"The Good Student . . . ."

[alzado]

At risk of being overly sentimental or self-dramatizing, I sometimes wonder if I may be the "good student."

I am 66 now.  I started taking piano lessons in about third grade I suppose, being taught by a Catholic sister at the elementary school.  I took for a few years and quit.  I think my parents were very disheartened by what they considered my laziness.

But I couldn't really leave the piano alone, and kept going back to it.  We bought a grand in 1988 and I took a few more years of lessons.  Then when I retired in 2004 I started taking lessons again. 

It seems to me, in my imagination anyway, that the teachers processing all those elementary school kids through lessons were really hoping is that for a few of the kids, something would stick.

Dozens of kids probably went through thousands of piano lessons.  How many of them ever took anything away for their lives?  Most played a few years, then quit.  Many of those pianos purchased for the kids began to gather dust, never got tuned, and finally were sold or given to the church hall or something.

Probably for a few of those dozens of kids, some mysterious sort of "bug" bit them and they kept coming back.

The good students -- in this context -- are maybe just the ones who stayed with it, off and on, for a lifetime.   Not especially brilliant, not gifted . . .   but maybe with a capability to appreciate. 

What happened to the dozens of kids who stayed with the instrument for a few years, did very nicely at recitals, and then . . . somehow, just dropped it. 

If I were a piano teacher, I believe I would hope that a few of those scrawny little kids would get beyond hammering out scales and feel a touch of the "magic" of the music.

That is probably why our much beloved Bernhard always insisted that even children be given quite a bit of choice and latitute in selecting what they would play.  He wanted them to feel something, to get some sort of personal relation with the music.   So when the lessons ended, maybe they would have something to take away with them.

[rc]

It seems like everybody I talk to either used to play and want to get back into it, or have always dreamed of learning piano.  Everybody wants to play, but not everybody gets around to it.

Maybe they have other creative outlets.  I know a lot of people get fulfilment from pouring themselves into their work or families.  I begin to see a lot of parallels between how I do my job and how I practice piano, except one pays better

I would agree that giving children freedom in music.  The love of music is more important for them than any sort of technical refinement, that will come in it's own time so long as the love is there.

I've followed my curiousity to some books by Seymour Bernstein, I like a lot of his ideas, he has a different perspective on things.  One thing was his dignified opinion on amateurs of any level.  Sometimes I get the feeling that the only worthwhile approach is the professional, but he makes the point that doing it out of love of the music can be just as good.  Without any sort of pressures, the amateur is free to explore music in whatever way they like and there's nothing that precludes them from playing to 'professional' standards.  The amateurs who learn music for its own sake do music just as great a service.

[0range]

The reason, in my opinion, has nothing to do with the pupils or the teachers, but the system.

Imagine, for a moment, that instead of attending school everyday and learning to read, children only did these activities for 30 minutes every week. How many of these children would become literate? How many of them would be capable of appreciating Shakespeare?

Obviously, to teach a child, or an adult for that matter, to read, it requires a great deal of diligence day in and day out.

Why, then do we approach music in such a dilettantish fashion and expect results?

This is true for anything. If you want to learn a language, speak it every day. If you want to be good at a sport, play it every day.

[amelialw]

My parents always gave me my own choice and they let me learn the piano at my own pace. Although I absolutely used to hate practise under my teacher in singapore because all she did was to call my parents and complain whenever I did'nt do enough of work. Whereas when I came to canada, I got under a famous concert pianist and teacher and my mom just said either you stick it out under her or i'll stop your lessons. Well now my teacher and I are really close friends and I love lessons and practise on my own. Even though some weeks did not go so well, my teacher always says that you're old enough to decide what's the best for you and you can't let anyone change your mind.