For a teacher a summer is a time to assess and reflect, time to read “smart books” and socialize with and learn from fellow teachers. I would like to share with you some of my summer reflections.

This summer two books made a big impression on me and I highly recommend them to you. The first book is “Outliers” by a best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell and the second is “Microtrends” by Mark J. Penn. “Outliers” has a sub-title – The Story of Success, and it researches the reasons and circumstances of the successful people. Though the subjects of both books are very far from music, they both dedicate many pages to it. If you think about it, it is no wonder that they do this. Music is a reflection of life and whatever is applicable to life is applicable to music as well.

Based on his research and research of others, Gladwell states “10,000 hours rule” – the excellence at performing a complex task (whether it is programming, chess playing or music) requires a critical minimum level of practice – 10,000 hours. Bill Gates – the founder of Microsoft, Bill Joy – the founder of Sun Microsystems, famous chess grandmasters and Beatles - all of them had had their 10,000 hours grueling drills before they succeeded. Research shows that what separates elite music performers from just good musicians is an amount of practice. To give you a point of reference : elite performers practice 2-3 hours a week at age 5-6, six hours a week by age nine, eight hours a week by age twelve, sixteen hours a week by age fourteen, and up and up, until by age twenty they are practicing 30 hours a week. The striking thing is that research could not find any “naturals”, musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing less than their peers did.

Should these staggering numbers discourage anyone from studying music if they don’t intend to become professional musicians? Not at all! Elite swimmer Michael Phelps spends 8 hours a day in a pool, but everyone needs to learn how to swim at least 100 yards. The main point here is that there is a critical amount of effort to achieve meaningful results. Everyone has to put in enough effort to reach a point where one becomes proficient enough to enjoy music to its fullest. It is like climbing a mountain – you need to get above a forest line to enjoy a view. And the higher you get the more spectacular the view becomes! That’s why we have so many students, who have studied music from pre-K to the end of high school and keep playing music in college and all their lives.

Everyone can do it – can get above the forest line. In my 35 years of teaching I’ve seen it many times. People usually emphasize well-known tangible benefits of music education – improved mental abilities, memory and coordination; learning how to focus and persevere; having an emotional outlet. Gladwell writes about KIPP Academy of Bronx, New York, one of the best schools in the country with an innovative educational approach, where learning an instrument and playing in an orchestra is mandatory for all students.

But intangible benefits (a spectacular view of music) are much more appealing. Even the process of leaning is very exciting. Each new piece presents itself as an emotional and intellectual puzzle that is so much fun to solve.

“Microtrends” contains an interesting statistics about growing popularity of classical music. Tickets sales, number of performances, private philanthropy is at the record levels. According to Gallup surveys, the portion of US household with a member who plays a musical instrument reached 54 percent and the fastest growing group is 22-55 year-old. Classical music is an acquired taste. You can’t appreciate baseball if you don’t know the rules and play yourself. You can’t appreciate music if you don’t play an instrument.

In “Outliers” Gladwell also points out that the children, who keep studying and learning over the summer gradually accumulate more knowledge and more proficiency than the children who don’t and, thus, have a significant advantage later in life. According to research the “summer doing-nothing” actually impedes the child’s progress and there is no known advantage of having two months vacation. The countries and social groups, who have longer school years, are always score higher in every subject comparing to the average US schoolchild. I’ve noticed this myself – the children who keep studying music over the summer make clearly more significant progress over the years.

Of course, I look at everything from the position of a music teacher, who wants to pass her love of music to every student of our Academy. And a characteristic of a good book is the fact that everyone can find something appealing and interesting.

Vivid images always help a child to understand a concept. I often compare performing a musical piece to walking a tight rope. A gymnast on a tight rope carefully watches for its balance, quickly recovers and misstep does not really count if a gymnast reaches the end of a rope with a bang.  A musician performing a musical piece also balances playing correctly, with a right rhythm, articulation and phrasing. And if he missteps, he needs to quickly recover and keep going to finish the piece – reach the end of a rope and get applause.

Isn’t it funny? When a student does not do well on a recital, people usually ask: “Who is the teacher of this student?” But when a student gives a brilliant performance people say “What a talent!”

Those who teach understand that teaching a gifted student requires a lot of effort and skill. It is like cutting a diamond – you need to work hard on every facet to make a stone shine. Without a proper cutting even a diamond is just another stone. And like a diamond, a talent, is a very hard material to work with.

Like a jeweler admiring his work, a teacher loves to watch a brilliant performance of his or her student. But every teacher would also be glad to hear – “You’ve done a wonderful job with this talent!”

Yesterday the mother of one my students told me that she suddenly noticed emotion and a feeling in her son’s playing and how beautiful the piece was. But there is nothing sudden about it.

In the course of my career as a music teacher I’ve been lucky to observe many wonderful teachers and world renowned musicians teaching. It always struck me how well structured their process was. I can compare it with building of a house. To build a house an architect first creates a vision, a project plan is created, foundation is constructed, then bricklayers build the walls, painters paint them and a decorator puts a final touch with furniture, curtains and paintings on the walls. In teaching music, especially in preparing a new piece with a student, a teacher also needs to create a vision, develop a plan of how to achieve this vision by building a good foundation of technique, a structure of rhythm and phrasing and a decoration of dynamics and agogics. And a teacher needs to accomplish all of this taking into account strengths and weaknesses of a student. Very often young teachers tend to skip a mundane work of construction and go directly to decorating. It is like hanging a picture on the wall that is going to fall in a second. It is not easy to be an architect, a project manager, a bricklayer and a decorator at the same time. But I don’t know any other way to be a good teacher.

Children are imaginative, compassionate and love to play games. This is a very powerful combination that works wonders in teaching. I use it to develop one of the greatest assets of a musician – a skill to play rhythmically. Some may argue that ability to play with expression is more important. But as Igor Fleisher, brilliant viola player and a prominent music educator says: “There is no expression without a rhythm”.

Playing rhythmically requires a lot of focus and concentration and is not easy. Leon Fleisher, one of the greatest American pianists, teaches his students that a pianist needs to extract sound “as late as possible, but not a moment later”. But how explain this to a young child and make it interesting and vivid enough for a child to remember it? I try to create an image a child can relay to. This is my story:

Have you ever seen gymnast on trapeze? The one that swings high in the air and jumps from one trapeze to another? The gymnast needs to maintain the rhythm to coordinate movements of both trapezes. And there is a precise single moment in time when the trapezes are not too far or too close – the perfect moment to make a safe jump.

The sounds like gymnasts on the trapezes of steady inner count – they have to jump to or leave these trapezes in a precise moment in time - otherwise they would fall.

Music enriches people’s lives regardless of their age and occupation. Our youngest student is 3.5 years old and our oldest is 87! Among our students there are CEOs and nurses, engineers and CPAs, store clerks and entrepreneurs, programmers and housewives, retirees and college students. If you ask them this question you will get many different but very passionate answers with one common theme – music is life. It is not surprising that adults are vocal about the role of music in their lives. But when eleven years old expresses the same feeling in a poem – it is something special! I would like to share with you the poem and the drawing by Aaron Weiner, eleven year old student of our Academy.

My Special Place
My special place is a piano, where I go to relax from a stressful time
I see white and black stripes like a zebra galloping on the African plain
I hear peaceful music like calm waves in the sea
I feel relaxed and calm like I was the piano
When I finished and come out of the trance I ask
“Why was I stressed?”

Teachers always want to peek into the inner world of their students and see the results of their teaching – what works and what does not. It is especially important while teaching young students, who are unable to analyze their experience and/or express it vocally. One method to get a peek into my students’ minds has proved to be very helpful for me over the years. Several times a year I organize recitals where the students comment on the performances of their fellow students. The comments that the students write, reveal so much about them, what they have learnt, what they think is important, what they pay attention to and how they perceive music in general. While trying to help their friends they also mature themselves as performers. And in addition to all these benefits, reading these comments is always entertaining. Judge for yourself - I extracted some of the comments from the last recital and edited them only a little bit. I tried to preserve original format and wording of the comments.

Kun-Woo, 9 years old– Two part invention in F #8. J.S. Bach.

1. Needs larger range of dynamics .(Chris, 10 years old)
2. Sometimes hands lost coordination, but overall good technique .(Xinlan, 13 years old)
3. Very nice! (Catherine, 9 years old)
4. You should try to put your shoulders down just a bit. But it was very well done. (Angelique, 9 years old)

Benjamin, 10 years old – Poet’s Heart, E. Grieg

1. You should try to move in the big long circles, not just back and forth .(Angelique, 9 years old)
2. During long rests feel the tension – don’t just sit there .(Brandon, 17 years old)
3. Try to bow a little deeper and slower .(Kun-Woo, 9 years old)
4. Great! (Catherine, 9 years old)

Andrew, 8 years old –Variation on the Russian Song, M. Glinka

1. Good articulation and nice pedaling. Work on Dynamics .(Kun-Woo, 9 years old)
2. Make each variation different and unique .(Xinlan, 13 years old)
3. I suggest more fluid right hand line and attention to high notes .(Brandon, 17 years old)

Catherine, 9 years – Study in F minor #14, F. Chopin

1. Try to let your fingers guide you more .(Benjamin, 10 years old)
2. If you mess up like that – skip that section .(Andrew, 8 years old)
3. Practice right hand so that you can start from any point .(Brandon, 17 years old)
4. Good body movements. I really liked it .(Angelique, 9 years old)

Melody, 11 years old – Clair de Luna, C. Debussy

1. Could use a little bit more swaying or rocking. Nice piece your chose! .(Kun-Woo, 9 years old)
2. Beautiful, amazing .(Catherine, 9 years old)
3. Put your hair up that we can see your face. On a serious note – you need more variety in dynamics .(Xinlan, 13 years old)

Angelique, 9 years old – In the night, R. Schumann

1. Especially good forte and articulation. Bowing needs work. Awesome feeling – you really put yourself into the piece .(Kun-Woo, 9 years old)
2. Use pedal wisely. Take more time to appreciate climax .(Xinlan, 13 years old)
3. Projected sound, Melody, 11 years old is brought out …, did not forget anything. (Melody, 11 years old)
4. Great arm movements, fantastic. A little too loud (sometimes) .(Catherine, 9 years old)

Christopher, 10 years old – Polichinelle, S. Rachmaninoff

1. Bowing needs work .(Kun-Woo, 9 years old)
2. Curve fingers are awesome .(Andrew, 8 years old)
3. Really represents a clown. Pedal needs to be cleaner .(Catherine, 9 years old)
4. Good dynamics, body movement, more loud than soft, tricky like a clown .(Melody, 11 years old)
5. I am impressed - good job, good contrast, good dynamics too! .(Angelique, 9 years old)

Xinlan ,13 years old – Prelude in C minor from WTC #1, J.S. Bach; Maiden’s wish, F. Chopin/F. Liszt

1. Good articulation. Second piece made me want to love. Rush at the end (sort of). Bowing needs work .(Kun-Woo, 9 years old)
2. Try having your left foot on the floor .(Benjamin, 10 years old)
3. Good clean pedal and curved fingers .(Andrew, 8 years old)
4. Don’t be too loud when around low keys .(Catherine, 9 years old)
5. Try to use your body a little bit more. Nice finger action for such a fast piece .(Angelique, 9 years old)
6. Make more beautiful resolution to the major key at the end of Sonata. About Liszt: make turns at the beginning less jerky – yes, they are separate, but they are still make a long line. (Brandon, 17 years old)

Brandon, 17 years old– Sonata in G major #16, First movement, L. van Beethoven; Eroica from Transcendental Etudes, F. Liszt

• First piece made me think of Tom and Jerry. Awesome articulation! Second piece made me think of Superman fighting a villain. Exact aiming – hands like eagles, good preparation before playing. Bowing needs work. (Guess Who?)
• Used a lot of dynamics, shows melody, shows stop note, uses pedal good, right hand dominant, bass also shows, chords are clear .(Melody, 11 years old)
• Nice work, good dynamics, just try to keep your shoulders down. I like the music you’ve played .(Angelique, 9 years old)
• Straighter back, otherwise beyond words .(Chris, 10 years old)
• Keep head up when “Hero” gets loud. Only bend down when it gets quiet or suspenseful. Arpeggios could be worked on? May be it is just me. Breathing on beat is a little bit distracting .(Xinlan , 13 years old)