- I think that a career in teaching is a great calling.
And people don't really go into the music business
to make lots of money.
It doesn't happen.
And if one thinks that what I wanna do most in the world
is make lots of money,
then probably music is not a good choice.
However, I can think of very few careers
that are as satisfying as a career in music.
I'm at a place in my life where I can do anything
that I want to do.
And the reason I can do that is because I've chosen
to teach in a university.
Which gives me a basic income.
I have the collaboration of wonderful musicians
on the faculty to play with.
I'm in a big city where I can do as much orchestral playing
as I want to,
as much outside teaching, recording,
whatever I want to do,
I can do because of my teaching profession.
But there's teaching at all levels.
There are teachers in this city
who make more money than I do teaching privately
and that's all they do is teach privately.
And they're accomplished musicians doing that.
And they are very satisfied doing that kind of thing.
Where we really need teachers is in public schools.
And I'm having to say I have produced students here
that teach in the public schools
and have found it an important calling for them
and feel that they are making a big impact
on the world of music.
And indeed they are.
Because they leave here equipped to teach the right way.
And when we talk about teaching,
we're talking about an amazing partnership
that happens between a teacher and a student.
And when you begin little students,
that partnership is sort of a partnership
of faith from the student.
It's like going to a doctor.
Doctor says, "Take two of these and see me in the morning."
Little students don't have a great concept
of Mozart, or Bach, or Brahms.
And they are labor intensive.
I see students teaching students.
And I know they don't know how to teach those students
because they're in one part of the room
and the students in the other part of the room
and they're saying, "Do this."
Students need hands on.
Position for a youngster is the most important thing.
90% of the time I spend in lessons with young children,
I'm talking about seven, eight, nine year olds,
is fixing this and fixing this.
And making sure that they are looking right.
Because that way they won't have any pain.
They'll be able to learn quicker.
And they won't have to redo this.
We all know that we get students every year
that come to the university and we have to fix it.
Because somebody didn't wanna do that dirty work
at the very beginning.
So hands on with little students
because they don't really understand large concepts.
They understand if you say knuckles down.
And you keep pushing that knuckles down,
soon they'll learn that.
Those are important things with teaching small students.
And it's extremely rewarding to teach small students
because you get big rewards from it.
The kind of progress that's made is much more
of a steep rise.
You see it happen quicker
than fixing university students
and they seem to be at this level for a long time
and then they come up.
So I find it really rewarding to teach young kids
and so I've been doing that for 40 years.
Teaching little ones.
It's different in school
because you have a mass of young kids.
And so teaching techniques of how
to handle a large group of people,
and being able to understand that you can't do it alone.
There have to be assistants.
And I've started assistant programs in many schools.
I will be asked to come and clinic these kids.
And I'll say, "Do you do this all by yourself?"
The teacher will say, "Yes."
I said, "You've got 60 kids here."
Yeah.
I said, "Well, someone has to be going around,
"fixing position all the time."
Your best players.
Teach them how to--
They know how to hold the instrument,
let them teach the little kids to hold it up.
While having that assistance makes progress
so much quicker.
And then the students are always reminded to sit up,
to hold the instrument up,
to focus on the teacher.
Someone should be correcting all those little things
that they don't think about
when the teacher's yelling at them, saying,
"Think about this beat."
And it's really important.
Teaching at our level at the university
is a much easier job in many ways
than teaching little kids.
Because I have students that come in
and they'll play through a movement of a sonata
or a movement of a concerto.
Little kids don't do that.
So it's a different kind of teaching.
Here I find I spend a great deal of time on concepts.
Rhythms, what is baroque dance,
what is classic style,
how are you going to prepare a Mozart quartet
so that it sounds like Mozart and not Bordeaux.
These things are elements that one can rarely approach
with students under the age of 12.
After that they get it.
And if they can play they get it a lot quicker.
But teaching is the most rewarding way for self-growth.
I grow tremendously when I teach.
And I find that a miracle.