Can you teach inspiration?

[Bob]

I have heard you can't teach someone "that spark" or "soul."

But I would think you can teach anything.  I suppose inspiring is much more difficult.

What do you think?   Can you teach someone to be enthused about a certain style or piece of music?

[crazy for ivan moravec]

how about inspiring them?

[lostinidlewonder]

What do you mean by "spark" or "soul"? Like how an expert jazz musician has the rhythm living within them? I don't think that sort of inspiration can be taught, it must be a part of your life, not something you study or get told to do, maybe that is the first step but in the end you have to create that unbreakable connection with the music, and that comes from your own heart/passions.

Inspiring students is a must I think. It acts as a catalyst to their progress. An inspired student will try harder than one who just shrugs their shoulders at the work. I can inspire students to study a style of music by playing it for them. They then say, wow I wish we could play that. But is that trully inspiring them or just enertaining the thought of maybe one day they could playing it? Real inspiration in music must have a stronger effect than just "wow that would be nice to do". It must be, I must learn that, I can't get the sound out of my head so I must learn it so this music stops torturing me, I can't stand hearing this music and not being able to produce it myself. I wish I could hypnotise students this way ehehheeh.

If we look at inspiration on a smaller scale though I think it is essential. You must always be there for the student and congradulate small achievements. I constantly praise my students if they get through a small section which was troubling them. I am constantly saying, great! well done, perfect! but with the same breath I mutter, it would be even better if..... Get the student excited about playing something right, dont say, NOOOOOOOOOOO this way! or STOP thats wrong! WRONG FINGERS! USE THIS FINGER! You really must practice more! etc. This doesn't inspire it just highlights what they already know they can't do! They don't need a teacher for that, a teacher has to be nice, kind, gentle, FORGIVING (put up with mistakes and treat them kindly no matter how many times the same thing pops up). So we must highlight what is right in their playing give them that inspiration that they are on the right track, but at the same time highlight direction as to how to make their music sound even better or feel physically more controlled.

A teacher must be careful with their choice of words to the student while directing them. They can NEVER take a negative tone, a teacher should be a source for inspiration, a teacher should generate goals, dreams and feed the students desire to do well. Like I've said a ton of times, a piano teacher is no different to a soccer coach. If a soccer coach demoralises their team what result does he get from that? The team plays worse. Some may argue that the team plays harder to prove the coach wrong, fair enough that may be the case sometimes but not all the time. If a coach inspires the team with dreams and achieveable goals, then he will push the team, extend their potential. A piano teach is no different, we sometimes forget our duty to inspire only to our own demise! A student who doesn't see their teacher as a dreamer, someone who can help achieve goals and help them on the way to get there, if the student sees the teacher as only someone who points out errors and sets them work to do, we reduce the potential that could be learnt.

[ingagroznaya]

That spark often comes from within. You can try teaching someone to like/appreciate a certain style or piece and enjoy playing it. Trying to inspire someone who has no spark on a subject will not take you far. Love is complicated, Bob. That spark or soul + the igniter.

I've lately noticed, that some of my students move uncontrollably when I play something they connect to ( they don't dance.  It is some very odd uncontrollable muscle movement ). Even more so strange is that I do it my self too. Love is an urge. It's hard to explain, but it's predictable.

[alessandro]

Dear Bob,

I think inspiration is the result of the interaction between one's history, action and coincidence or accident.  Throughout life, things that are new or modern are often the  result of research, work and a great deal of accident.  Inspiration is an old-fashioned word that was in the context of religion, god-like situations.  I tend to think that humans are some sort of animals that can have feelings through imitating each other.  It's our capacity of imitating action that can create our own sort of handwriting, footprint, talent... It's with a balanced life of concentration, sleep, dream, walking, intelligent food that one can create.  Creation, or what you maybe call inspiration is a process, not something like a sparkle or a well. I presume for the sake of your post that you are a teacher, well than simply tell what you know and what you feel to your pupil. Ask him what he's Feeling once in a while. Try to give and live some kind of pleasure and peace in doing in general.
Try this (it's based on a paragraph of Schopenhauer): Before going to bed have the intention that the first thing that you do in the morning will be sitting in an armchair.  The next morning you get up and you go sitting in that armchair.  Now think.  Think, deeply. Try to make of your next action something that has Sense (meaning).  Really sense, really meaning.  What happens ? In my case, Nothing.  I go defecate or I drink something... nothing of a 'higher order'.  So, life is probably in living it.  Life is in action.
And in love, but that's, I guess, another topic. 

[m19834]

I just happened across this thread, and although it was asked over two years ago, I think it could use more ideas.

I don't think inspiration is something that is teachable, however, I believe it is something that is/can be learned.  Learning takes place when we are exposed to truth, and when we develop experience through interaction with and awareness of truth.  What a teacher can do is expose an individual to those things which are essential to art and music, and a teacher can pass along particular forms of knowledge, which become tools or 'ways' of interaction with what one has been exposed to.  I think that inspiration is a kind of product or ramification from this type of interaction and it is essentially unique to each individual, though I believe there is a fundamental constant about it which has basically given it a name.

[keypeg]

Inspiration comes from within.  The first duty is not to kill it when it is already there.  If it is there, nurture.

[Bob]

I think you inpire.  To answer my own question.  But that's not quite where I was going -- I think you can do a cookie cutter version (insincere) yet still inspire.  Just acting.

I think everyone has that spark in them.  It's just getting it out.  If it wasn't there, they would be attracted to expressive things in the first place, and who doesn't experience something expressive.  It's not so much "teach" and "draw out" I guess.  Can you do that?  Yes.  Even if you don't really mean it too.  

And inspiration is not quite the same as motivation.  


Is inga still around?  I don't remember seeing her for a long time.

[Essyne]

And inspiration is not quite the same as motivation. 

100% agreed here. One can be inspired by a piece, but not motivated to continue.

I see this a lot in advanced ballet classes. When a younger girl is promoted to the advanced classes and is awarded her pointe shoes, she may love the art of ballet/may feel truly inspired when dancing, but the minute she falls or gets a blister she is finished because she lacks the drive ("motivation").

Inspiration comes from within. The first duty is not to kill it when it is already there. If it is there, nurture.

I'm not so sure here. Can you "kill" one's inspiration if it "comes from within" and you, the teacher, are an "outside" force? I don't know. Often, the really successful artists are those who have been criticized their entire lives. In my experience, the "nuture" method results in inflated egos and a feeling like "I don't have to work for anything because my work truly INSPIRES me and that will get my through on its own."

A student can have all the potential in the world, and be exposed to all of the outside help, but at the end of the day, it's up to the STUDENT, not the teacher, to draw that out of himself. (It's the transition from a recreational musician to a serious musician).

[keypeg]

Nurture does not mean praise.  It can even be criticism.  Indifference, careless or wrong teaching can kill inspiration.  An artist needs the tools, and if taught wrong, or receiving no response damage can be done.

[longpiaopiao]

Inspiration comes from within，meditation can help you to catch it!

[musicrebel4u]

I remember one very funny episode from my past, when I was working in a very advanced state's music school.

A lady, wife of school principal, was a very poor professional. She barely graduated Music College, but kept her job, because of her husband (he was also very bad musician, but a member of communist party)

Once I saw her preparing a student to a recital. Her student couldn't put 2 notes together and struggled with basic coordination problems, but the teacher was screaming at the top of her voice:

-   Can you play with more feeling? Feel it! Feel it! I command!

I never saw anything so pathetic.

So, the conclusion is plain and simple. Motivation and inspiration naturally come to any individual, when they become a whole unit with music instrument and a music piece. It involves freedom of reading and coordination.

I met a lot of music educators and can't state that even 50% of them have this freedom. I mean, I didn't meet many music professionals, who could open ANY music sheet and read it fluently like an actor would read his script.

Most of the time they spend so much energy and effort to learn a difficult piece that they lose inspiration in a process. What to demand from poor beginners, if they learn a music piece by drills bar after bar?

[tsagari]

Quote from muscicrebel4u "Most of the time they spend so much energy and effort to learn a difficult piece that they lose inspiration in a process. What to demand from poor beginners, if they learn a music piece by drills bar after bar?"
What you suggest to someone already musically educated to the"old" system? Because you are wright much energy is  lost in the attempt to learn the piece especially for young children who like fast results.

[musicrebel4u]

Quote from muscicrebel4u "Most of the time they spend so much energy and effort to learn a difficult piece that they lose inspiration in a process. What to demand from poor beginners, if they learn a music piece by drills bar after bar?"
What you suggest to someone already musically educated to the"old" system? Because you are wright much energy is  lost in the attempt to learn the piece especially for young children who like fast results.

I would recommend to read as many pieces as possible, favorite or not, without any purpose to do it artistically. Read with no 'polishing' part, without questioning oneself about 'right fingering', 'understanding true meaning', analyzing theory etc.

The main goal in such process is to gain fluency or to become 'part of the instrument and music itself'. The same way we are feeling inside our own car, which we've driven for many years. Only this kind of freedom could lead us to inspiration, when you so confident and experienced that you have not just this or that particular piece in your head, but collected amount of many other pieces played not so perfect before that moment.

[tsagari]

Thanks so much musicrebel4u for your advice. I had this problem of lack of freedom when I play. Yesterday during my lesson I was playing Bach's Invation for two voices no9. I could not be part of the music feel etc and I told to my teacher that I was feeling as if I was walking at the edge of a hill trying not to fall down. I think this is the adult fear not make mistakes which is wrong I think. Any way many thanks

[keypeg]

Reading these and other posts I'm getting an odd thought.  The thought is this: The reason that reading music is difficult lies not with the written music but in the teaching method.  If I had done all those convoluted things like memorizing Every Good Boy and making certain I knew the notes names I suppose that all those "helpers" would have made it difficult too.

The thing that is missing everywhere in the posts is mention of sound.  It is a musical instrument, and nobody talks about the sound being played.  How is that possible.  Is the absence of sound the reason that it appears so difficult to everyone?

When I learned I knew the notes in a scale like a logical progression of sounds in my ear and I could hear the sound of that scale in my ear as I sang or played any instrument.  The written staff and its notes were unfamiliar, of course, but they went up and down just like what I heard.  If you knew the starting point (tonic) you could go anywhere else by sound.  I had nobody to teach me, so the logic of music itself taught me.  When you hear the sound in your head, and when the symbols translate into sound, then it is as though that sound pulls your fingers down into the keys.  That becomes a smooth, easy motion, as though your fingertips are singing.

I wanted to learn the real way, and now I do know note names, and I can indeed see A, know where A is in the keyboard by sight, and play that A visually and kinetically joining A by where I know it lies in space rather than by sound as before.  I am able to do some things that I could not do before, such as playing music that doesn't have a logical progression in sound, so that if you hear the notes you could not place them sound-wise.

But honestly, it would almost seem that this almost total visual way of learning to read music and play an instrument that goes from the appearance of the notes to the appearance of their place on the keyboard creates a problem, and makes something straightforward difficult.

In the very least, does anybody relate to the sound of the notes when they are playing this musical instrument?  Just how visual an act has this become?  Were I to follow the visual approach, what was once easy and fluid would become quite difficult.

[musicrebel4u]

But honestly, it would almost seem that this almost total visual way of learning to read music and play an instrument that goes from the appearance of the notes to the appearance of their place on the keyboard creates a problem, and makes something straightforward difficult.

If to consider human mind as a 'tabula rasa', there is nothing in between notes and keys. But any beginner already have a lot of music information stored in one's mind. All what beginner wants – is to be able to interact with notes and keys in order to find practical use for such information. Interaction with teacher would be the last thing that he wants during such process, because first what one wants is to know, if he is playing the right key in a right time.

Some can figure out the rest with even no teacher, some would need assistance of teacher during the process.

[keypeg]

I cannot quite relate to this.  I agree with the absence of tabula rasa.  However, when I first interacted with the piano I was not trying to figure out whether I was playing the right note with the right time.  I pressed the key.  There was a sound.  I pressed another key and there was another sound. Soon there was a melody so I played it.   Later I saw written music and I saw the ups and downs and I knew movable do solfege.  The music sang itself and so I played what I heard in my head.  I did not wonder about right notes or right time.  I played what sang itself.

Years later I had my first music lessons as an adult, not piano.  I did the same "sing itself" thing after I learned to hold my instrument.  My teacher was close to me observing.  Sometimes my arm sagged and he gently lifted it in such an unobtrusive way that I barely knew it had been done, but this lifting stayed with me.  Sometimes he played along with me, and the sensation of the sound beside me somehow penetrated my fingers and changed how I played.  I learned, I cannot tell you how, and the presence of a teacher made a difference.

I cannot relate to any of the things that have been discussed: not the "drill drill drill", not the teacher interference, not the endless "talk talk talk" - in some of my lessons not a word was spoken for a whole hour.  I am beginning to really appreciate things.   Your program is probably good, but I cannot relate to the problems it is supposed to fix.

[a-sharp]

I don't believe inspiration is a skill (and hence is not something you "teach" per se). I agree with the others who would say all we can do is try to inspire   Enthusiam is contagious - so be enthusiastic, listen to music (during the lessons), encourage students to go to concerts & to FIND what inspires them.... We can ask questions "what inspired you most about that (performance/pieces/whatever) - Probably it's more useful to find out what inspires each of our students and then try to provide that wherever/whenever possible. I hope that makes sense....

[dora96]

What do you mean by "spark" or "soul"? Like how an expert jazz musician has the rhythm living within them? I don't think that sort of inspiration can be taught, it must be a part of your life, not something you study or get told to do, maybe that is the first step but in the end you have to create that unbreakable connection with the music, and that comes from your own heart/passions.

Inspiring students is a must I think. It acts as a catalyst to their progress. An inspired student will try harder than one who just shrugs their shoulders at the work. I can inspire students to study a style of music by playing it for them. They then say, wow I wish we could play that. But is that trully inspiring them or just enertaining the thought of maybe one day they could playing it? Real inspiration in music must have a stronger effect than just "wow that would be nice to do". It must be, I must learn that, I can't get the sound out of my head so I must learn it so this music stops torturing me, I can't stand hearing this music and not being able to produce it myself. I wish I could hypnotise students this way ehehheeh.

If we look at inspiration on a smaller scale though I think it is essential. You must always be there for the student and congradulate small achievements. I constantly praise my students if they get through a small section which was troubling them. I am constantly saying, great! well done, perfect! but with the same breath I mutter, it would be even better if..... Get the student excited about playing something right, dont say, NOOOOOOOOOOO this way! or STOP thats wrong! WRONG FINGERS! USE THIS FINGER! You really must practice more! etc. This doesn't inspire it just highlights what they already know they can't do! They don't need a teacher for that, a teacher has to be nice, kind, gentle, FORGIVING (put up with mistakes and treat them kindly no matter how many times the same thing pops up). So we must highlight what is right in their playing give them that inspiration that they are on the right track, but at the same time highlight direction as to how to make their music sound even better or feel physically more controlled.

A teacher must be careful with their choice of words to the student while directing them. They can NEVER take a negative tone, a teacher should be a source for inspiration, a teacher should generate goals, dreams and feed the students desire to do well. Like I've said a ton of times, a piano teacher is no different to a soccer coach. If a soccer coach demoralises their team what result does he get from that? The team plays worse. Some may argue that the team plays harder to prove the coach wrong, fair enough that may be the case sometimes but not all the time. If a coach inspires the team with dreams and achieveable goals, then he will push the team, extend their potential. A piano teach is no different, we sometimes forget our duty to inspire only to our own demise! A student who doesn't see their teacher as a dreamer, someone who can help achieve goals and help them on the way to get there, if the student sees the teacher as only someone who points out errors and sets them work to do, we reduce the potential that could be learnt.

At the moment. I am facing big challenge for my 10 years old son. He always lack of patient, when he practices the piano, he doesn't like to be told what to do even his teacher. He will do it what the teacher tell him during the lesson, but he will play the music very carelessly at home, not paying attention. The teacher is getting very frustrated about him. It is not that he doesn't like to play the piano, but he like to play in his own way and do thing in his own term.
He also has the same problem with reading, writing and spelling at school. I try to be very encouraging and trying to inspire him with different method,  how about sound  the spelling out, look at the pattern of the word, play word games, draw pictures, play computer spelling games. He just don't want to remember, don't care about it. He doesn't feel that it is important.  All the work is really in his level even below his level. I don't want to be negative, try to rephrase the wording.  " You are making progress" " I am very proud of you, you are doing well" etc... However, in my heart feel that I am lying  about the truth. In fact, I really want to say " You are very careless, you are lazy and silly sod. The teacher and I  have addressed the problem with him many many times. Sometimes, I can see improvement, but if I don't do the follow up or remind him. The old habit is repeating again, even worse than before. I feel really tired. The teacher will give him the same piece or same exercise for a week, he will still get the answers wrong. I can see he  is also frustrated about his  immaturity, bad coordination. and bad focus. I mean he can't fix the problem if he won't acknowledge it. By the mean time, how to be encouraged and inspiring when the teacher and I try and try. We don't want to damage his self esteem. Sometimes, he feels that he is idiot, that makes me feel more hurt than him. He doesn't have the learning problem, except he need to care. We have seek professional about his case. The doctor said it is pure immature. When he reaches maturity, he will know and learn. By the meantimes, do I sit back and do nothing. We are thinking to ask him to repeat year 5. He get really upset because he is going to loose his friends from his class.  Psychologically, he feel that he is stupid and his friends will think the same. I have talked about with other professionals. It may not be bad idea because when he gets to year 6, the school will be harder than now, slow down, and I don't want to put too much pressure on him. But how do I convince him in a positive way? Should I stop him learning the piano since he has so much to cope with?

[Essyne]

I don't want to be negative, try to rephrase the wording.  " You are making progress" " I am very proud of you, you are doing well" etc... However, in my heart feel that I am lying  about the truth. In fact, I really want to say " You are very careless, you are lazy and silly sod. The teacher and I  have addressed the problem with him many many times. Sometimes, I can see improvement, but if I don't do the follow up or remind him. The old habit is repeating again, even worse than before.

Then say it. YOU are the parent, and someone must tell him this before it spirals completely out of control.

We don't want to damage his self esteem. Sometimes, he feels that he is idiot, that makes me feel more hurt than him.

Well, what is going to happen when he leaves your home? Would you rather "damage his self esteem now" or have someone else do it later on in life when his livelihood hangs in the balance(a boss, etc.)? As I said before, YOU are the parent, and hurting a child's feelings is oft the duty of the parent. It's that little thing we call life - it's not always easy. He won't die or anything if you tell him to straighten up.

He doesn't have the learning problem, except he need to care.

I can relate, because I am the same way. Everything just tends to come naturally to me. This is not said in an uppity, egotistical way, but it's just the way that I am. This is why I have told you to be blunt with your son. If he feels like there will be a CONSEQUENCE for his laziness, then it will be more apt for him to work efficiently. Unless he feels like he will get the things that he loves taken away, he won't work.

[dan101]

A great teacher makes inspiration contagious. That's why I can only think of a handful of teachers that have done just that in my past.

[tonyyyy]

this article 'the virtuoso teacher' by Christopher Berg is  'inspiring'

https://www.music.sc.edu/ea/keyboard/PPF/2.1/2.1.PPFke.html

[keypeg]

What a great article! 

[dora96]

Since I post my problem about my son, there is actually some improvement on his studies. However, he always said " it is boring learning the spelling and the practicing the piano". His teacher and I use different kind of approach, games, computer, and playing in a group. I just feel that it is not he is not interested in the instrument. He is constantly seeking stimulation, inspiration, excitement in the learning. When he finds the inspiration, he love it and do it, but very quickly the affect wear off, he becomes bored again.  Ok it is nothing wrong with this attitude. It is so hard to keep his mind focus and concentrated for a period of time. I don't know it is because his young boy, that is what boy is like. I am also a teacher myself, sometimes, help teaching other students. I also find that girl is more still, they are likely to listen.

I am very curious. Most musical composers are males, and most very famous pianists are also males. Surely, in what point that these people become so conscious about their interest and turn that interest into their careers.

[Essyne]

It's a maturity factor, Dora. You can't teach him to love the Craft or to even enjoy it. But you can teach him how to study it and maybe he will at least appreciate it. Young boy or no, one must learn dedication some time or another, and sooner is better than later. I'm not saying to drill theory until both he and you are blue in the face, but just know that maybe the piano is not a passion, a love, or even an enjoyable hobby for him at this point. I would sit him down and ask him what he truly wants. Let him know that it's okay if he chooses not to play piano. Later on in life, he may pick it back up again when he is ready. Maybe, for now, he just needs to get outside and socialize with friends, etc. But, I think if he decides to stick w/ piano, he must be serious about developing proper technique, something that I would've done had I known any better.

I am not a male, nor a composer/famous pianist. But I am relatively young, and was forced into a competitive sport before I "discovered" my passion for Music. I have not gone back to that sport, but am 100% ecstatic about finally traveling MY PATH through life (or, at least putting on my shoes and packing my suitcase  ).

Good Luck!

~Ess~

[fermata_88]

i agree with musicrebel that inspiration comes to the individuals.. you cannot teach inspiration to your students, only ourselves. In high school I really didn't think of my piano lessons  that much but later on, I realized music is the right one and playing piano makes me feel great.

[slobone]

I'm not even sure what y'all mean by "inspiration". Does that mean that things just come to you spontaneously, instead of being worked out ahead of time? I doubt that that happens very often. In any event I think teaching technique and musicality are more important, then how to think through a piece to plan what you're going to do when you perform.

If a performer suddenly gets a new idea in the middle of a performance, then great, go with it, but as I said, I don't think that happens very often unless you're Josef Hoffmann.

[tonyyyy]

i agree with musicrebel that inspiration comes to the individuals.. you cannot teach inspiration to your students, only ourselves. In high school I really didn't think of my piano lessons  that much but later on, I realized music is the right one and playing piano makes me feel great.

I think you are right; though if the teacher is enthusiastic , fun to be with and responsive to the pupil as an individual , it can make a big difference.

Slobone: Yes, the definition is a bit vague and personal .
Sometimes we suddenly get new ideas about interpretation or solving a problem...it is a little different to being told how to do it (ie it come out of our own efforts, and  at the right time) and a teacher can maybe set the process in motion by some subtle process, which might in part be 'inspired'.

[slobone]

Slobone: Yes, the definition is a bit vague and personal .
Sometimes we suddenly get new ideas about interpretation or solving a problem...it is a little different to being told how to do it (ie it come out of our own efforts, and  at the right time) and a teacher can maybe set the process in motion by some subtle process, which might in part be 'inspired'.

Aha, well creativity, originality, musical insight are all essential for anybody that really wants to be a musician worth listening to. They can't be directly taught, but they can certainly be nurtured and encouraged.

[milk_cookies_and_piano]

I am not a teacher, I am simply a seventeen year old girl who has been playing the piano for quite some time now. My teacher taught me inspiration , ofcourse this depends on the kindof person your student is. I was playing  the Bach Chromatic Fantasy, and I looked at it and it seemed like such a daunting task, I almost didn't want to bother and I just didnt practice it. then one lesson, he stopped me from playing and said, you know Bach, he wrote this piece when he wasnt working, and it is funny it is almost as if the poor guy went mad and wrote a completely bipolar piece, and he started playing the beginning and explained how fast it was, what bach must have been saying, it took each phrase and told me it was like two people speaking, and in parts I wanted to go fast he would tell me " Dont let the audience in yet, you want to keep them hanging on to each note each note has something important to say" even if the audience reacts badly to your performance at least they reacted, which means you touched them with your music in some way, playing the piano is your way of manipulating your surroundings to your own taste. And When he explained it like that, I wasnt that afraid or bored of it anymore, I practiced for 9 hours straight the next day, and I was so relaxed with the techniques he showed me I never got tired!, inspiration comes differently to everyone but this is how it came to me. I hope this helped.

It is too bad he moved to San Francisco lol

[healdie]

a good teacher should be the inspiration i had a music teacher at school whom was very unorthodox but brilliant, he made me want to play, so the teacher is very important but it also has to come from within that person i see some people play and you can just tell they would rather be doing somthing else, even if the playing is fine,

[lostinidlewonder]

....All the work is really in his level even below his level. I don't want to be negative, try to rephrase the wording.  " You are making progress" " I am very proud of you, you are doing well" etc... However, in my heart feel that I am lying  about the truth. In fact, I really want to say " You are very careless, you are lazy and silly sod.

This is exactly how I feel a lot of the times with my students. I have found that people do not like to be criticized, they do not like to think that they are wrong. They however do enjoy to improve themselves on their own terms, and think that they are doing it their own way. I have a younger girl who I teach who is extremely frightened about making mistakes. She will explain why things don't work for her, she will not use fingering I ask for, shys away from critique etc. A lot of the times I am talking to her to make her feel comfortable to learn something from someone else. She seems to have resistance to new information, almost as if she could work it out herself and feels ashamed she needs someone to help her. It's very strange I know!

I have found myself saying to students who get depressed or upset when I pick out all their errors, "Look, if I had nothing to improve upon on your playing why do you need a teacher?" Some kids feel ashamed if they cannot get things right on their own, so my approach to these students is to not make it look like I am telling them anything. I just ask them a question instead of directing statements. This way they feel like they are thinking about it themselves and it all comes from them. The teacher however must hint the answer to the question if they miss the point

Still I have got resistance from question asking. Some will dismiss it and say, no this way is better. Then I challenge them to prove it to me. I try to play like them and I show them how their way is too risky, or difficult to control. I might spend a few minutes trying to convince them, but they will always accept it eventually. Too many teachers simply dismiss the students way, they do not explore it with the student which I find this very helpful for their learning. To test their way, to show them how their way doesn't stand up to scrutiny BUT at the same time making them feel comfortable to be wrong, otherwise WHY HAVE TEACHER?.

[a-sharp]

I have found myself saying to students who get depressed or upset when I pick out all their errors, "Look, if I had nothing to improve upon on your playing why do you need a teacher?" Some kids feel ashamed if they cannot get things right on their own, so my approach to these students is to not make it look like I am telling them anything. I just ask them a question instead of directing statements. This way they feel like they are thinking about it themselves and it all comes from them. The teacher however must hint the answer to the question if they miss the point

I do this a lot too. I didn't originally learn that way, but my recent teachers do this. I think for most students, it's a good approach, if only because it sets them up to be *thinking* musicians, instead of simply just playing something the way someone else is dictating to them how to play... It takes a while though, at least for most kids, to have any real answers as to why they're doing something. Most kids I know have a pretty standard "I don't know" answer to just about anything. 

[keypeg]

I get depressed when I don't get the criticism, because a) the teacher doesn't seem to be taking me seriously, and b) I can't grow if I don't have anything to work on or toward.  Being given a new piece does not constitute being given something to work on - I can do that by myself without a teacher.  I need to know what to work with, what needs improving, where, how, or I'll just have a collection of pieces with few added skills.  I hardly find that inspiring.

[joyfulmusic]

My litmus test for a beginner student is to see how they respond to arpeggios.  It gives them a satisfying sound and I usually get smiles.  I often tell little anecdotes about music and various experiences around music.  Brings them into the world of creativity and music.  One little boy, who was very bright, played the arpeggios with grace notes before each note.  He looked at me with a grin and said "I'm just rapidly guessing".  What joy that filled me with! 

Some students are taking lessons because Mom wants them to.  If the child is in a battle with mom in general, it's just a matter of time before they quit.  The student's experiences with lousy teachers in school is a great hindrance.

I just went to a jam session (that is what they called it) that was so pathetic I'm in shock.  It was a local jazz club and on a Sunday afternoon.  I feel a moral obligation to keep the bar high in this world for quality music.  So I am always inspiring myself and that comes through with everyone I meet.

[ramseytheii]

I didn't really read most of the posts here - though I'm sure they're very good!! - so I apologize if I am interrupting a conversation or thread.

I believe you absolutely cannot teach inspiration.  Also, it can be very hard to communicate it, to those that don't have it.  For instance I am amazed at certain changes of harmony, or certain subtle voices, every time I hear for instance the Schubert small a-minor sonata.  I tried to communicate that to someone - just by words, not playing - and they said, "Yeah, and?"  Inspiration is a thing in itself.

That said, everybody is inspired and excited by some particular thing.  We all know what it feels like, to suddenly get several ideas, or pictures, or feelings all at once, from a tangible, definable trigger.  A teacher can show a student how to channel their inspiration into music.  Some people who are absolutely unmoved by Chopin pieces, can fall in love with obscure Bach fugues.  I have seen this happen!

I think that is why teaching music works best in metaphors, and worst in specific, anatomical knowledge.  If you find what triggers a person's inspiration, it is always the metaphor that will lead them to true music-making. 

I had a young student who seemed to have stopped advancing for a little while.  He had had a birthday, and got caught up in the excitement and the new things.  Suddenly piano seemed old, perhaps, or like one of the boring things that were pre-birthday.  Finally I asked him, how old are you now?  And he said his birthday made him 8.  I told him he was playing piano like a 7 year old, and it was time to play piano like an 8 year old.  From then on, he has improved every lesson.  I didn't teach him how to be inspired by the piano, I just channeled the thing that genuinely interested him, into music, and he responded.

Walter Ramsey

[momopi]

@dora96 : maybe your son needs a break. he's young, don't be so harsh. play a variety of pieces at home, he might listen to something he really likes. and students don't progress at the same rate. so we cannot expect the students to play this and that piece after this and that lesson. Or maybe you can say, "I appreciate that you practice regularly but I am disappointed that you are being careless. I know you can play better than that." You encouraged him but at the same time you didn't lie, right? Kids can see through their parents' lie most of the time and I'd be a little honest if I were you.

Anyway, good luck and I wish your son an enjoyable learning and childhood life.

[keyofc]

I, also, do not believe you can teach inspiration - but of course, we can inspire.
I like Keypeg's comment -about the important thing is not to kill inspiration.
How true !

Inspiration and skill have nothing to do with each other - but inspiration can lead you to skill.  A child may be so excited and inspired and if criticized when he plays a note wrong for the first time and given no positive feedback) depending on his personality it can kill his inspiration or at least temporarily.  (You can at least give kids a positive feedback on their energy and build from that)


I also think Keypegs comments about sound are really true -  After all written
music is not music - it is just what we think it looks like.  But music isn't seen.
So a child comes to us - after hearing a beautiful symphony - and we set them down with a bunch of symbolic hierglyphics - WHAT?  They wanted to play piano!

Connecting these  symbols to sound really quick is important - or it doesn't make sense.
And their inspiration may take another form..

It is interesting that someone said inspiration is an old fashioned word based on religion.
So is dust.
As complex as our technology has become and as egotistical as men have become
in thinking they can create themselves. - What if God took all the dirt away in the world and said ok - go ahead and create yourself?  But first you've got to make the dust.  Since the old-fashioned idea - is that we came from dust.

[morningstar]

I am uncertain if it can be taught, having never really been able to say I have been 'inspired'. There are some songs I like and can play well, but never mastered what a musician should apparently be able to do: To interpret and play a piece in the interpreted way. This seems to be connected with this inspiration to play the piece with feeling etc. Apologies if this makes no sense lol.
Ce la vie...

[m]

Can you teach inspiration? I have heard you can't teach someone "that spark" or "soul."

Maybe you cannot teach those. Though, you definitely can show a path where each one can find his/hers own connection with the inspiration, spark, or soul.

Best, M

[db05]

I've been driven to look at topics of this sort again. As I am losing that "spark" or "soul", and I am being led to believe that it is of no importance to classical music.

Recently, I have been told to play a piece of music exactly according to the score, playing the note values and recommended fingering exactly. Not that I don't appreciate teacher's help. Not that I lack discipline and I play every which way without thinking. I write notes on my sheets/ books. I find or make up themes for the music I'm learning. And it was made clear that my interpretation was miles away from the composer's intent/ what you expect from that era. Do I follow my own feeling, or other people's expectations? Either way, I feel unsatisfied, cheated. I do not enjoy it anymore.

Several times I mentioned on here about my guitar teacher who dislikes classical music because it "lacked intensity". He helped me with my classical guitar piece, telling me the "proper way" to do rubato. I am confused now. He was the last person I expected to give me advice of that sort. "Proper", "classical" way. Again, this was a piece I gave much thought to, and also performed in public.

Maybe I'm overdoing it. Maybe it's too soon (been studying for only a year), and I should be focusing on pure technique and sight reading than interpretation. I don't want to give up classical for pop because that also happens in pop music (eg. bands that play cover songs note-by-note) and I like classical better.

I watched a piano competition recently. What surprised me was the look of one of the contestants while he was playing. It was oh-so-familiar, the look of a math whiz like in my grade school and high school days. My teammates and competitors would look exactly like that. Intense, but it was more mathematician than artist.

Precise music. Strict time. I can do that. Just turn off my artist's mind and treat this like a math problem, like in the old days. It's easy. But not fulfilling for me.

He made it to the finals, by the way. Sorry for the long post.

[m]

Several times I mentioned on here about my guitar teacher who dislikes classical music because it "lacked intensity". He helped me with my classical guitar piece, telling me the "proper way" to do rubato. I am confused now. He was the last person I expected to give me advice of that sort. "Proper", "classical" way.

Just out of curiosity, what music in your guitar teacher's opinion "has intensity"?
I also would love to know what is the "proper, classical way" of doing rubato?

Best, M

[db05]

Just out of curiosity, what music in your guitar teacher's opinion "has intensity"?
I also would love to know what is the "proper, classical way" of doing rubato?

Best, M

Jazz, country, some rock and metal (from the good old days).

It was about the ritardando at the end of a piece/ segment. I would ritard several notes, and by the very end it would be really slow. Weird I know, but I like it that way, and then a pause, and start the next segment, normal speed.

He puts the ritard at the very end, like the last 1-4 notes. There is also a pause, but you have to get back quickly. It's hard for me to explain, let alone do. You start off past to sort of regain lost time. So the 2nd part hits you like a brick. I fail to do this. I tend to rest at the ritard bit.

[guendola]

Interesting idea, that classical music lacks intensity. I don't think so but sometimes I get the impression that young classical pianists focus too much on accuracy instead of playing the music. But this is the same in a lot of recent pop music. And it does not apply to each and every musician! Perhaps we are living in an aera where precision is more important than "human values" (humans are anything but precise!). Well, that discussion started hundreds of years ago...

Of course it is not possible to teach inspiration. That is like teaching sounds, colours, smells or moods. But you can help the student develop senses for inspiration. We always assume that a composition comes with a specific mood. Tell people the stories about Chopin's raindrop prelude and they ARE INSPIRED. They will hear rain, they try to imagine that Chopin tried to tell these stories in the piece etc. Tell them not and they MIGHT BE INSPIRED by other phantasies. I am convinced that any bit of imagination has a direct impact on the way a musician plays. And here is where the teacher comes in: Make sure that students see more than the black dots on the sheet. Ask them what the music could be about and then let them play it "that way". This is apparently much easier with romantic music but it also works pretty well with baroque and any other style where the emotional expression is more subtle. For the student it can be very hard at first because this is a much more personal style of playing and he is probably quite concerned about "getting it right". The next step is to sharpen the senses for exteriour inspiration. But I have no clue how to teach that.

[db05]

Interesting idea, that classical music lacks intensity. I don't think so but sometimes I get the impression that young classical pianists focus too much on accuracy instead of playing the music. But this is the same in a lot of recent pop music. And it does not apply to each and every musician! Perhaps we are living in an aera where precision is more important than "human values" (humans are anything but precise!). Well, that discussion started hundreds of years ago...

I remember faulty_damper said something about pianists playing "paint-by-numbers" and that he prefers his own playing. I would like to hear what it is like, maybe it is closer to what I want to achieve and not TOO un-classical/ weird.

For the student it can be very hard at first because this is a much more personal style of playing and he is probably quite concerned about "getting it right". The next step is to sharpen the senses for exteriour inspiration. But I have no clue how to teach that.

Any competent teacher should be able to help the student practice and "get it right," but sometimes they just assign pieces and students have to figure out how to practice by themselves (I've been there, too). A teacher/ mentor/ musician/ friend can be a source of inspiration. It's really inspiring to be in a music class! 

But to teach inspiration? That's kinda ironic, since you can't control inspiration; you can't tell someone else to be more or less inspired by something. The best teachers must have been inspiring, therefore they produced the best musicians. But are the best pianists the best teachers? Not necessarily. Certainly, their virtuosic playing must have been inspiring, but it's not having like a great teacher is inspiring.

[icanpiano]

I think inspiration is some thing that comes out of the music and the music or playing in that sense is only a vessel.
Every body inspired this way or another. There is nothing to teach there. What you can teach is how to play a piece or give a student tools to play better accompaniment or better solo.
The more the pianist will understand in terms of harmony what he or she will play then when inspiration will hit him a great music will come out.

[keypeg]

Are teachers inspiring?  Or do they nurture the inspiration that exist in the student?  Do they give the tools that allow the vision to flourish?

[comsmcsc]

I believe the "spark and soul" you speak of is revealed when we have passion about what we are doing.  While I don't believe you can teach passion, I believe you can teach inspired, revealing your own passion. The teacher is in a sense teaching inspiration or passion (or whatever name you give it) by exposing the student to their example.

[morningstar]

So whether you can release that passion or not depends on whether you are really passionate about the piece? Would certainly explain a lot in my case...