music carrer. Each lecturer and music teaching expert are allocated to a specific area of study for which s/he possess a proven expertise. This will assure the participants that every aspect of the program is well researched.
A characteristic feature in the design and delivery of the MMTP is that learning events are laid out to making the course more compatible with the participant’s needs and agenda. Lectures will take place during an intensive study period at the beginning of each year, which will take place at a physical location. This will ensure that an in-person meeting take place – at the outset – between the course team and the course participants, preceding any subsequent communication in remote, offering the advantage that the latter grows out of the strong sense of reality initially established by the former.
Course applications will be assessed via written assignments and teaching demonstrations, which will give the participants the opportunity to demonstrate their theoretical understanding and practical skills developed during the course.

How does the MMTP differ from existing music teacher training initiatives in Italy?
The MMTP departs from existing teacher training projects in that most teacher training programs made available in Italy are largely centred on instrumental instruction devised for a particular age or focused to conform to a specific music culture. The MMTP, however, is structured so as to bear relevance to the broad range of music idioms that encompass the contemporary musician’s experience, and to engage with both pedagogical and anagogical teaching methods. This prevents the course to remain modest in scope when situated in the context of contemporary music education.
As argued in the about section of this website, guitar performers who transition directly from performing to teaching (skipping any form of teaching studies) do not recognize music education as a necessary link to their practice. In this conceptualization, educational theories are either ignored or even deemed to interfere negatively with their teaching insights that derive from their own performing experience. This approach, however, shows its limitations when applied to a variety of students and in different teaching settings. Owing to this, the MMTP program supports the view that a sound understanding of the educational foundations is regarded a pre-requisite that underpins the current definition of a master teacher. Therefore, one of the founding tenets of the MMTP is to accompany the participants towards the transition from music instructors to informed educators who are able to read and critically evaluate research-based literature and to conduct their own enquiries into issues related to their teaching practices.
Lastly, the MMTP is currently the first and only guitar educational program in Italy designed to support teachers to pursue a valid qualification, up to Level 7 EQF, specific to teaching guitar (either acoustic, classical, or electric), bass (electric and acoustic) drums and percussions, piano (including electric keyboards and organ).

How will studying for the MMTP effect my teaching career?
You will:
- expand your understanding of all the major facets that characterize your field. This will make you become a more effective teacher and will place you at the leading edge of the music teaching profession.
- engage with a team of music teachers and performers who examine and understand current relevant knowledge in the subject examined in the program, and become exposed to different thought-provoking perspectives.
- recognize the needs of multiple and cross-cultural learning objectives, developing the ability to assess different teaching approaches and design a curriculum of study according to the specific educational settings, age, or music identity of each student.
- cross the boundaries of music instruction and broaden your areas of expertise by cultivating your reflective and writing skills, which will allow you to construct and constantly innovate your professional development and practice.
- develop the skills and knowledge required to pursue a teaching diploma that will enhance your CV. The diploma is issued by a renowned University and mapped in the European Qualification Framework (EQF).

What are the MMTP learning outcomes?
The learning objectives are constructed in line with the level of qualification it leads to (EQF Level 5, 6, 7) and their corresponding level of expected intellectual analysis and practical experience. It is assumed that during the foundation phase (Year 1, 2, and 3) the participants will gain a foundational knowledge and experience over a broad range of subjects, which allows them to acquire a comprehensive perspective and orientation in the profession.

Following a successful competition of the foundation phase, anyone willing to progress to the specialization phase will be required to focus only on a single topic, which will be investigated it at a higher level of expertise (see the ‘program’ section for more information on each phase).

...Read our Program