piano addictI encountered the following tidbit on Twitter last week and it immediately sent my thoughts whirling. It is from one of the letters of Beethoven. In it Beethoven gives advice to Carl Czerny on how to best handle his nephew, Karl.

The quote in the tweet read:

…please check him only about his interpretation; and when he has reached that point, don’t let him stop playing for the sake of minor mistakes, but point them out to him when he has finished playing the piece …I have always followed this method. It produces musicians…

The text as tweeted would seem to support a primary lesson strategy of going for the large musical picture, letting the chips fall where they may, and mentioning any flaws in the details afterward. The first thing I thought was, but what about the student who refuses to care about those details and whose playing is always messy? If I don’t fuss about the details from the beginning, they never ever progress. So, I looked up the full quote, which actually began,

In regard to his playing for you, as soon as he has learnt the right fingering and can play a piece in correct time and the notes too, more or less accurately, then please check him only…

Aha, not quite so lenient as it might have appeared.

I began to muse on diversity in learning styles and how this might be a wonderful strategy with some and the complete wrong approach with others. So much of teaching is finding the right strategy for the student at a certain place in their journey. Is Beethoven really advising a blanket policy as the words, I have always followed this method, might imply? Maybe. There are a few words missing near the end. Here is the actual last bit of Beethoven’s paragraph.

I have done very little teaching, yet I have always followed this method. It soon produces musicians which, after all, is one of the chief aims of the art. 

Perhaps the students in Beethoven’s experience all benefitted from his big picture strategy or sought help elsewhere. At any rate, he was humble enough to qualify the advice.

Actually, Beethoven knew his nephew well and wanted to be sure that Karl was encouraged to keep up his music and to find joy in it. Beethoven was completely on Karl’s side. How do we know this? Yup. There is a paragraph missing.

Please be patient with our Karl, even though at present he may not be making as much progress as you and I would like. If you are not patient, he will do even less well, because (although he must not know this), owing to the unsatisfactory timetable for his lessons, he is being unduly strained. Unfortunately nothing can be done about that for the time being. Treat him therefore, so far as possible, with affection, but be firm with him. Then there will be a greater chance of success in spite of these really unfavourable circumstances where Karl is concerned.

Can’t you just imagine this as a thread in a Facebook piano teachers group? Seriously though, I’m heartened that teaching hasn’t fundamentally changed over these many years. We all still want what is best for the actual person we are teaching over the long term.

Alas, the story is not quite this straightforward. Cue the reality TV. The letter was written in 1817 during a 2 year battle between Beethoven and his sister in law, Johanna, over custody of Karl. Unduly strained indeed. His life was being torn apart. And, although Beethoven ultimately won the battle, all did not end happily ever after. Truly the stuff of sensationalist media isn’t it? And, just imagine the comment threads today…

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