Remembering My Favorite Teacher

My favorite piano teacher’s name was Patti.  I remember being scolded for not cutting my nails, praised for mastering an assignment and feeling nerves race around in my stomach as I was called up to perform in recitals.  I had a number of teachers before and after Patti.  They were good teachers.  Actually, they were more than good teachers, they were fantastic teachers.   

So why was Patti my favorite teacher?  I can think of a number of reasons but I’ll share just the top three:

1. She took my interests into consideration.  This didn’t mean I got to play every song I wanted to or that I didn’t have to complete exercises or assignments I disliked, but I know that my musical tastes were something she thought about when selecting pieces for me or choosing which direction to take me next (do we explore jazz or compositions of the romantic period?).  It is so evident to me now in retrospect that I am amazed at how much time and energy she put into her students.  I know I was not the only one to benefit from her attention to detail!
2. She  held me accountable.  I had more lessons than I would like to admit to that ended in Patti telling me she knew I could do better or that she could tell I hadn’t practiced my assignment the way she instructed me to.  As a kid I was full of clever tricks on how to “get out of” things I disliked such as practicing piano and household chores.  I would set the practice timer for half an hour and go to the piano.  I would adjust the bench, I would take an extra-long amount of time reading over my assignment book.  I would shuffle through my lesson books “trying to find the right page”.  I played Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater more times than I could count (but only when my parents weren’t home!) to “warm up”.  And once I had all my pre-practice preparations taken care of I would play each assignment once, twice, maybe three times before moving on to the next assignment.  I even had weeks where I would do nothing but play old assignments and Heart and Soul instead of my current assignments, which forced me to sightread my assignments at my lessons.  Some weeks I got away with it, but more likely was that I got caught.  Oh, the shame of being caught!  Eventually Patti made me realize that the point of practicing was to get better at playing piano and when I cheated at practicing I was only cheating myself out of progressing to exciting new skills and music that was more interesting and fun to play.
3. She challenged me to improve.  This is close to holding me accountable, but different in that Patti would use new pieces of music like a bribe.  “If you master this concept you can finally play that Rachmaninoff song you’ve been waiting to learn” was a common refrain (well, the name of the composer changed depending on my skill level at the time).  I would like to take a moment to point out that Rachmaninoff had gigantic hands and an extraordinary amount of talent, and for me his compositions are some of the most difficult pieces I have ever worked on.  I have not mastered a single piece of his to my satisfaction and it frustrates me to no end.  Patti’s faith in my abilities and (at times) the sheer will she used to push me to do better and better have molded me for my lifetime.  She is the person I credit with showing me how to focus on fixing rather than focusing on the flaw.