This July, a dear friend and colleague, Mary Tickner, passed away at the pianistic age of 88. In the past few months, I’ve thought about the role she had in the lives of her students and I’ve contemplated the true meaning of the words “mentor” and “teacher”. When I consider all the educators I have had in my own life, from private lessons and elementary school to post-graduate studies, the number who truly inspired creativity and excited imagination are not as numerous as one would have hoped. I was pointed in the right direction several times, for which I’m very grateful, but I was not always given the tools to puzzle through ideas or the space to make mistakes and grow in confidence.
As a teacher now, I wonder what I can do to make sure I impart some of the curiosity for life and music that someone like Mary gifted to her students. Its not enough to love the music you’re teaching, somehow you’ve got to get the student to love it too or at the very least get them to persevere until they reach a level at which it can be appreciated. What to do? Well, each teacher has different ideas on the subject but here are a three of my own to add to your tool box.
- Make the composer human and real to the student. Its important to speak about composers and give context to the music through their lives, their friends, where they lived, what they liked or didn’t like, etc. Give the student some humorous facts, show pictures, google archived interviews from the last century, email questions or comments to them if they’re actually alive! Make the composer more than just a name under the title of a piece.
- Sing in the lessons to get the student to focus on sound quality. Its a great way to shape phrases, pace rubato and its much more fun than just sitting there and counting out loud. It also has the added benefit of energizing the teacher on those days when you’re just a little on the frazzled side.
- Keep expectations realistic while at the same time pushing the student to be their best. This is a fine line and one that I admit I’ve gone over at times but I keep trying to get it right. You really never know where a student will go with the lessons you teach, I’m sure most of my early teachers would be amazed that I actually make a living in the field.
In the end, I believe what I do is not about creating a studio of concert pianists (not practical or probable in most cases), its about nurturing well-rounded human beings. A poem on the wall of my son’s violin teacher sums it all up, I read it in the middle of exam season when I’ve heard one too many F major scales missing the B flat and finishing on finger 2!
I Teach Music
Not because I expect you to major in music,
Not because I expect you to play every day of your life,
Not so you can relax,
Not so you can “have fun”,
BUT
So you will be human,
So you will recognize beauty,
So you will be sensitive,
So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world,
So you will have something to cling to,
So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good, in short more life,
Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live,
That is Why I Teach.
(author unknown)