One of the amazing things I realized about teaching is how
much I actually learn myself from doing it. As soon as I taught my first bass lesson, I found that just
the act of explaining a concept to someone else crystallized it in my
mind. A lot of it has to do with
the technical details. There’s
been so many times when I’ve explained why one needs to execute a certain
technique in order to get the right sound, and I’ve thought: “I never even realized I did that
before.” When faced with the
challenge for the first time of teaching someone to use the bow when playing
cello, I was amazed at how complicated a motion it is. Even though I had been playing cello
for years, I had never had to actually show anyone how the forearm, hand and
fingers work in conjunction with each other.
In “Teaching Music with Purpose”,
Peter Boonshaft briefly discusses how everything is complex and simple at the
same time in regards to conducting.
Teaching bass and cello lessons has helped me understand how this idea also
applies to playing an instrument.
There are so many details that go into playing even the simplest music. The flip side to this however, is that
once all of the basic techniques are internalized, even complex music can seem
simple with just a little practice.
We often teach things that we are good at and often don't forsee that is difficult for others. I often think the ones who struggle in music should become music teachers. Do you think you teach or create passion first--or does teaching technique create that passion? --or--What would Boonshaft say?
ReplyDeleteI think that it's definitely important to start off conveying passion for music before teaching even happens (ideally). That way the student will be more likely to want to learn. Learning a new instrument is very difficult, and fourth or fifth grader may not know at the beginning how difficult it will be and how much they'll have to practice. Creating passion first will make increase the chances that the student will want to come back for a second lesson and then a third. However, I think that teaching can also create passion, so I think that both things are true, and they feed into one another.
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