Once a week, for an hour, I teach a local sixth-grader how to play the bass. I enjoy it; I get paid $15 an hour. That is almost enough to retire! Jokes aside, teaching has uncovered a lot of my personal flaws and gripes with classical music.
I think that I’m a poor teacher and I’m failing my student. I started with Tobi in the summer, and he still struggles with foundational concepts such as reading music and hand positions. Am I at fault? Probably. Here’s how I structure lessons:
- 0-15 minutes: He plays what I asked him to prepare the week before.
- 15-30 minutes: I give him feedback on what to work on. I mark it in his music and we run through the music, together, working on what he had problems with.
- 30-45 minutes: I critically analyze his left-hand and bow technique. Technique drills working on his problems.
- 45-60 minutes: Miscellaneous drill and repertoire work.
Giovanni Bottesini c. 1860s?
For a sixth-grader, this is probably a bit grueling. This is how my peers and I were taught, so I don’t really know any other way. Really, this is how bassists have been taught for hundreds of years, going back to Giovanni Bottesini, Franz Simandl, and more recently with François Rabbath. Is this approach best for children just starting out with music? It depends on the student!
Tobi is a timid child. In order to get him to talk to me, I have to repeatedly ask him questions. This is not to say there’s dissonance between us, in fact we’re far from that— we talk before and after lessons. Typically, I’m at his house for more than an hour. When talking about school and his friends, he is lively and excited, contrasting his bored demeanor during lessons. When I drone on about the history of the bass and the intricacies of technique, I can see him lose attention. His gaze averts to the families walking on the sidewalk in front of his house, or his tabby cat who walks around the music stand.
Anatomy of a Double Bass
My student’s worst nightmare
I have tried changing the lessons up before. To make it more fun with him, I gamify the drills we do, and I did not notice an increase in attention. I’ve even tried extreme methods. In this one lesson, he would lay the palm of his left hand against the side of the neck of the bass. This had been a repeating problem, so I had to come up with a solution. It was radical— taping thumb tacks onto the side of his neck so that he would have a clear, violent signal of when he was making a mistake. That next lesson was certainly interesting, and to my surprise, he was receptive! He doesn’t have that technical flaw anymore.
These games I made only go so far, and his progress has plateaued to the point where I’m considering giving him to a different teacher. I do not think that he is truly passionate about learning music; when you are, mundane tasks like scales and drone work feel like eating candy. It should be addictive! I think that his parents are forcing him to pursue music, which is very sad. For such a young kid, though, he probably doesn’t know that he can speak up to his parents about it, so the lessons continue (for now at least).
It’s too easy to think that your student’s lack of progress is just due to their disinterest. I want to believe that I can do something about it, make the lesson more exciting, anything! Sadly, I have tried much and really don’t think it’s my own fault anymore. The fact of the matter is that classical music is dying; more and more people have stopped listening to it and engaging with it. Community orchestras are shutting down, school programs are losing funding, and young people just don’t really care about it. It’s sad, but what can you do? How can Beethoven and Mozart compete with or even be comparable to the likes of Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish? They just cannot. My student would rather be at the playground with his schoolmates than at my lesson, and how can I blame him? Classical music has become so sterilized and mechanical compared to what it used to be.
Le Sacre Du Printemps riots
For example, before the 20th century, audiences used to cheer, gasp, clap, and cry in the middle of performances. Nowadays, if you cough or sneeze, you’ll get angry side-glares from gatekeeping elderly couples. Pieces like Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre Du Printemps” would literally cause riots because they were so groundbreaking for their times. After being put under a microscope and analyzed to death by academics, people don’t really care anymore and no one is performing new music because audiences don’t want to hear it. They want to hear famous pieces like Beethoven’s fifth, the magic flute, and Peer Gynt, not some unfamiliar piece written by an unknown composer. It’s so frustrating, but all of the classical musicians support it because of tradition and a fear to go against the grain. Tangent over.
Seeing education from the other side has taught me much about the student-teacher dynamic. In order to be a successful student, I have to be a self-advocate for myself and constantly consider the most effective way for me to learn. As a teacher, one cannot expect immediate results out of a student. They must be proactive in fixing their student’s flaws and offer them many different options and opportunities to succeed. Progress takes a long time, and trying to rush it will only lead to catastrophe. Even though I have been a failure for Tobi, I am grateful for what he has taught me. I hope I left him with something equally as important.
Ian King, I really liked reading this blog. I love how you start off with humor to attract the reader and I was hooked instantly. When you added in how you taught the standard way of teaching and used past famous bassists, I thought that that really helped strengthen the reader’s knowledge and also your statement about how this was the standard teaching. I especially liked how you realized your mistakes when teaching Tobi and tried to rectify them. Trying to gamify certain lessons helps me especially because it helps me keep my focus. I did laugh too when you talked about how you taped thumbtacks to the side of his neck to stop him from doing his negative habit. I also saw that you were truly passionate about helping the kid and not just for the money when you talked about giving Tobi to another tutor. This brought a new side to you that I don’t really see and I respect you even more for it. Even when you connect your troubles with Tobi to the main idea of how Classical Music is dying, you continue to keep your reader’s attention. I can clearly see your passion for classical music and also the research you have put in. Awesome blog!
As someone who formerly delved in the music industry, I can already tell you have gained a lot more insight on cello playing! For starters, I love the passionate voice you use when describing classical music. I find this part endearing and exciting when hearing your tangent! You make such a great point on the way “classical music has become so sterilized and mechanical” (such a perfect way to describe it!). It reminds me of the etiquette I had to learn in orchestra and choir. There was always a time to clap, and even when you’re clapping, apparently you shouldn’t clap too loud. It was so restricting. The way my piano teacher had me play a certain emotion when I deciphered it as something else was always so frustrating. I felt like there was no expression in classical music and I think it’s a great point you bring up that it needs to be changed. Your persistence in teaching Tobi is something to take note of. At least from what I know, I don’t think you were a failure to him. The way you were able to engage him in his lessons despite his lack of interest is already something that needed a lot of thought and care. Although he may have “plateaued” with your teaching methods, I believe that another teacher (maybe more experienced) can trade off what you have already taught him. I think there’s different types of teachers that manipulate different types of teaching styles and sometimes it just isn’t right for that student. And ultimately, it’s up to the student to retain the information, not just the teacher. It was great reading your blog!
Hi Ian!
I really enjoy how your blog posts read, all of them being extremely engaging and feeling almost conversational. I greatly enjoy the different components of your post, switching between the structure of your lessons, your interactions with the kid you teach, and the current lack of interest in classical music. In general, the way you write about music and teaching makes it clear how passionate you are, causing me to believe that you haven’t failed Tobi, you have most likely influenced his world in ways you can’t see. I tutor kids in different, academic subjects, and it is definitely frustrating to watch kids who have no interest in what they’re learning zone out. I end up feeling like I’m torturing them when I try to explain the answer in entirety instead of just giving it to them, often getting the question, “so what’s the final answer?” When I eventually tell them the answer in defeat, they scribble it down and move onto the next question, without much intent of figuring out the methods I used. I will say, I’ve never tried teaching with thumbtacks before so I’ll definitely have to try that out! Great post!