How I Teach: Knowing, Teaching, Letting Go

So, a student played Ravel's Tzigane for me, and I immediately started talking to them about how to interpret the markings.

But before I got too deep into it, they abruptly cut me off, looked at me, and said they'd done a lot of research and their decisions about how to play Tzigane were based on what they had discovered.

Now, I was a bit startled. I mean, the fact that they cut me off was a little aggressive, but I told myself, do not react.

They were most likely just very nervous about how I might respond, knowing that I performed Tzigane many times.

Well, for me as a teacher, having performed it so often meant I knew exactly how I wanted to teach it.

I could easily point out the places to watch out for and give them solid ways to practice them.

But teaching Tzigane as I knew it, it also became the challenge. Because if I pushed my interpreted decisions on them, it could stop them from exploring their own ideas. This would, in effect, take the learning process out of their hands.

So I needed to find another approach to teaching them this Tzigane that I knew so well.

I thought that if I tried to think back to what it felt like when I first learned it, it might help me better understand what they were going through.

I remembered the joy I had in discovering the history of the piece. I also remember the hours I spent toiling over the left-hand pizzicato sections.

And then there were those octaves. Well, the more I remembered, the more I realized that not pushing my point of view on them, not getting in the way of them making their own memories, was the best way to go.

With all this in mind, I listened to them play it. And when they finished, I told them I thought their interpretive ideas were fascinating. I asked them whether they had found the information that they were based on.

They were surprised by my reaction, since they were prepared to hear me tell them what to do, not ask questions about how they had arrived at their interpretive decisions.

They told me they'd searched online and found articles and references to some books. They also named the recordings they'd listened to.

All of this had helped them shape their ideas.

At that point, I hesitated to bring it up, but felt I should. You see, I had made a video about the history of the work and how I believed it should be performed.

But I worried that mentioning it might sound like I was saying, do it this way, do it my way.

Still, I mentioned it, but added that it was just one person's point of view, mine, and that it could be something that they could add to their own research.

They grinned dutifully and said they'd take a look. So with that, we moved on.

After listening to a few more phrases, I stopped them and asked about the shaping of one in particular.

They explained what they were trying to achieve, and I told them that I thought it was a very interesting way to look at it.

I asked about their choice of boings and wondered aloud if there might be others that could bring more clarity to the phrase.

At that point, I suggested that it might be a good idea to experiment.

Trying a few options could help them get closer to what they had in mind. So we tried a few, and they chose one they thought worked well. They asked for my opinion, I shared it, and we kept going.

After listening a bit more, I suggested a fingering that I thought might better support their vision for a particular phrase. And just like that, we started experimenting with fingerings.

So we kept working, always though within the musical parameters they had set. Time passed quickly, and before we knew it, the hour-long lesson was over.

They packed up, opened the door, said goodbye, and left happy and smiling, proud of the work they had done and the ideas they had made their own.

Now as they were leaving, I had my good job teacher look in place, but behind it, I felt relieved, because I knew that through exploring some of my bowings and fingering suggestions, they had arrived at playing Tzigane in a way I had quietly hoped they would.

Now, had I tricked them into doing this? I don't think so, but I'll leave that for you to decide.

All I know is that my interior smile was beaming.

Thank you.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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