This semester, I have been tutoring a foreign graduate student. He is struggling with English and with his practice skills. I think that his main problem has been this: He knows how to be taught but not how to learn. He knows how to do what he is told but not how to take what he is told and make it his own. For a graduate student in piano this is a big problem.

In our lessons, we have been working on basics such as how to divide a piece into smaller sections, strategies for contrapuntal music, and identifying layers within a passage. These are things that my young students learn gradually as they mature and their pieces become more complex. I had a theory teacher who said, ” It never get’s harder. It just gets more complicated.” I aways liked that. It was and is both kind and true. This young man has been thrown in the deep end, as it were, and confronted with the complexity all at once.

I read an op-ed related to this some time ago. Sorry, I can’t remember where. The gist of it was that the stats on U.S. students’ world standing in math and science don’t take the above into consideration. U.S. graduates have the ability to find out what they need to know and to apply it creatively. In the writer’s opinion, this is why they are and will continue to be in demand at major companies around the world.

Of course, that is the lesson in music. It’s not about the notes themselves but rather what you have to say through them. You have to have strategy, an inquisitive mind, and heart. I can give this young man practice strategies and help with his grammar. I can answer questions and give him some moral support. I can’t give him the spirit of discovery or the delight in a musical journey. That part is entirely up to him.

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