Intrumental Education Program

Part 1: Ideas about Teaching

By Kristian Del Cantero

Teaching is a means of educating. In Latin- ‘educare’ or ‘educere’- meaning to ‘lead out’

is an important aspect on my current thoughts on teaching. I believe teachers should be
aware of this characteristic inherent in all humans- rather than a teacher “drilling in” the
“right way to play” they should focus more on bringing out a student’s own thoughts on
music. Of course, this is just one aspect of teaching, it is still essential to lead by
example and give a student the highest quality of artistic and musical example.

Seymour Bernstein, a New York based pedagogue, composer, and performer, has a
beautiful approach to teaching. He states, “The most important thing that music
teachers can do with their pupils is to inspire and encourage an emotional response, not
just for music, but more importantly for all aspects of life.” This approach rings so true
for all humans, and I believe it is a necessary ideal that all music teachers should aspire
to.

Apart from this model, I believe it is important for teachers to demonstrate interpretive
attitudes of the highest quality. An aim I try to take when I give advice is so that the
student thinks “That’s perfect- I was about to do the same thing!” It can be seen as
holding up a mirror to the student’s thoughts so they can see them and realize them
more clearly and healthily.

I believe it essential for a student to have clear and concrete goals in their music-
making. I think it is a good idea for the teacher and student to come to a consensus
about specific goals and how they will go about obtaining them in a collaborative
manner. Some questions you can address with the student in a lesson:

-What is a reasonable amount of time I can practice daily on my instrument?

-How long have I been playing, and what is a realistic rate of progress I can adhere to?

-How will I organize my practice time? (e.g. warm-up, technical exercises, etudes,
repertoire, improvisation, etc.)

-To what degree of devotion will I make towards becoming a complete musician? (e.g.
as a hobby, amateur, conservatory student, ‘what is my aim?’

Once these questions are addressed, it will be much easier for the teacher and student
to come up with a vivid and realistic guideline of how to use time in an efficient, healthy,
and fun way. It is also important not to become too ‘strict’, as it can turn off the student
from the beauty of the instrument.
It is important for a teacher to come up with a clear method of teaching so that the
student can relate to you through each week. In general, I teach very practically; I like to
demonstrate the different aspects of music making and how to fine-tune each one. The
different aspects I usually go over in lessons are:

-Warming-up (why is it necessary?)

-Technical practice (differentiating between repertoire practice)

-Practicing your Repertoire

-Performing practice

Additional aspects that are not as common, but sometimes applicable to certain
students of a more higher level are:

-Improvising

-Preparing for a Concert or Competition (and the difference between the two)

If a student asks, I am always open to talking also about career development as a

musician and important things in that realm (e.g. making connections, being
professional, the importance of social media, becoming creative, etc.)

Having a set of didactic methods to use in your lessons is a great tool. Below you will
find some of the different didactic methods I use in my teaching:

Encouragement: when a student plays well or demonstrates good thinking, it is

important to provide words of encouragement. This will help the student realize what
they are doing is good and they should continue. It is important to note that for different
ages it is essential to use the appropriate language so the student doesn’t feel like they
are being ‘talked down’ to.

Constructive Criticism: If a student’s playing needs improvement in a certain spot, it

important to not harshly criticize them. Finding ways to address the problem from a
constructive viewpoint will help the student to learn, and also keep the respect and
focus in a lesson.

Mirroring: This aspect I have learned in the past few weeks with Gabriel Bianco. The
idea is for the teacher to demonstrate a very well executed passage, both musical and
technically-sound, and then asking the student to try to reproduce what you just played.
The idea behind this is that the student will in a sense, “learn to think” the way he/she
needs to think to establish the highest quality of musical sound.

Conducting: Using your voice and body to ‘guide’ your student through a piece. It is
important for the teacher to be clear in what they say, as it is hard for a student to focus
on playing and listening to the teacher at the same time. This can be really helpful for
the student to become a more independent thinker.

Small passages: asking the student to keep repeating a small passage of music until it
is perfect, and giving feedback after each passage. Not in a militant way, but this helps
to communicate to the student what kind of quality is needed to progress.

My thoughts on the way a music lesson is organized have changed over the past few
months. After studying with David Leisner, I tried to implement an important way of
providing information: from a ‘technical’ perspective (how to use the body in the best
way possible to execute the music with no tension and ease-of-access), and from a
‘musical’ perspective (talking in detail about musical ideas, from a individual perspective
and a historically informed perspective). David Leisner believes that it is very hard for
the human brain to focus on the two at the same time, he believes it is important to
focus very intensely on one idea at a time, and then incorporate them all together in the
end (in a sense, the end result of this is a performance). Another important thing:
Technical proficiency should only serve as a means to higher musicality. This is
something I have been thinking about. Technique on its own is not so exciting, it needs
to have some sort of purpose, and that purpose is art and music!

With this in mind, I organize my lessons quite simply:

First Part: Warming-up- Doing some warm up techniques so the student is able to
perform well.

Second Part: Repertoire- This is the bulk of the lesson. Going over music the student is
working on, addressing problems with the didactic methods seen above, and always
positively enforcing the student.

Third Part: Lesson summary and work for next lesson- Going over what was talked
about in the lesson, how to practice those certain things, and giving clear extremely
clear guidelines on what to work on in the next week.

In general, it is also important for the teacher to maintain an atmosphere of safety, good
work-ethic, and positivity.

After the lesson is done, it is very important to ‘evaluate’ your lesson. I think it is vital to
not evaluate the lesson right after it is finished, because time can be a good tool to look
at something realistically and not get mixed up with emotions.

Some questions to ask to evaluate your lesson:

-What were my strengths in teaching the student?

-Where did I fall short? How can I improve?

-Was I awake, alert, and attentive to the student?

-Was the student prepared? Is he/she progressing weekly?

-Is the structure of my lesson working well for the student? Is there anything I can
change in the lesson to better suit the needs of the student?

-With all this in mind, what concrete goals can I make for myself so I teach a better
lesson for the student than last week?

These questions will help a teacher to really progress as well in their career of music
teaching.

It is very useful to constantly think about your own views on teaching. It is the only way
to progress in your quality of pedagogy, and I find it an essential process that needs to
be gone through quite regularly. Looking at your music teaching on different levels (e.g.
practically, financially, philosophically, etc.) will help you to keep your passion for
teaching going, and most importantly, for the student to discover their interest in passion
in music.