I enjoy teaching children, though I consider it the hardest job I have ever undertaken. Assuming that a child's responses are fully resonant I pay attention to them and from them learn more about music than from much prose being written about music these days.
I learn, for example, that formulas are a coverup, an excuse for not paying attention.
I include scales, chord progressions and structural analysis in the category of formulas. The less I teach formulas, the more significant details become in the child's musical experience.
The challenge is to engage the full perceptual awareness of the child at every moment of playing without recourse to a quickly accessible generalization that potentially masks the moment.
