Re: Lessons vs no lessons
HarpRealm@aol.com
Thu, 2 Jan 1997 10:02:05 -0500
On the subject of lessons vs no lessons, this is something I have been
thinking about so much lately. I am a strong advocate of sitting down and
putting your hands to the harp and that is why I get so many people in
hospitals to instantly play using the mode system. I get frustrated when
teachers carry and attitude that they "know it all" and act superior to the
student because I believe this kind of attitude in life is detrimental and
can leave people feeling inadequate. How many times have I encountered
people who have said, I love music, but I'm not good at it because my teacher
told me so when I was little." It's like my son, just losing first chair in
his Jr. High band this year and ending up in last chair, not because of his
ability on the sax but because his cork was broken and squeaked during the
auditions. His self esteem has been teetering and the only thing he felt he
had going for him was his music. Because his audition score was 92 instead
of 96, he was demoted. For heaven sakes, what are we doing to our children
putting this kind of pressure on them in Jr. High while they are trying to
learn an instrument in order to have a means for self-expression throughout
their lives. Needless to say, he was laughed at and has lost zest for
playing at all. You can be assured I had a few words to say to the
administration - the reply? "we need to prepare kids for the real world -
and the entrance to music schools involves competition in the real world". I
proceeded to tell them that my mother had problems with her jury performance
at Juilliard but Marcel Grandjany was kind enough to ask the jury to leave
the room while she warmed up, they all listened outside and came in and
passed her with flying colors." That's humanity, folks. I've heard of far
too many teachers slapping a students hand - they all need a good course in
psychology before they begin to teach! There is a wonderful study of TA that
goes into life scripts and how we as people have certain things that can
identify where our strengths and weaknesses are. If a teacher is very aware,
they will watch the student and listen to their speech patterns and custom
their teaching style to ENABLE that person to succeed. An article on the
Psychology of Becoming a Harp Player based on the TA Model appeared in one of
the Folk Harp Journals a couple of years ago - since I am not near my
journals at present, I can't guide it to you. But it was my final paper for
a psychology class that was one of those key events in my life.
There are many teachers who are threatened by their students and that is one
of the reasons that the teacher/student relationship continues. The student
is never empowered enough to feel they have made the cross over as a "real
harp player". I often tell students to sit down at the harp from the very
beginning and picture yourself as a professional harpist. How does a
professional look? How do they feel? If you think of yourself as a student,
your body takes on the feeling of inadequacy. But if you think of yourself
at the top - and I don't mean walking around with a haughty air - but if YOU
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF then your music will reflect it. I then tell them to
"fake it until you make it". Some where along the way, the cross over will
happen when enough practice has gone in and you won't need to grapple with
the feeling of inadequacy.
My dilemna recently has been that I have many students asking me why they
can't do fast trills, arpeggios or bisbisgliandos the way I do.
Unfortunately, we are living in a world where we want to do it all very
fast. I am fortunate for the years of study and more over the years of
practice. I believe there probably hasn't been a day in over 40 years (1
year out I recall) that I haven't played the harp. While in school at the
Mozarteum in Austria we literally practiced 8 hours a day on a single
passage. Boring? To what ends does one subject oneself to this? Good
questions. I asked myself that along the way too. But it does result in
pure discipline in the cells of the hands and mind and wonderful muscle
development. It is very frustrating when you want to play something and the
hands just can't manage to do what the mind or heart wants them to do. If
having a teacher guide you day by day or week by week can offer you this
(especially the discipline of getting to the harp each day if only for a wee
bit of time) then it is worth the lessons. But choose your teacher well, let
that teacher be a well of inspiration and discipline and when you start to
feel that the teacher is hindering your self-esteem in your attempts,
question it and pull away if you need to. Teachers need teaching in this
area. If you are content to play the way you are playing at present and feel
that you can get to where you want on your own, then continue this way.
There are many wonderful players who have been learned with lessons and
without. The key is knowing what you want, how to do it and then DOING IT,
over and over and over and over. It's time to close and leave for another 9
hour stint at the Aquarium. (I believe that's doing it TOO much, though!)
Happy New Year and Happy Harping, Tina Tourin