Creating confident students

We musicians have long known the relationship between mental-emotional well-being and our music-making. If we want to improve our playing, we must address the body, the mind and the balance between them. It is true of our students, as well. Their progress in music directly reflects their relationship with self and the world. Although much of their lives are unknown to us, teachers can intentionally nurture students’ sense of safety, security and overall well-being within their musical growth that nourishes the whole child. Their music becomes a resource—something that provides solace, release, or restoration in times of need. This begins in the first lesson.

There are tiers of growth within my studio. Young children arrive with curiosity and often a vivid imagination—ripe for learning, but struggle expressing their feelings, thoughts and ideas. These little ones require safety and security within their environment, to be seen and heard and valued as they are. As the teacher I provide this through consistency, emotional steadiness, and an open mind. If children are overwhelmed, I allow them to roam freely (or not—-some need clear boundaries set for them to feel safe) and orient themselves in their new space. I come to them with play that is familiar to them, blocks, drawing, molding clay, or puzzles, which become the foundation for a connective relationship. Weaving musical concepts within this context integrates movement, gesture, song, story, and rhythmic chant into their experience and offers an entree to the instrument. Trust begins to form as more and more of these connective interactions build over time.

Students who have played up to a year on the instrument enter a second tier of growth: that of musicianship. As students learn the fundamentals of violin or piano technique, they are becoming musicians. They are developing skill, poise, ear training, simple symbolic notation, self expression, discipline, and the mental processing necessary to play. Within his musical development, a child’s self or being continues to mature. Or should. Each musical element a child learns is placed within various contexts of musical experience: listening, imitating, memorizing, improvising, reading, writing, composing, transposing, and performing. It is imperative students have opportunities to experiment with what they learn in the ways that interest them most. Finger patterns. Rhythm games. Dynamic contrasts. Whatever is engaging is where I go. This kind of processing not only deepens musical learning, but it represents the portal into self-agency and self-identity. It is an expression of self through music. This establishes the bedrock upon which confidence can build.

As students continue in their music education, I say very little in the way of right and wrong. I see my job as that of a coach in some respect, providing the requisite mental and psychological guideposts from which to explore and discover for themselves what is viable for them. They become the drivers of their own education while learning the integrative process that moves them toward their goal. This becomes especially crucial as they hit their pre-teen and teen years, when self-consciousness and self-awareness emerge. Recitals and competitions bring this to the fore, presenting a wonderful opportunity for the next tier of growth: being safe in the world outside of the studio.

My philosophy on recital preparation is based on the inevitability of change. We are not perfect beings, and neither is our environment always what we expect. Things happen. That is where the beauty is—to be resilient in the face of the unknown. For a good month going into an event, my students practice to perform with flexibility and resilience in the moment. We start a piece on the wrong note, change the form, stop in the middle and pick it up in another spot, alter the environment in which they normally play, play through distractions, and so on. To my students, it no longer feels like practice. The shackles of precise technique, solid memorization, and consistent and accurate execution are not longer of great focus. It is freeing. It is a “let’s see what happens” and sometimes finding hilarity in the outcome. Through such rehearsal they are learning the secret to flowing with their playing without anxiety or tension. They are learning to trust themselves and within that trust, they have the freedom and confidence to take musical or creative risks. This is at the heart of their growth both as musicians and as human beings. 

Self-confidence under such stressful conditions is powerful and infectious. It carries over into other areas of one’s life. It supports and guides an individual through areas of living that are challenging and less-than-safe, for the self has been given a voice, a mode of expression, that connects with the deep awareness that goes with one’s evolution. 

How you nourish that self speaks to the confidence of the growing adult within. That is something that individual will always have, and it will forever be associated with music. The survival of our profession depends on it.