March 2011

Teacher Talk

A series of teaching-articles in the Strad Magazine

What advice would you give a novice teacher based on your own teach­ing exper­i­ences? Erika Burns, Seattle, US
Boris Kuschnir: It is import­ant to have patience with the rate at which each indi­vidual stu­dent devel­ops. Give great care and atten­tion to the phys­ical set-up of the stu­dent, striv­ing to achieve a nat­ural way of hold­ing the instru­ment without unne­ces­sary ten­sion. Spe­cial atten­tion must be given to the cor­rect move­ment when chan­ging pos­i­tion in the left hand, and to the smooth change of bow both at the tip and the heel. Beware of giv­ing stu­dents rep­er­toire which exceeds their cur­rent tech­nical abil­ity; even if it may seem impress­ive, doing so can cause great dam­age to their devel­op­ment. Be sure to see your stu­dents at least twice a week, and allow and encour­age them to par­ti­cip­ate in mas­ter­classes which other teach­ers, espe­cially those of renowned musi­cians. Avoid being excess­ively crit­ical of stu­dents in the pres­ence of their peers or their par­ents, and never raise your voice at them. Do not be shy of attend­ing and learn­ing from the les­sons of other teach­ers. Don’t attempt to com­pete with your col­leagues. This always causes the stu­dents to suf­fer. Also, don’t neces­sar­ily pri­or­it­ise the pur­suit of prizes at com­pet­i­tions. Always keep in mind the fact that the dis­tin­guish­ing fea­ture of a great viol­in­ist and musi­cian is not only tech­nical bril­liance, but also a beau­ti­ful and, above all, indi­vidual sound.