Why I Teach: Asking Why - A Way of Teaching, Learning, and Being

In both artistic and academic learning environments, engaging with questions plays a central role in shaping meaningful understanding.

Among the many questions that drive this process, why, holds a uniquely transformative power.

It moves learners beyond service -level reproduction into realms of analysis, interpretation, and ownership.

In the context of violent pedagogy, where subtle choices of sound, phrasing, and timing can define a performance, asking why becomes essential to the cultivation of independent musical thought.

Some traditional music teaching is built upon demonstration and emulation.

A student observes a teacher's performance and is instructed to imitate.

This is a model that can yield quick results, particularly in early stages.

However, this approach tends to prioritize the correctness of the outcome over the reasoning behind it.

When the goal becomes the accurate reproduction of the teacher's phrasing, tone, or articulation, the opportunity to understand the purpose of those choices is often lost.

This creates performers who may sound polished, but are less equipped to make decisions outside of narrowly defined frameworks. They have been taught to execute, but not necessarily to understand.

By contrast, teaching that centers on the question why encourages students to become investigators of their own process.

Instead of being told to copy a bow stroke or fingering, the student is asked, what are you trying to express here? What would happen if you tried a different point of contact? What does this harmony suggest to you? These questions invite them to consider not only the technical aspects of playing, but also the expressive and structural implications behind each decision.

This approach to teaching requires a shift in the teacher's mindset.

Rather than acting as an authority who dispenses correct answers, the teacher becomes a guide, helping students acquire tools for exploration and analysis.

This can involve training the ear to discern subtle pitch differences, introducing vocabulary to describe character and texture, or demonstrating how physical gestures influence sound production.

The goal is not simply to transmit knowledge, but to build the student's capacity to reflect, to choose, and to revise.

It is a process -oriented model in which success is measured not only by the performance result, but by the clarity of thought behind it.

Musical interpretation fits naturally within this approach. A performance's choices are rarely governed by fixed rules. Instead, they go out of an understanding of context, structure, and intent.

Asking why encourages deeper engagement with the score, with historical conventions, and with the performer's own aesthetic values.

It turns a well -executed performance into one shaped by meaning and understanding.

This framework applies just as well to foundational technical topics.

In teaching intonation, for example, students can be shown how intervallic relationships function within tonal systems, rather than simply being told to play a note higher or lower.

Even a five -year -old can begin to distinguish a major from a minor third, or whole step from a half step, not by memorizing rules, but by connecting sound with feeling and function.

In the same way, students can be guided to explore tone production by adjusting their left hand finger weight, or bow speed, or pressure. Each of these changes affects the color of sound.

Through guided experimentation, they begin to develop a sense of cause and effect.

What emerges from this teaching approach is not only stronger musicianship, but stronger learners, individuals who have been taught to think through a problem, articulate their understanding, and adapt in the face of challenge.

Looking at it this way, one might say that the job of a teacher is to put themselves out of a job.

That simple statement captures the essence of this approach.

Teaching in this way does not mean withholding expertise or abandoning structure.

It means designing experiences where students practice making choices, evaluating outcomes, and revising intelligently.

It means fostering curiosity and creating an environment where questioning is not a sign of defiance, but of engagement.

This way of teaching is in many ways more demanding. It requires time, patience, and a tolerance for ambiguity.

But the payoff is significant.

When students internalize the habit of asking why, they gain ownership of their craft. They are no longer dependent on external validation or instruction.

They are equipped to listen critically, to experiment thoughtfully, and to express authentically.

So at its core, "why" is not just a question.

It's a way of learning, a way of teaching, a way of connecting more deeply with the violin, with the music, and with oneself.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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