Concerts are for Listening!

I went to a country music concert about a week ago and was quite a bit confused and disturbed by what I saw...the largest amount of stumbling drunk people that I've seen since being a college freshman (and I usually didn't see people this trashed, even in the dorms). I understood that I was disgusted by so many grown adults getting so drunk in public (and I'm no puritan either), but it seemed to go further than that.

Teaching my college class and instructing my students on how to listen to the sounds of music, nature, themselves, etc., gave me a chance to reflect on that concert experience. There are many different purposes of music. There is music for parties, music for working out, for meditating, for cooking, for cheering you up, for learning more about the world, and music just for itself. And you can choose what sort of "ears" you want to engage the music with! It's quite an interactive experience from my point of view.

Now, I understand people drinking a couple of beers to loosen up, or to cool down on a hot day. A couple of beers might even make the concert experience more enjoyable. But what I don't understand is people (several hundred people...thousands?) drinking several beers, getting stumbling drunk, violent, and belligerent while meanwhile, talented musicians who practice their craft several hours a day are onstage performing for them. As a musician, this just seems so disrespectful.

That's all for today, just a rant, letting out a little steam.....

Music and Mindfulness

Let me first start off by saying that I am a lazy meditator. Meaning that I find it incredibly difficult to sit down and close my eyes and do it. When I'm on the cushion, I'm grateful and when it's over, I'm grateful. But...getting there is the hard part.

However, mindfulness is something that can be practiced outside of meditation. And it is one of the most important things to a musician (and music appreciator) to cultivate.

Mindfulness is the careful viewing of, well, everything, in a non-judgmental fashion. It is often said that there is mindfulness of the body, emotions, thoughts, and mind. Mindfulness of the body is recognizing bodily sensations. (Instead of going down the path of..."My leg is itching...I must scratch it...now somewhere else itches...I must scratch that too, etc.", we simply label the sensation "itch" and go on with our day) Mindfulness of the emotions is the recognition of happiness, anger, sadness, without the cycle of guilt and craving that sometimes follows.

Here's the value of it. Typically, humans operate in a very knee-jerk fashion. Something happens that knocks us from equilibrium, we get an emotion, very often resulting in a bodily sensation (sometimes positive...tingling, etc.; sometimes negative...stomachaches, etc.), which then results in another emotion, then the thoughts come ("what should I do about it?"). Mindfulness allows us to experience the world directly. Instead of knee-jerk reactions that we seemingly can't do anything about, we experience the emotion (without feeling the need to do anything about it), we experience the sensation (without needing to react). The closer we can get to seeing the world directly, the more easily we will be able to make our own conscious decisions about life.

When we are mindful as a musician, it is difficult, if not impossible, to be negative about our creativity. It is easier to see our mistakes and correct them, without needing to feel bad about ourselves or beat ourself up. It is also easier to make beautiful music without feeling the egoistical need to be a great musician. That striving often takes very promising young musicians away from the music itself. It's not about us, it's about the music.

I recently heard Ray Bradbury speak. He's 89 years old, still writing, still vibrant. He said that his advice to young writers was this: Do what you love and love what you do. Don't do anything for money. If you're doing what you love, the money will eventually come.

I would add to that: Don't do anything for money, fame, or fortune. The desire for greatness is not what makes a great artist. Being an artist in love with your craft makes a great artist.

And to be truly in love with your craft requires a great deal of mindfulness...

A thought on listening and the millenial age

Listening requires patience, a quality which seems to be diminishing greatly among the general populace.

People argue about what music is, I say that music is sound existing over time. It seems to be a definition that doesn't diminish when looking at non-Western musical traditions. It doesn't require notation, Western instruments, a type of structure, or anything else. Simply sound and time. Both which are continually happening.

I think that the difficulty has become a lack of understanding what the listener's job is. There are undoubtedly many types of listening, which include listening for entertainment (literally...something that happens between two events) such as driving in the car and putting on something familiar, listening for meditation, listening for dance steps, etc. But there is a type of listening that is very important, which seems to be decreasing. Listening for listening!

So...what does this involve? It involves stopping what you're doing, and just LISTENING. Not listening for a purpose of finding a melodic theme, or getting you pumped for a gym workout, or keeping you from getting too "bored" while doing chores. No purpose.

But why?? Why listen for no purpose? After all, we have so much to do, day in and day out. Take care of the house, the yard, the kids, go to work, cook, clean, etc., etc., ad libitum, ad nauseum. Actually, it is because of these things that we NEED to listen for no purpose. When watering, listen to the sound of the water leaving the hose, hitting the leaves, falling to the soil below...it can transform the "chore" of watering into a "blessing" of watering. Sometimes we need to slow down and just experience what we have in front of us.

Now, music is something that gives us an opportunity to do this. It can transport, transform, our mind. It can teach us more about ourselves, how we behave, how we think. Particularly, twentieth century art music, holds many keys to this possibility. More and more, composers are truly just interested in the experience of sound and want to give others and themselves as many opportunities to explore different sounds as possible!

The millenial age is full of electronic gadgets. When we stop talking to our friend at dinner, we have to immediately pull out our blackberry and check our email, stocks, sports scores, news. We can't enjoy the silence between two thoughts anymore because of this constant onslaught of tempting distractions. So, we have two choices: either give in to the distractions (status quo) or learn to choose otherwise. And yes, I believe that the experiencing of music (particularly, the listening for listening's sake) is an avenue through which we can step outside of these distractions.

Pieces to listen to (set all else aside for an hour and just LISTEN!) could include:
--Music for 18 Musicians -- Steve Reich (a twentieth century minimalist masterpiece)
--Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet -- Gavin Bryars (ditto)
--For Bunita Marcus -- Morton Feldman
--Voyage that Never Ends -- Stefano Scodanibbio

Life-changing pieces. Prepare to be entranced, but if you dare to take a listen...you MUST listen all the way through with no distractions, no talking, no phones, no computers, etc. And you will be greatly rewarded!

Promises from a Piano Teacher

I was signing up for a piano teacher website and was prompted to answer the question: "What can you promise your students?"  This ended up being a rather difficult question to answer in a straightforward manner.  So I instead came up with a more roundabout answer...  Since the learning is dependent on the student, I decided to come up with a very simplified version of my guidelines for proper practicing.  So here goes:

If a student:

1) practices daily,

2) sincerely wants to learn the instrument, and

3) is open to becoming more relaxed and self-confident....

I promise that:

1) beginning students will be playing their first songs within a month,

2) beginning students will know the names of the notes within three months,

3) more advanced students will notice a change in their musicality within three months,

4) more advanced students will notice a dramatic improvement in their technique within six months, and 

5) all students will enjoy the piano more than ever within the first month of lessons.

Again, though, my promises will only come true if the student is diligent about keeping their end of the deal!

Relaxation, confidence, desire to learn, and habitual practice are the four pillars to great practicing!!

Why do Students Err More in the Presence of Their Teacher?

This is such a very common comment from students, isn't it? You come in to teach them, they play through their piece, they make mistakes, they finish. They say, "I played it perfectly when you weren't here! What happened?!?" 

Frustration ensues, self-doubt, etc.

So here are some of my thoughts on this subject.

First of all, I believe them unequivocally. I absolutely believe they played much better when I wasn't there! Because I remember feeling the same way when I was a student too! So, before going further, letting the student know you believe them is essential.

Then, I like to go into it a bit with the student..."Why do you think you made more errors when I'm around?"... and then we really talk about it, go into it, etc. So here are a few ideas I have come up with that may or may not be reasons for this rather annoying phenomenon.

#1. The Authority Syndrome -- Students often see teachers as being in a position of authority. After all, school teachers have control over their grades, whether they can go to a friends house or have to do homework, whether they learn the material well. RIGHT?? Of course, I disagree...I feel that a bad school teacher can present himself as such, but that a good teacher will emphasize that the students have absolute control. The students decide if they want to do the work that will get them the good grade. The students decide whether to procrastinate on their homework. The students decide whether the material is important or not for them to learn. But...this isn't true either, is it? Because, again, when it comes down to it, the teacher can still write that "F" on a test or paper which will ruin the student's weekend. But then the student could have put more effort in... (etc., etc., (yawn))

So I view the teacher/student situation from the master/apprentice paradigm. There is no absolute control. Working together and a good relationship and realizing that both people are dependent on each other is hugely important! If a student is suffering from the "Authority Syndrome", I emphasize their own part in the learning process, and that I am simply somebody who has mastered a skill and wants to help them improve their own. Which has nothing to do with authority.

Which brings me to ...

#2. One-Upmanship -- Yes, there are those teachers who constantly have to prove their greatness to their students. And yes, there are those students who constantly feel that they have to prove their knowledge to their teacher. This is just a lack of willingness to admit to yourself that you have more to learn!

I believe that in order to teach well, you must always remember that you don't know everything! Not even close. And to learn well, you must always remember that you don't know everything! Not even close. Being open to learning from your teacher (or student) is absolutely essential to building a bond of trust, and that bond is essential to creating a master/apprentice relationship, which is essential to proper music learning.

If the student is acting out of "One-Upmanship", I like to emphasize the fact that I am learning every day about the instrument that I have been playing for most of my life, and that I am learning from each student and lesson I have (even though I have taught well over a hundred students over the past seven years). Showing the student that I, too, am constantly learning, and that I must be OPEN to learning in order for it to happen, is vital for building that bond of trust. Sometimes I will even ask the student to trust me since their improvement is the number one priority in my teaching...

#3.  Energy! Yes, a hippy-dippy energy discussion (that I don't feel is all that hippy-dippy at all anymore). Energy is such an important topic in lessons and can illuminate a lot in terms of why a student may err more in the presence of a teacher. Energy is constantly shifting from potential to kinetic and back again. And often, we can predict how it will shift. For example, a marble being held on a slanted surface is potential, but because of the environment (slanted surface), we know what the nature of the shift will be. Lo and behold, the marble is released and it rolls down the surface. People are like that too.

A person sitting on a couch (let's call him Fred) can be observed and with a small amount of intuition, we can predict what they will do next. And the closer to the movement we get (in terms of time), the more accurate our prediction will be. Let's say that Fred has been sitting there awhile. We may predict that he may move because of the environment of the television has shifted (commercial has come on, and he wants to change the channel). Or the environment of the outdoors has shifted (it has become nighttime, he need to turn on a light). 

What if a shift happens in Fred's mind? He's become restless, bored, anxious, etc. We will usually notice a shift in posture or breathing (or even just a sense of something that we can't explain) and that will preclude him getting up from the couch to get some potato chips, to grab his laptop, to decide he needs to go for a run, etc.

All of this is just if Fred is alone. Now, what if somebody joins Fred on that couch? Now we have Fred and Ethel, each with their own shifting energy, and we have the energy of their relationship (whether they are strangers, friends, family, or partners). 

Here's my point. When a person is playing a piece of music alone, they already have lots of energy shifts to deal with. Mind is perhaps unstill, kids making noise in the other room, piano bench squeaks. You add another person into the mix and now you have their energy shifts as well as the energy of the relationship of teacher to student. OF COURSE you would be more likely to mess up!!

How to Solve the Problem

Like I said at the beginning of this post, these are ideas, and have helped me out many times. But these are just some ideas, not all ideas.

#1. Take away the authority aspect. Make sure you and the student think of the relationship as symbiotic (you depend on eachother for learning) rather than parasitic (one person only depends on the other, and the second person is being robbed from the first). They should never feel like they're doing something because "you said so". They should be doing something because 1) they want to learn a skill, 2) they recognize you have mastered that skill, 3) they understand that you can guide them to mastery of that skill, and 4) that the mastery will come through your instruction. 

You should be teaching because 1) your students want to learn a skill, 2) you understand the inner-workings of that skill, 3) you (through various means, including reflecting on your own apprenticeship) have developed a method on how to teach that skill to others, and 4) you understand how to give that knowledge to a student.

#2. Remove one-upmanship. Recognize that this may be going on and it is ALWAYS a sign of low self-confidence. Work on self-confidence. Maybe your own, maybe the student's. Lots of times a teacher will get frustrated because a student can't learn something that the teacher is sure that he taught well. The frustration is not with the student (though it often feels like it). The frustration is with the self (why can't I teach this student this skill? am I not good enough? etc.) But teachers often pawn this frustration off on their student. I have one thing to say: get over yourself! We're all still learning!

Lots of times a student will say something like "I did that right, didn't you hear?" Or "I've already done that". This is a thinly-disguised way of saying, I know better than you, I don't really need these lessons because I know this stuff already. Which is a thinly-disguised way of saying, I am afraid that there is something that I don't know, and that may mean I'm not as good as you. Which is a thinly-disguised way of saying, I suffer from low-self confidence. 

A good teacher should recognize this and help the student realize that they are a great, smart, wonderful person already and you are here simply simply to teach them a skill.

#3. Allow the energy to shift. When a lesson begins, allow the student to take 4-5 minutes to do some SLOW, LOUD, CONTINUOUS warm ups. This will not only get their fingers working, but it will also allow them to adjust to the new energetic environment (the presence of another person, and the relationship therein). Calming the mind is essential to starting off a lesson right. Mistakes are absolutely fine...this is a time of transition and adjustment and mistakes are inevitable. But SLOW (very, very slow), LOUD, and CONTINUOUS warm ups help the "body" of the lesson to be as valuable and efficient as possible.

_____________________

TO WRAP UP

Yes, your students will usually play better on their own, making less mistakes, and being less frustrated, unless you help them retrain themselves (and retrain yourself) to:

1) view each other as an equal partner in the learning process, not an authority/unauthority figure,

2) have enough self-confidence to not need to "one-up" eachother, and

3) allow the energy shift to take place by warming-up and tuning-in to the new energetic environment.

First Post

I am so grateful to be able to teach what I love to do and do what I love to teach.

I've now been teaching privately for seven years and over the last five, my studio has had lots of changes and lots of growth.  I'm now taking the ideas that have been developing and creating products that not only project my style of teaching and my ideas about teaching, but also make these ideas very easy to carry out.

I'm working on creating two products, that will take my ideas to a whole new level and really solidify them as part of the lesson and practice format.  Prototypes are in the works as is funding.  I hope to be completing these projects by the end of summer and have them available for purchase.  

Following these products, I will also be slowly writing a book on the same topic, which I am very excited about.  Eventually I will be selling all three of these products in a single package.

When I get the total greenlight and have trademarked my name, I will give more details here!

Finally, I hope to get a videoblog up and running in the near future.

For all of my current students--thank you!  For everybody else--thank you for checking out my blog!