@Arjen:

I wasn’t quite sure I understood what you meant by being a deductive thinker, but everything else you said rang so true with me, I wonder if that means I am a deductive thinker as well!

I’ve been trying to come up with a “best teaching experience” to share — and now that I’m here at the end of a semester, with time to reply properly, I can’t think of a specific experience! The most rewarding *type* of experience I’ve had though is when I’m helping someone who isn’t sure they understand, and I get to point out that they’re doing better than they thought they were.

@Tim:

I am astounded at the way you’ve broken the problem into parts, and I suspect my problem is indeed all of those parts! Also, my guitar strings are pretty high up from the fretboard (despite a recent servicing) and that makes it tough too. I’m quite happy to continue avoiding barre chords for the most part, though, at least for now: I have enough songs to work on that don’t use them! :)

Right, so the problems might be (1) getting the finger straight enough to stop all six strings at once, (ii) getting enough “pressure” (force) to push them down properly, (iii) avoiding the other fingers tensing up in sympathy, (iv) leaving the other fingers free to go where they need to for their notes, and possibly (v) strengthening the finger without straining it in the process, (vi) recognising the fingering to use in the first place. And I suppose less pressure might be needed further from the fret, so that’s something to experiment with… Probably the reason it’s difficult is that there are really 5 or 6 problems, and the thing to do is find ways to isolate them and work on one at once.

I’ve just guessed what the problems might be, but that’s the approach. You break it down until the stages are small and easy.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to write a music lesson! I’ve always been fascinated by the process.

What I actually meant to say was thanks for the compliment expressed as a question! I can’t stop thinking, so it’s nice when someone appreciates it. :-)

Thanks for this inspiring post. I’m a poor teacher, mainly due to the fact that I am a deductive thinker, not knowing how a sentence will end when I start it. I’m an eternal student. Knowing by memory is unproductive knowledge, so I learn and relearn till I really understand what I learn and even than, I might be tempted to relearn it from start.

What’s your best teaching experience?

Kind regards,
Arjen

The mental exercise of turning difficulties into questions seems especially intriguing. It not only applies to my resistance to asking questions, but to pretty much every other situation as well! Why do I feel so tempted by distracting activities? How can I stay more focused on my thesis? What is the best choice of things to do next?

How did I get so fortunate to meet such a thought-provoking person, to help me reason through issues such as this? :)

Well, answering the question yod u didn’t ask, a “good” hand position on an instrument is the one which enables you to make the necessary movements in the most relaxed and efficient way with the most freedom of movement. And that’s a principle you can analyse and experiment with. “What do I want to happen?” “What difficulties seem to be stopping it happening?” “How can I break the most important one down to a manageable size and attack it?”

The first answer might be “I don’t know what the obstacles are”, so that is itself the first one, and the first exercise is to observe your playing to see what’s tensing up, or what you find difficult, then the next exercise is to try to identify why…

A teacher speeds the process up by knowing the standard things that can go wrong and the standard ways to sort them out, and by being able to see more easily what it looks like, or notice that you’ve lapsed into something you didn’t realise you were doing, but it’s that sort of process.

I wonder… What would happen if you did a mental exercise of turning difficulties into questions? Eg “I’m no good at asking questions” might become “How can I get better at asking questions?”, “What do I find hard about asking questions?”, “Do I find some things harder to ask questions about than others?” and so on. Just a thought, largely because it’s an exercise I’d find quite fun myself (and maybe also one suited to someoone who likes words, because it’s a bit like an editing exercise too.)

I’ve never had a music teacher (I taught myself the basics of piano as a kid; in university, I picked up guitar), and so I’ve had to supply my own motivation and confidence — which is very difficult, because I don’t know if I’m on the right track or not! What if I’ve been learning all wrong, and my hand positions are now permanently incorrect?! Maybe it’s not too late for me to turn to a teacher and see if I can pick up some better techniques…

Also, I should point out that I’m actually horrible at asking questions! I’m really working to fix this, but I’m not sure yet what would help, except more practice asking questions. This is why I encourage my students to work on this too: asking questions not only helps with understanding (if you can figure out what to ask) but it also gives practice in asking questions!

I like your thoughts on confidence and motivation; I think those are key.

Thinking about the context of learning a musical instrument: in order to really learn the instrument, you’ve got to be able to feel intuitively what’s going on as you play, what the sensations are when you’re doing particular techniques well, and so on, which I’d say is a kind of kinaesthetic “understanding” which you can only experience for yourself: the teacher can’t have that experience for you, only guide you in the right direction so it’s there to be experienced.

The violin teacher I had when I was at university (as an electronics student, I hasten to add) was excellent. I usually dscribe what he did by saying “He didn’t teach people how to play the violin; he taught them how to learn the violin”, which I think was key and empowering. Again I think this belongs under the heading of understanding in your scheme: understanding what the aims are, what needs learning, how to find your way to them, and integrating them with the kind of playing you want to do.

I couldn’t agree more about questions, and I also think the being aware of the questions your mind is asking as you try to learn is very relevant to motivation (they’re the things you want to find out) and to getting where you want to be. If you can put your finger on just what question it is that’s niggling you or creating a block, you’re well on your way to sorting it out.