Music Teaching Tips

Musical integrity is the most important single quality a musician has and should be encouraged from the beginning. Pupils should be constantly faced with interpretative decisions so that they can develop confidence in their own instincts and faith in their ability to solve problems. It is better that they develop these qualities, even if they play with what may be ‘bad taste’ to a more experienced musician, than that they should have another's instincts forced upon them — (musical ‘rape’). The teacher should certainly provide options and examples, insist on accurate score reading and encourage a responsible attitude to what we can discern of the composers wishes; but this still leaves plenty of room for individual choice. This is not subscribing to the cult of “The self is everything. Who cares what the composer thought? — He's dead anyway.” Far from it. I am talking about developing a sense of responsibility and the use of one's instinct to serve what one perceives as the composer's wishes. However, teachers have to be wary that they do not regard their own instincts as being synonymous with those of the composer.