GOOD AND BAD TEACHERS

[jennifer-buehler]

A good teacher is organized and flexible.

[carl-swanson]

Bad teaching can take many forms, and that certainly is one of them.

[sherry-lenox]

My teacher was a miracle find for me. She was trained in Salzedo from the age of 12, then sent to France in her late teens and trained with one of the well known Grandjany teachers, I’ve forgotten the name.

I will continue with her for a good long time, but she firmly and pleasantly regards lever harp as useful only as a step-up to “real” harp. At some point I will want to study with a Celtic harpest or a really solid lever harpist.

For me, she is the best I could ever have hoped for, but I know that if I live long enough, I will need additional instruction from someone else. So, the best and not quite so much the best in one person!

[carl-swanson]

Sherry-PLEASE… Don’t refer to non-Salzedo players as ‘Grandjany’ method. Grandjany didn’t attach his name to what he taught, and neither did Hasselmans, Renie, Tournier, Jamet, Laskine, or Borot. They would all shout loudly from their graves “What we taught was French method!!!” It was only Salzedo who attached his name to what he taught. In fact, he attached his name to almost everything he touched, but that’s another thread…. If your teacher went to France to study, then no matter who her teacher was, she was taught French method.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

That’s funny, I looked all over in the mirror, and I can’t see Salzedo’s name anywhere.

[sherry-lenox]

I solemnly swear I will never make

[carl-swanson]

Thank you Sherry. May your scales flow smoothly from your fingers.

[unknown-user]

It is useful to analyze effective vs. ineffective teaching strategies. I caution against the labeling of “good” and “bad” teachers because it is a value judgment that implies more than this type of analysis warrants. It can imply they are “good” or “bad” people which is not reasonable to discuss.

One persistent aspect of criticism in society today is an all or nothing approach. It is epitomized in people like Simon Cowell, “You are be the best singer in the world!” or else “You are the worst singer in the world.” It seems related to a kind of cynicism based on ready dismissal. There are few people in this world who are completely incompetent, and fewer still who are comprehensively competent. The best we can do as teachers or students is to continually move in the direction of progress: better strategies, more accurate information, clearer communication.

Teaching is strongly affected by natural ability, but it also consists of strategies that can be taught. Even a person without much ability to adapt or respond intuitively to students can be taught to have a storehouse of teaching tricks and strategies that can enable them to contribute effectively as an educator. If there is any single quality most important to any teacher, I would say it is the continual desire to learn.

[carl-swanson]

Julie- I don’t believe that ‘good’ or ‘bad teachers are good or bad people. The fact is, most of the bad teachers I have observed are really very nice, sincere, and friendly people. But I think my original designation of good or bad needs clarification.

I think that good teachers are good because they get good results: their students make progress in all areas of playing the instrument and develope a flexible technical basis that works well for any music they play.

A bad teacher gets bad results: their students simply can’t play the instrument with any level of competence and struggle with everything they play. They have no sound, no dexterity, may not even read music very well. And if the student happens to be talented is actually held back by the bad teacher.

It may be possible to improve anyone’s ability to teach a musical instrument(I’m not sure about that) but I don’t know where that is being done. Taking courses in child psychology or child development does not teach a person to be a better harp teacher. Maybe some music schools offer a harp pedagogy course, and if they do, I’d be interested in knowing what exactly is taught in such a course. But my own observation over the years is that there are a lot of bad teachers even at the college level. So how are they going to teach their students to be good teachers?

I don’t know if musical instrument instruction on other instruments(clarinet, violin, trumpet, etc) is as generally bad as it is on harp, but I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who knows.

[diane-michaels]

I imagine that on any instrument, and at any level, there are teachers who fail to create happy, healthy, productive musicians.

[unknown-user]

Carl Swanson wrote: I don’t know if musical instrument instruction on other
instruments(clarinet, violin, trumpet, etc) is as generally bad as it
is on harp, but I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who knows. [/quote]

Piano pedagogy tends to stand as the leader among the instruments in this regard – possibly vocal pedagogy as well. This is simply because there are so many people involved in it. Piano pedagogy degrees are wonderful and comprehensive in studying the history of teaching techniques, developmental psychology, structure and use of the hand, etc. There is also so much wonderful teaching materials for piano. I wish there was the same available for harp, although a good percentage of the information transfers. When transferring information from piano to harp, the main areas requiring new
exploration have to do with the application of the structure and
movemenet of the hand specifically to the harp. Also, becoming familiar
with available teaching materials for harp.

My doctoral minor was piano pedagogy and we studied everything from developmental to educational psychology, curriculum design, studying myriads of beginning methods. We were taught how to systematically critique materials and methods. We did practice lessons for one another, videotaped ourselves, critiqued each other, observed expert teachers, read historical teaching philosophies, and were required to articulate our own phiosophy and design a comprehensive curriculum.

[carl-swanson]

Julie- That sound like the kind of course harp teachers need. I have always said that one of the most important things the National Conference of the American Harp Society can do is offer seminars and masterclasses on the art of teaching, since most of the people who attend a conference teach. It was with that in mind that I gave a seminar about 8 years ago on the use of etudes in building technique. It was very well attended and there were a lot of college level teachers there taking notes furiously. The feedback that I got from that seminar convinced me that more needs to be done in this area.

[janelle-lake]

In response to ‘where do good teachers come from if they should have years of experience?’, I think that teaching other skills to people of all ages

[jennifer-buehler]

Who was your teacher?

Jennifer

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