Re: students and their choices

[unknown-user]

Well, thank you. I didn’t know those definitions of gift and talent, which make sense and are useful to know. Miss Lawrence’s approach worked with most of her students, but then they were all talented, and some were gifted, and nearly all were very intelligent, as those were the kinds of people she seemed to attract the most. It is important to find a way to fill in the basic or missing components with exceptional students. It probably becomes hard to not overlook them when caught up in achievements. And it is hard for that kind of student to spend time on basics and not feel repressed. I eventually found my way to doing lots more exercises than just the Conditioning Exercises, which are still my foundation. And I enjoy playing lots of smaller pieces, but find them even more difficult sometimes than the big works. The hardest ones are those with thin texture but strong melodic lines that must be carried through.