Taking Lessons? How long?

[carl-swanson]

Deb- I think if you are going to begin formal lessons with a teacher(who you respect and trust implicitly) you should expect that teacher to do whatever it takes to correct your bad habits. It will seem like starting over, but you will progress much faster than if you were a rank beginner. Let me tell you a little story.

Years ago a professional harpist asked me to overhaul her technique. She was a good professional who played with a very fine orchestra. I asked her why she wanted me to do that. She explained that when she played she felt like she was just barely in control and always on the edge of disaster. By sheer force of will she made it through difficult orchestra parts, concertos, etc. The problem was that she had had only about 5 years total of formal training 20 years earlier, and had studied with someone who was an awful teacher to boot. What little technique she had had devolved into something just awful and bearing no resemblance to any known school of playing. I’m not kidding.

I called two college level teachers who I respect enormously and asked each of them what they would do with this situation. “Do you do the major surgery and correct all of the technical problems? Or do you just tweak what she’s doing?” I asked both of them. One teacher said to me,”Boy, that muscle memory is awfully strong. I think I would just tweak what is there.” The other teacher said,”Do the surgery. It will take her 3 months to make the changes but she’ll be much better off in the end.” I told this teacher that I was planning on using the 50 Bochsa etudes as the basis for my work with her because she was such an advanced harpist. “I wouldn’t do that,” she said. “I’d use the 40 easy etudes(of Bochsa).

I went with the advice of the second teacher and basically started the student over. I warned her that for a while she would find it very uncomfortable, not because she was doing anything wrong, but because she would be fighting old muscle memory and until that faded, the new technique would not feel natural. I used the 40 easy etudes as the basis for what I was doing.

That teacher whose advice I followed was right on the mark. It took the student 3 months to make and get comfortable with the changes, and the 40 easy etudes were exactly the right pieces for making those changes.

The woman studied with me for about 6 or 7 months initially. When her schedule got too busy the lessons stopped for a while. About a year after making those changes she called me one day. “I just wanted you to know that this past week the symphony played Symphonie Fantastique”(of Berlioz with the killer second movement harp parts). “It was a piece of cake” she told me.

The whole point of this is that good technique pays enormous dividends and is well worth the effort. And loosing bad habits is well worth the effort in the long run.

[deb-l]

thanks Carl I really appreciate the encouragement and the info.

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