A trip to Eastern Germany

Just back from an amazing trip to Germany.  The Improve Your Teaching series has been translated into German recently and this was my second visit in the last couple of months to work with teachers.  This time I was invited to a music school in the town of Zeitz, about 50 kilometres south of Leipzig.  The invitation was to the Anna Magdalena Bach Music School,  so named because this is the town where JSB’s wife was born and it’s where they met.  In fact after my session I found and stood outside Anna’s house – the two of them must have done so, many times, at precisely the same spot nearly 300 years ago.  It was a haunting and evocative moment.

Zeitz is an extraordinary place.  Walking from the station (Max, my translator and I had just arrived from Leipzig) there was hardly a soul to be seen.  The roads were empty.  Many buildings just a shell – houses, factories and churches with no roofs and the glass windows all shattered.  It was like being transported back 50 or 60 years into another world.  But when we arrived at the musikschule all was suddenly transformed.  A warm-hearted building – and the room I was presenting in was gloriously decorated with a chandelier and lovely chairs.  And suddenly there were people – musicians and teachers who had arrived from the seemingly deserted town.  The musikschule began to wake up with music issuing from many of it’s Hogwart-like spaces and we began to discuss music, teaching and learning.

I talked about being a Virtuoso Teacher and about Simultaneous Learning and could see these ideas feeling quite new to most of my audience.  But we had a very lively chat afterwards and it all seemed to go down well. My thinking is always developing and I like to feel that no two sessions are the same.  At the moment my predominant thought is the importance of teaching the right thing at the right time.   I occasionally hear stories of pupils being given music which is too advanced and their teachers getting annoyed that they can’t play it… 

One teacher came up with the perfect summary for the day … it’s really just about being kind they said…

Photos from left to right..

Bach's grave in Leipzig; Entrance to Musikschule; Plaque outside Anna's house; Me outside the Musikschule; The Musikschule; The lovely room we were in; some books; Matthias the school head; Max my excellent interpreter.

Keeping pupils engaged - two fun excerpts from Tim Topham TV

Have much enjoyed my sessions with Tim Topham, the great music educator from down under.

Tim has extracted a couple of excerpts from one of our talks, which I've posted below..

One major principle that underpins the thoughts expressed in these little chats is the necessity to keep out pupils really engaged.  If they become disconnected from the learning we can draw the obvious conclusion that they won’t be doing any.  Maintaining that connection is a central part of the art of the Virtuoso Teacher. 

There are two sides to keeping this all-important connection active.  Being imaginative, energetic, and fun is essential …serving up what we want our pupils to learn in a clear, relevant, logical, sequential and engaging way.  And simultaneously it’s about noticing, immediately, if the light goes off behind our pupils’ eyes.   This point is so important.  If we lose our pupils engagement – even for a moment – that essential flow of energy is broken and we will have to re-establish it (which of course takes time).

Keep up a discourse with pupils, ask them pertinent questions, ask them to explain what they just did, why they did it; and make sure lessons are conducted in such a way that they know they can tell you if they don’t understand.  Be aware of your pupils’ reactions and mood constantly.

If this two-way flow of energy is maintained lessons will always be positive, and learning will always be taking place. 

John Davies plays Mozart

As all pupils of the great John Davies will know, John never played or demonstrated in lessons. This was never a disadvantage. John had many wonderful ways of making you bring the music to life and I suspect his lack of demonstration was quite deliberate. As a player, he broadcast on the BBC many times and happily at least two of those recordings still exist. Below this post is one of those recordings. It's the slow movement of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet. I also have a performance of the Iain Hamilton Quintet, which I will post soon. His sound is very expressive, liquid and lyrical. Below also is a recent article I wrote for the Clarinet & Saxophone Society Magazine...

Thoughts on the Virtuoso Teacher

I much enjoyed my short visit to Scotland a few weeks ago to do a Virtuoso Teacher Day at the University of Aberdeen under the auspices of the ISM. It’s always wonderful to meet a group of lively and committed teachers and, as usual with these days, many interesting topics were aired and discussed.  

Of course the central theme of the day was the concept of The Virtuoso Teacher. And as our society seems to become more and more disinterested in serious culture, it becomes increasingly important that we aspire to Virtuoso Teacher status. Or, in other words, aspire to teaching at the highest level in order to keep more of our pupils on board and inspired to go out there and be musically independent. 

"Teaching is about sharing"

What exactly do I mean by teaching at the highest level you may be wondering? It’s certainly very challenging trying to sum it up in a few words or in a single point or two (you’ll have to come to one of the VT days to get the whole picture!). And it’s got nothing to do with the level of our pupils. But if pushed, I would say this: teaching at the highest level is strongly connected with the necessity to teach with a generous, big- and open-hearted spirit. Teaching is about sharing. Of course we know more than our pupils. And we can do things a lot better than they can. But teaching is essentially a sharing experience… sharing our love and enthusiasm for music, sharing our deeply considered views on the music we teach and thus helping our pupils in turn to love and share their music. If we can pass this on, humbly and without ego, we have got a chance to help humanity remain cultured. For without culture, humanity becomes dry, cold and meaningless. This, in essence, is what being a Virtuoso Teacher is. 

A sunny day in Aberdeen for the Virtuoso Teacher talk with the ISM. 

Talking to teachers about the Virtuoso Teacher in Aberdeen. 

Theoretically Speaking...

Theory has a bit of a bad name. Which is a shame. Because theory can be both a lot of fun and hugely helpful... like anything if it's well taught. Theory teaches us about how the world of music works - and through a knowledge of theory we can play with more insight and indeed more expressively. It teaches us about the nuts and bolts of our wonderful art.

I much enjoyed writing my 5-volume 'Improve your Theory!' series and I think I can safely say that it's probably got more jokes than most other theory books! I'm so delighted that Pamela Rose has decided to create some teaching videos based on my 'Improve your Theory!' series. She's a real theory expert and it's terrific to have such a generous endorsement. 

Here's Pamela's 1st instalment based around the opening pages of Book 1....

Clarinet Basics Teacher's Notes

If you are a clarinet teacher or player - can you remember why it was you took up the clarinet?

In my case, it was my mother's decision and very grateful I am to her for that! But I do remember being extremely disappointed on discovering the fact that my clarinet broke into 5 little pieces and fitted into a small box.. 

My school journey every day required 4 stops on the London Underground and I was envisaging my fellow passengers looking at my extremely long and intriguing case with considerable envy and interest. The little case unfortunately had no such effect...

Can you remember your first lesson?

Amazingly I can... I was in a group of 4 and my teacher was the great John Davies, who went on to teach me at the RAM. Lessons were such fun. 

Should you be using my own fun approach, Clarinet Basics (and of course I'm delighted if you are) you may not know that I've written some extensive Teacher's notes to go with the book. They're full of Simultaneous Learning type activities and many suggestions to help make the lessons come even more to life. You can find them on the Faber website, but as the route there is a little elaborate, Faber has allowed me to present them as a free download here - I hope you find the notes useful.

News from Denmark and thoughts for a productive new term

Following my tour of South Africa, I’m just back from a wonderful visit to the “happiest country in the world”, Denmark, presenting teaching workshops, giving a recital and working with young players. Wherever I go in the world, there are two things I can always rely on: the unqualified enthusiasm of young learners and the reflective and thoughtful enthusiasm of their teachers. 

Our aim in life should always be to make things better. Through our music, it should be to refine and develop our own playing or singing and to guide our pupils to develop theirs. To do this we all, teachers and students alike, simply need to open our minds. We need to minimise the ego and allow ourselves to re-evaluate our methods with unconditional honesty.  

That will be at the heart of the fourteen insets I’m about to embark on as the new academic year gets under way. I shall be talking about Simultaneous Learning, Group Teaching, Being a Virtuoso Teacher, Teaching in the Digital Age, and much more.  I hope we may meet during these next two weeks. 

Whether we do or not, I hope 2016/17 is a great year for you.  Let’s do our best to transcend any problems, enjoy our music making and teaching and try to inspire others with what we are doing! 

Teaching in Copenhagen, August 2016

My time in South Africa

Having been back from my adventure to South Africa for a couple of weeks now it’s very good to look back on it and muse on the many exciting experiences I had there. The main purpose of the tour was of course to meet and talk with teachers about this extraordinary thing that is teaching! And indeed I did. In my solitary, but hugely event-packed, week I visited Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Mostly I talked about Simultaneous Learning and it was greeted with much enthusiasm. I found so many teachers eager to explore the positive and pro-active forms of teaching I love talking about and sharing. I also understood why many go to live in South Africa - among other things, their winter is generally more summery than our summer. And although it's still a country with some serious unresolved issues there is something very special I clearly felt manifest in the camaraderie and cheerfulness of all those I met...

I was hosted by the excellent Lovemore Music – music shops are still very much the thing in SA. People go and visit and browse and are sometimes lucky enough to be helped in their searches by Danni and Steve, whose massive knowledge and good humour keeps much of music making and teaching alive and well. In my case they also displayed massive industry and diligence in booking all the accommodation and the many flights and making sure I was at the right place at the right time. Which, thanks to them, I was. Also for the food. I enjoyed some types of fish I’d never even heard of prior to my visit. 

And yes … I did actually go on safari in my suit - travelling light does have its unexpected consequences!   My one afternoon off was well spent in a very well-protected specially designed wagon … and we really were that close to that lion.

VMT annual reviews

Interestingly, a number of friends and colleagues have shown me their 'Visiting Music Teacher Annual Review' form, which seem to be all the rage this time of term. To be frank, I was shocked by many of them. Whoever are thinking these up, seem to have a very narrow (often entirely exam orientated) viewpoint of progress. In my recent Webinar for the ISM on the 'The Challenges of the Digital age', I pondered at some length at what progress is all about today. I found a good analogy in the way children complete and advance to the next level in a computer game. This form of 'progress' is very understandable, immediate, clear and exciting. And we can learn an awful lot from this. In a way, a lesson is a logical sequence of engaging and appropriate activities, carefully set up by the teacher in response to the pupil, where progress is continually achieved. This also chimes in with a young persons need for pace and fairly instant gratification through short term goals.

If you happen to know anyone who is responsible for these unfortunate documents, maybe very gently suggest they might like to spend 35 minutes watching my recent Webinar. If we don't begin to change their views, we will surely end up with more and more pupils becoming despondent and giving up.

Let's get a real discussion going on this, so do add comments below.

Webinar 'The challenge of the digital age'

Much enjoyed presenting my first 'webinar' this week!

The major areas I discuss are...

• How our pupils today differ from those of even 5 years ago.
• How to get more pupils practicing.
• How to develop our own psychological approach to teaching.

And given it's only just over 35 minutes - a whole lot more too!

I hope I've been a little bit provocative, so do let me know below what you think.