This post has not come easily for I’m not sure that I will be able to articulate my thoughts effectively. The ultimate goal will be to cause thought, evaluation and deep reflection on a very debatable issue which is “Does a student’s improvement depend on the ability of the teacher, or is success more dependent on competition from the student’s environment”?
One of the greatest benefits of advanced age coupled with retirement is the fact that one has time to sit back and reflect on issues which are seemingly important to the retiree, even if not as important to his/her listener. This is one of those moments.
When reflecting on past highs and lows of more than fifty+ years of teaching, one question has surfaced- “Which was more influential in the improvement of my students- my teaching ability or the competitive environment of the student at that time”?
Some years produced outstanding students and in other years few students were able to reach equally high levels of success. If the same teacher were teaching in the same manner each year, it seems logical that success and accomplishments should be relatively consistent. Granted that the level of ability as an entering Freshman can vary considerably, but after four, and sometimes five years of study with the same instructor, time should have evened the playing field.
As an educator, one would like to think that the many hours spent in private lessons would be the reason that a student would eventually become an accomplished musician. But are these weekly contacts as important to the student’s improvement as we would like to think? In the next two posts, I will try to expose the truth, or the truth as I see it in this debate and in doing so, I would like to invite my readers to respond in order to gain their thoughts on each side of this discussion.
In my next posting I will discuss the advantages of private lessons in a student’s development and in the following post advance some of the influences applied through the student’s environment on his/her musical advancement.
I think motivation is a key area. Here is a story from a college music professor I know. Early in this professor’s career, he taught middle school instrumental music. There was this trombone player who sat at the bottom of the section. He wanted to quit, but his mom wouldn’t let him. One day during a lesson, while trying to figure out what to do about the students terrible sound, he discovered there was a small hole in his trombone slide. He did a quick fix with some duct tape. The instant improvement in the sound motivated the student overnight. He ended up graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music and now plays full time in a symphony orchestra. All from a little piece of duct tape. 😉