An Education in Determination

Studio Notes no. 1

“Oh no! I made a mistake!” I cried. “ The world will end and life as we know it is OooOOOOoVeRRR!”

My nose was smushed against the wall, and my head hung low.    I was aiming for Victorian despair. I had to be convincing. I am a professional, after all. I had to sell it.

I should probably explain.

In my cozy studio, there I was, and there my student was.

She was 6 at the time, and I- was considerably older than 6. My student had been learning the violin for just over a month. She was very sensitive, so much so that anytime there was a sour note or a little scratch of sound, she, like most New Englanders, took this as a moral failing, and great, big tears welled up in her eyes. It had little to do with my reaction, of course. I was always soft-spoken and patient, but, no matter how gently I explained it, the result was the same. The waterworks would come out.

And so, I had to take drastic measures.

I was putting the shoe on the other foot.  

“ How can I go on?” I groaned into the wall. “ I am depressed now!”

“No, it’s alright!” My student replied.

I cracked open my right eye to see her.

She took a breath and said, “ We can try again.”

“We can? What if I make the same mistake?”

My student smiled, a look of determination on her face,“Yeah, we can. We just have to try something different.”

Turning to face her, I picked up my violin, and the two of us laughed and continued on with the lesson.

I’ll admit to you. They don’t teach this in music school. I’ve never once read about this as a method to instill confidence in students.

But each student is different and, as a teacher, you must discover what resonates with them. You must meet them where they are at. You must be flexible.

So from time to time, I make a mistake on purpose.

If they can correct me, they can correct themselves.

I train my students to hone their powers of observation, diagnosis, and problem-solving. I am in the business of creating teachers.

This is what I am all about. This is what my teaching is all about.

And on that particular day, I wanted to show my student that the world would keep spinning, even if I made a mistake- even if she made a mistake. Mistakes are how you learn. There is no shortcut around them. That is true when you are 6, 26, or 76. The rule is the same. Each mistake is an opportunity to learn and adjust.  It is as simple as changing the “x” variable to get the desired and most coveted “ y” variable.

Months later, as the colder seasons melted into the warmer ones, there we were. It was the day of the concert. Families gathered around, their eager faces full of excitement.

My student and I were in the middle of performing a duet.  All of a sudden, she made a mistake. She looked at me from the corner of her eye, and I looked at her. We smiled, the way friends would at an inside joke, and continued until the end. There was a breath of silence, and the two of us waited. The world did not collapse into itself, the sun did not sink into the sea, and my student did not burst into tears. Instead, she beamed with joy.  She had played beautifully, and she knew it. Hoots and hollers and applause rang  throughout the  hall.

And we took a bow.