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T
musical pedagogy is still tainted by the conventional wisdom which
teaches us that musical talent is an innate ‘gi ’ with which a few privileged people
are blessed, and that its presence or absence is not necessarily related to a voca-
tional calling, which may exist in the ‘untalented’ individual. is deleterious viewpoint
shuts the door to the riches of musical training to untold numbers of people who never
give themselves a chance to pursue their musical dreams, in the belief that they were born
without a talent for music.
e belief in ‘innate talent’ is also a convenient expedient to excuse pedagogical failure;
indeed, how can we blame a method or a teacher for the difficulties encountered by this
or that ‘not very talented’ individual, poor soul, full of desire and enthusiasm but 'not
gi ed’? is pedagogy of predestination has to be counteracted energetically and with-
out compromise. Traditional musical pedagogy must follow the lead of the great early
childhood training methods (like those of Orff or Suzuki) and ground itself on the prem-
ise that everyone who shows a strong desire to ‘do’ music has a talent for it. is is the
only truly disinterested pedagogical posture because it places the burden of responsibil-
ity where it properly belongs with the teacher, instead of the learner.
We, as pedagogues, must come to believe in talent as a function of method.
e Adult Beginner
e success of early childhood musical pedagogies lies in their assumption of a univer-
sal musical capacity in children not dissimilar to that which allows them to learn their
mother tongue by rote, through imitation, playfulness, trial and error, etc. is success
gives credence to modern ‘generative’ theories of music which assume similar mental
structures for music as Chomskian linguistics speculate may exist for language.
Be that as it may, these pedagogies deal with a stage in the development of human
beings when the spiritual ‘slate’ is cleaner, less burdened, than in older individuals, who
carry a heavier emotional and intellectual load. Our main interest, pedagogically, lies
with the musical training of the latter.
Post-adolescent musical pedagogy is notoriously deficient in handling the challenge
presented by the ‘passionate adult beginner’: what to do for those students intensely in
love with music but possessing little or no training, who usually bring with them deeply
ingrained convictions about their lack of talent, their being too old, too physically badly
coordinated, their lack of aural ability and other such negative self-concepts. Where to
begin? What goals can we realistically expect to achieve? How far can they go?
ere is no denying that the passing of time does have a deteriorating effect on the
human body, with joints becoming more stiff, reflexes slower, stamina and endurance
lessened. ese effects of ageing, however, are not strong enough to produce noticeable
malfunctions usually until well past middle age and are practically irrelevant in most
normal adults until the sixth or seventh decade of life. Even more, some radical medical
thinkers are now disputing the unavoidability of old age’s dereliction and are beginning
to offer alternative viewpoints of far-reaching implications.
Of even less consequence is the effect of age on mental / spiritual capacities, except in
cases which are pathological in nature. We can keep fully functional intellectual and emo-
tional capabilities for most of our life. We must then conclude that much more important
than the obstacles imposed on us by physiology or the passing of time are those created
by our psyche, by our self-concept, by our relationship with authority figures, etc. In short,
by the world surrounding us, and our interpretations of it.
e sad fact is that, in most cases, the students of whom we speak will never experience
the full realization of their true potential because their real needs will never be addressed
or even recognized. eir own self-concepts (and our implicit assumptions as their teach-
ers), will deny them that right. e negative expectations about their lack of success will
become self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating and, in our faculty lounges, we will look at
each other with a knowing wink as if saying, ‘See? I told you so.’
For those of us involved in academia, this scenario is a familiar one (and who, among
us, can claim innocence?): the distinguished master, talking about his ‘star pupil’, with glit-
tering eyes, hushed enthusiasm in the voice, pride in the accomplishment of the pedagogi-
cal mission…or talking about ‘that other student’, eyebrows raised in disgusted surprise,
a sneer, and a dismissive shrug.
How commonplace and how terribly unfair! Surely ‘that other student’ is more a victim
of who knows what complex circumstances than of a cruel fate that has deprived this
pupil of ‘talent’. If only the illustrious and no doubt well-intentioned master would take
the time to educate (bring out) rather than instruct (pile upon). If only the teacher could
empathize rather than criticize and could become an ally instead of a judge…
Seen in this light it becomes evident that a primordial pedagogical responsibility re-
mains in the discovery or, more precisely, uncovering of hidden talent. For diverse reasons,
many people have their talents buried under layers and layers of emotional debris. ese
are the people we consider ‘untalented’ (as they themselves do). e ‘talented’ are those
who have managed to maintain unimpeded access to their talent: those souls who are
relatively free from the burdens that scourge the human spirit.
What a great teacher, a great parent, a great psychotherapist, and a great coach
have in common is a deep belief in the potential of the person with whom
they are concerned a conviction about what the person is capable of being and
doing plus the ability to transmit the conviction during their interactions.
Dr Branden continues:
e teacher must be passionate in this belief in the student. e more difficult the case,
the more impassioned the belief.
We must bear in mind that chronological age does not in the least affect this circum-
stance. Older students need this support as much as children. Pedagogy (‘guide for the
young’) refers to ‘youth’ in terms of expertise, not age. An inexperienced beginner, no
matter of what age, is always ‘young’ and has the same psychological needs in the particu-
lar areas of ‘youthful inexperience’ as children.
is attitude of utter confidence in the student’s eventual success will be one of the two
factors necessary to create a teacher/student alliance capable of ‘beating the odds’. e
other is the student’s own passion for the art. Without evident signs of it, the problem
compounds. is being a different, though related, topic requiring independent explora-
tion, we will leave it untouched except by saying that, as in the case of ‘hidden talent’,
glimpsed only though the manifestations of vocational calling or passion for the disci-
pline, there is such a thing as ‘hidden passion’, repressed, suppressed or depressed, much
harder to identify and bring out. is situation presents an incomparably more difficult
psycho-pedagogical problem.
But given the existence of such passion on the part of the student, teacher and pupil
then become conspirators against those forces hindering the blossoming of the student's
potentialities.
‘Conspirators’ etymologically means nothing more than ‘mutually inspiring’, a fairly
exact description of the ideal teacher / student interaction. My teaching will inspire you to
levels of achievement that will inspire me to surpassing levels of inspired teaching, and
so on per aeternum.
Hence this alliance, this conspiracy, is subversive. It has to do with the attainment
of freedom from the repressive powers of fear, guilt, and pain: fear caused by power-
wielding authority, guilt caused by impossibly prescriptive duties, pain caused by fruitless,
frustrated effort.
Grounded in an initial act of faith in the student prompted by the latter’s enthusiasm,
this passionate (and compassionate) pedagogy has as its primary procedural goal the
intellectual, emotional and physical freeing of the student. It focuses on unimpeded free-
dom of action for the student’s mind, soul and body: unbridled mind-doing (thought),
soul-doing (emotion) and body-doing (movement). And it has as its final goal the inte-
gration of these three ‘doings’ in the process of preparation for ‘the public moment’, the
successful completion of a performing act through which the student transcends the
realm of the petty and enters into the realm of the sublime.
Notes
See Deepak Chopra, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, New York, Harmony Books, .
Nathaniel Branden, e Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, New York, Bantam Books, , p .
Ibid. p .
I am indebted to Angel Vigil, Chair of Fine Arts at the Colorado Academy, Denver, ,
for identifying and describing this concept.