Students who take private lessons at the Music School now have the opportunity to take part in ongoing music theory classes free of charge. Topics covered will include basic notation, key signatures, time signatures, scales, intervals, chord structures and more. There will also be sightsinging, ear training and dictation exercises.
I believe that an important goal of education is to promote critical thinking in students. The ability to think critically can be transferred from a specific subject, such as music, to every area of a person’s life. A person who has the capacity to think critically will have a better chance of orienting himself in the world. Critical thinking leads to self-knowledge and self-discovery. I see music and art in general, as a spiritual discipline. By providing insights into the inner world of the artist and into the truth of the experience, a work of art can become alive, and challenges us to evaluate and deepen our lives.
In order to think critically about music, a student must achieve a foundational level of mastery of the material. I believe that the understanding of basic principles is the first step in this process.
A principle is a concept that explains many things, while providing a clear reference point for the things that it cannot explain. Details can be remembered easily once the principles are understood. After the student understands the basic mechanics, it is important to collocate a specific subject within its historical context and its specific aesthetic. Sometimes an interdisciplinary approach provides help in clarifying the characteristics of a certain work or concept. Hopefully the student will appropriate these concepts, evaluate them, and decide whether or not they are valuable to his work and maybe, even to his life.
I consider teaching a collaborative effort that benefits both parties. Learning is a lifelong process for everybody. I am grateful to my students because their questions always invite me to deepen my understanding of music. I also understand that teaching can be a delicate process especially when it involves young people that are still in a formative phase of their lives. For these reasons I meet my students respectfully and professionally at their level. I do my best to create an emotionally safe environment in the classroom where they do their work without fear of judgment.