Raising The Bar

What makes a good viola teacher?

In past years, I didn't put too much thought into teaching private students. I just sorta went with it. Mind you, I didn't just show up and teach the lesson. I would prepare and work specifically with each students needs. However, that is just not enough. I then began to wonder what makes a good teacher. Why did I disregard much of what my most recent teacher said and did? Why did I praise the one who taught me most of my life?

I think the answers are very complicated. I suppose each style of teaching will be different. I suppose each student will be different. Mr. Greene, my last teacher was a good violist. He does fantastic studio work and had some dedicated students in his time. His expectations were my expectations... maybe even less. None the less, when he did show up to the lessons, he gave in to all of the secrets of the trade. He gave to you what you gave to him. He was soft spoken and very relaxed when he taught. Hell, he would come in after running and eat a burrito while I played through my etudes. Not really my cup of tea. Dr. T, my first teacher was a ball of energy. He would jump up and raise his voice when he became excited by what he heard. He demanded only the best and when you didn't measure up, he let you know. Thus being the reason I had tears well up many times. He always said, playing the viola is about having fun. The more we laughed, the better the lesson. He was a very interactive teacher and made sure that I knew he was paying attention to everything I did. I remember when I was a beginning violinist in the third grade. He taught us to hold up our violins with our neck and not our hands. How did he do this? He made 20 little violinists march around the school multi-purpose room with their violins under-neck... no hands whatsoever. I'll never forget that.

I've tried to become that interactive teacher. When my 6 year old student could figure out rhythms, I made her march to a metronome while playing. LOL, I even made my adult students do this. If that didn't work, I used words to describe rhythms. Ex: four sixteenth notes and two eigth notes would be Pep-per-o-ni pi-zza. I encouraged them to create their own sayings for these rhythms and had quite a few laughs. However, I don't feel I did my duty. In order to teach a studio of any kind, I need to focus and put much more effort into my teaching.

When I move back to LA, I am going to create more of a business. I want to create much of my own material to work with and have SET standards. It is like having standards in your home. If a child knows what is expected of him, he knows that his parents have these standards and respects them. If a child knows there are standards in playing and learning music, then he or she will have to conform to these standards and basically raise the bar.