What makes a good music teacher?

 

(May 2024; revised July 2024) This entry was prompted by three things - first a NYT article on teaching music (criticizing how teachers are doing things traditionally rather than encouraging their students to learn four chords and then encourage the student to figure out how to play by ear some known piece); next, my own spotty history of relationships with teachers (piano and 'cello); and finally a comment I overheard at a guitar lesson when an instructor told a parent that she should try to get her son to practice 15 minutes a day before the next lesson. This seems so minimal to me - A good teacher would want and expect the student to practice more than 15 minutes. Period.

To me, good teaching always inspires the student (obviously, that goes for many subjects, not just music). I wouldn't say that uninspiring teaching can't be useful (consider learning traffic rules for someone learning to drive). But consider the effect of inspiration on a music student's approach to learning the instrument. An inspired student doesn't need to be encouraged to practice because an inspired student is having fun while playing - even if very poorly. Practice makes "better" (not "perfect" - that's expecting too much) and more practice makes means better/faster progress. Some believe that as many as 10,000 hours are needed for mastery of a complex skill (but see below). People who excel in sports and music almost certainly reach their level of expertise through many many repetitions and hours of practice (possibly not as many as 10,000 hours, since that obviously takes a lot of time). But who is going to practice that much? Someone who gets pleasure from the activity, that's who.

So... How does a teacher inspire a student. I have some experiences that make me think this is a multilayered question. Beethoven's father reportedly forced him to practice and punished him physically for making mistakes ("Legend goes that as a small child, Beethoven was forced to stand on a stool so he could reach the piano keys, and was whipped for any mistakes."). Would Beethoven have become who he became without this external motivation? Does one become inspired to practice because of expected punishment for making mistakes Rewards reinforce practice and the avoidance of punishment reinforces practice - both work but in the first case you have a happy learner and in the latter you have an unhappy learner).

NOTES: The 10,000 rule was popularized in Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers: The Story of Success. The rule states that it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to master a complex skill like playing the violin. The rule has been criticized as a misreading of the data, but there is definitely at least some truth to it.