TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

(Robert Auler, DMA)

Teaching enables our students to grow.

Teaching is altruistic--focused on the needs, desires, and ambitions of the student.

Teaching is joyful-- offered freely, happily, enthusiastically, passionately.

Teaching is holistic--as teachers we must at varying times be experts, coaches, role models, psychologists, strategists, counselors, friends, authority figures, motivators.

Teaching is essential--it is a compassionate transmission of experience from one generation to the next.

Teaching keeps our planet alive.

A teacher must lead by example. As artist-teachers working with aspiring musicians, teachers must live what they are teaching; thus, an evening performance is a teaching moment. How we act towards colleagues and students is a teaching moment. How we act towards ourselves is a teaching moment.

A teacher should be as positive, enthusiastic and encouraging as possible. Being positive and being kind builds trust. It's a better way to live. Inevitably, bad news must be transmitted from teacher to student--this should be done honestly, directly, and without histrionics, Even a negative assessment can have a positive spin to it: instead of saying "that's terrible," how about saying, "I know you're capable of more than that! Let's get moving!!"

A teacher must be able to help the student find joy in the learning process. Learning and growing is fun! Laughing is great! Light-heartedness is essential. Who was it that implored us to "whistle while we work?"

A teacher at the college level should be an expert in his field. If students know that we've devoted a lifetime to building a reservoir of knowledge to transmit to them, they trust our input. A teacher should be thirsty to find an answer to a student's question if he or she doesn't know immediately.

In the more specific realm of mentoring aspiring pianists, teachers must assist with the entire musical process. We must teach effective techniques to master musical challenges. We must share with students agreed-upon expectations such as dynamics, articulation, style, use of time, phrasing, tone, balance between the hands and long-range planning/architecture, At the same time, we must help students assimilate this information so that they can find their own voice, and learn to be "in the moment."

Efficient learning strategies are essential. Learning a new piece should include extensive listening to different recordings. Classical musicians can learn from jazz musicians in their deep involvement in listening. Our ears are powerful tools; active listening can include noting patterns, intervals, harmonies, rhythms--this active involvement in the learning stage allows progress to move exponentially faster than with merely learning from the score.

When practicing, it's important to move slowly at first. Breaking up a difficult piece into sections and then into independent measures is critical. Although mistakes obviously occur in the learning process, practice slowly enough to try to avoid mistakes at the outset. Stop and evaluate before playing incorrect notes; the ear is like a magnet, and will keep drawing our fingers to these wrong notes, even as our brain attempts to counteract this! Make note of these difficult places, and isolate them for future attention.

Practice strategically; ascertain which passages will be the most difficult through listening. What, exactly, might challenges be? Isolate technical issues like finger crossings and hand movements, and practice these spots hyper-slowly at first to develop muscle memory before mistakes creep in and confidence wanes.

Keep a practice log: set a "lesson plan" for a practice session--these plans can be rather loose, but they should serve as a guide. Even mastering one line of a sonata might be an effective goal for a session. We can build mansions out of single bricks.

Enjoy the process. In the end, music is more about the process than the result. Few of us will become rich in this chosen field of ours. Well--monetarily rich, anyway. So we should really enjoy what we're doing. We won't achieve perfection, and we will achieve varying degrees of excellence. We can only ask pure intent and sincere preparation of our students and of ourselves.