Darla Hanley's Music Room
Creative Teaching for Students of Today (& Tomorrow) PK-8
Hi! I’m Darla, an experienced PK-12 music educator, college professor, and former Berklee College of Music Dean looking to connect with teachers, parents/caregivers, and others seeking to advance creative music making for today’s students—and their teachers. In Darla Hanley’s Music Room you will find teaching strategies, advice and teaching tips, playlists, and more.
Oh, I Couldn’t… Could I?
© 2026 Darla S. Hanley
Today’s post is all about confidence… or a lack thereof. You know, the kind of reminder and reflection perfect for summer break (lol).
Confidence is all about positive experiences, realistic expectations, personal beliefs, and trust. It’s mine (and yours). Something to navigate and manage as we meet life’s challenges, understand ourselves, and take action.
Personal and Interpersonal Confidence
In my view confidence presents in many forms. According to AI and my mother (lol) confidence is personal (i.e., self-confidence) and interpersonal where a person believes they can rely on others (e.g., I am confident in my colleagues, teammates, or spouse) because of their character, integrity, experience, and ability, etc.
Both self-confidence and interpersonal confidence are grounded in trust. With self-confidence I personally believe I can complete a task and/or navigate a situation—I trust myself and my abilities. With interpersonal confidence, I believe in (and trust) the abilities of others because of their words and actions.
Teachers… This is An Example of What NOT to Do
When I was in junior high school my gym teacher got inspired by the Olympic games (OMG, I’m still talking about this!!!). Suddenly our gym was transformed with gymnastics equipment including uneven parallel bars, a huge trampoline, and a pommel horse. Not kidding.
Most of my peers and I had NO experience with any of these things, and yet we were suddenly lined up to take our turn on each apparatus! Um, I didn’t have any self-confidence in my abilities here, and for good reason. It looked scary, and difficult… and I was totally clueless. To make it even more impactful (insert eye roll), one of my classmates broke her ankle attempting the pommel horse just in front of me in the line. Really? You expect me to go next? (The teacher did call me to go, by the way!!!) And the uneven parallel bars were humbling if not a bit humiliating for me as a preteen girl. I hung there. Briefly. No flipty-flip. Just desperately trying to fit in and save face.
In this context I really questioned the teacher’s choice (as any solid junior high student does (lol)) for asking us to do this! [Note: Prior to this our gym class consisted of Dodgeball, Volleyball, Basketball, and Running Laps.] Did she really think we would be successful gymnasts without any training leading up to our turn in line? Was she even looking at the students in the room? Didn’t seem like it.
Suffice it to say, I had no interpersonal confidence toward this teacher.
Three Themes of Confidence
Again, according to AI and my mom (lol) confidence can be framed in 3 categories:
Self-Efficacy
Self-Esteem
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Self-Efficacy is a belief in your own capability to do XY or Z.
Self-Esteem is self-worth and self-value. This is a personal evaluation and belief. My self-esteem is up to me.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is where having confidence—or not—influences the likelihood of being able to XY or Z. (Going back to that gym class… This was a pretty clear example of a negative outcome self-fulfilling prophecy! I had zero confidence in myself as a gymnastics athlete, and well, that rang true (lol)).
So why am I writing about this? And how does this link to music education? Consider these things:
Set Students Up for Success
In my opinion, students should enter a music classroom feeling excited to be there and confident that they will be asked to do things they are capable of. They will (get to) sing and play songs within their vocal range and playing abilities. They will (get to) make music that resonates with them and inspires them to engage. They will (get to)… you get the idea.
Setting students up to be successful (and grow) in any classroom—including the music room—requires:
Clearly stated instructions and guidelines;
Examples/modeling;
Age-, developmentally-, and musically-appropriate content and materials;
Opportunity for exploration within a safe educational environment; and
Constructive feedback.
When students are set up to be successful in music they are able to focus on the task-at-hand without fear or questioning. They are simply invited to be kids making music—and here their self-confidence emerges authentically. Further, when students are set up to be successful in music class they trust the teacher and their peers. This interpersonal confidence is critical to the 2-way street that comprises the educational process.
Scaffold Instruction
The idea that everybody starts at the beginning when learning is an important pedagogical concept. Start here, assess students, and go from there. Seems obvious, right? Apparently, not true for that gym teacher in my past (lol).
Education in general, but certainly in music, is something that builds and builds and builds over time—with experience and guidance. To effectively make this happen, we need to engage students with learning experiences designed specifically for them. Have you ever heard a child singer singing a song forcing notes beyond her range? Or a defeated instrumentalist unable to play the music in their lesson because it’s not quite in their grasp? So painful—and unfortunate.
Scaffolding instruction means we meet students where they are at every turn and layer learning (and abilities). This is where we, as music teachers, ask students to do things like:
Explore singing voice/speaking voice distinctions to match pitch and initially vocalize;
Echo-sing melodic patterns;
Sing simple songs at first and build to more complex songs (sol-mi, sol-la-mi, leading to pentatonic, and diatonic, etc.);
Initially sing in unison leading to rounds, partner songs, and parts;
Echo-chant rhythmic patterns;
Play rhythmic patterns, ostinati, and call-and-response to experience beat and beat function; and
Sing and play short exercises, examples, and songs leading to longer songs, parts, and scores.
We follow curriculum maps that have a scope and sequence and meet learning targets based on state and national arts standards in order to teach the students in our classroom. We know this… However, we also know that sometimes, like my gym teacher, we can get excited by something that influences our work—and maybe not in a good way. My teacher got excited by the Olympic games and her students were not positioned for success. We need to be sure we don’t get excited by music that is beyond the current reach of our students. I like to think of this as “challenge students—but do not frustrate them” as we strive to guide them to develop and increase their musical skills and knowledge as artists, listeners, and evaluators of art.
Foster Artistic Confidence
Artistic confidence is an essential component of being a musician. As a performer, I need self-confidence in my ability to sing or play. I need to trust myself that I can hit the notes, arc the phrase, navigate the articulations and dynamics, etc. And I need to trust my practice. No self-fulfilling prophecy of doubt is allowed here (lol).
Artistic confidence also often requires musicians to rely on—and trust—other people. We need to trust the ensemble as an entity that creates art when a group of musicians sing or play together. Everyone contributes, and if one person is unsure, their trepidation may ripple through the group and negatively influence the performance.
Artistic confidence also applies to us as teachers! As a teacher, I need self-confidence in my ability to demonstrate and model music making at the highest level. This includes details like:
Singing with clear tone, solid intonation, expression, etc. in a vocal range that is appropriate for students.
Knowing how to finger notes on all instruments being played/taught and how to produce clear tone, solid intonation, expression, etc.
Studying and really knowing the songs, charts, and scores, I’m teaching.
Believing in myself as a music director, conductor, accompanist, arranger, composer, etc.—so I can always invite students to make music in my presence because they trust my words and actions.
So how exactly is artistic confidence fostered? Try this:
Call to Action
Set students up for success with learning experiences, and musical choices, that meet them where they are (developmentally, socially, academically, and artistically);
Build on prior experience by scaffolding instruction so students experience (and see) their personal (and group) development as musicians over time; and
Create (and repeat) performance opportunities for individual students and ensembles that demonstrate their best art making today.
Final Thoughts
Confidence is part of life—and music education. We need to empower students to become self-confident in their musical abilities (individually) and interpersonally confident in their music making with others. And to do this we need to set them up for success with developmentally appropriate repertoire and realistic expectations. When this happens, students are not fearful or hesitant to make music—rather, they are invited to sing, play, and groove with freedom and artistic trust in themselves, in each other… and in their teachers!
Thanks for indulging me with this post… Sometimes I like to pause and replay essential pedagogical ideas as reminders.
Please know I’m pretty confident that all of this is happening—because of outstanding music teachers, like you! Check out these tracks with “Confidence” in the title:
🎵 Derrick “Doc” Pearson and Mike Scott “Confidence” (2021) Link to Track on Spotify
🎵 Caravelli “Confidence pour Confidence” (2025) Link to Track on Spotify
🎵 Living Strings “I Have Confidence” (1965) Link to Track on Spotify