GabrielRice wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 10:32 am One of the most effective and inspiring brass teachers of the last 50 years was Sam Pilafian, the great tuba player and founding member of the Empire Brass. I did not know Sam as well as many of my friends, but I had the privilege of spending some time with him and attending multiple classes he gave.
Sam summed up his own teaching philosophy as (I'm paraphrasing) "finding each student's strengths and building from there." That was such a concise statement of the way my best teachers operated, and the instinct that I have tended to follow, that I've adopted it as the philosophy I try to follow myself.
My own teacher in graduate school, Norman Bolter, said to me in my very first lesson: "Start with what you CAN do."
None of this means that you don't identify areas of weakness and address them. But it's a fundamentally different way of thinking than a stance of correcting faults, sometimes with brutal honesty that leaves students in tears or doubting their abilities. Build from strengths. Relate progress on weakness to abilities the student has already achieved.
My toughest teacher was probably Per Brevig, who never let me slide with imprecise rhythm or pitch. And the only time I ever cried coming out of a lesson was when he said to me "Gabe, you are much too talented to sound this way." But take a moment and analyze that sentence...implicit in the criticism of the work I had (not) been doing was the possibility of my achievement. I'm guessing that tbdana took away the same sentiment from Roy Main.
“Start where you are,” or “Start with what you CAN do,” is fundamental to modern psychology and counseling. Repeated studies have shown that building on strengths rather than criticizing weaknesses helps people improve more quickly, and the lessons learned are rehearsed (practiced) more often, both in the action of practicing and in the brain’s neural pathways. The desire to accomplish something, along with the desire to please authority figures, is a stronger motivation in the long run than the desire to avoid punishment or harsh criticism.