Your student comes into the lesson, and while he's unpacking his instrument he beams: "I practiced so much this week" "wonderful - let's hear!"

He plays his piece and stumbles, starting over a couple of times. Somehow, it doesn't seem to work. Until he finally gives up, saying "oh but I really cou...

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What do we ever learn during our musical studies? Case study with a double bass player.

Some years ago, while I was still in Resonance teacher's training, I once gave a double bass lesson. The musician was a student just before finishing his degree, and he was interested in trying out Resonance Training. His name was Alexander.

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"We believe he's very musical", his mum tells me on the phone. "He's always been drawn to music. We're looking for a kind teacher, so he can enjoy the piano, not become a professional."

She tells me about her 9-year-old son Tim and his previous experiences at the piano, which include about two years of lessons with a teacher whom she describes as "strict". Tim ended up crying at every lesson. After some time, he stopped going to piano, about one and a half years ago.

I make the math in my head. That must mean he started playing when he was 5 or 6 years old.

We arrange a trial lesson, and a few days later there they are, on my doorstep.

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When I was studying the piano, I remember us students telling each other to "be careful, because if you ever get injured, you might play again, but it'll never be the same". Almost everyone knew that injuries happened, but no one really knew what to do about them.

I saw many of my colleagues suffe...

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But.

We're human, and life happens.

Suddenly, your dog ate your music, or the contact lens sits askew, or you couldn't sleep more than three hours the night before the concert because you had a bad cough (and we know how difficult it is to fall asleep when you're coughing like a dog with a hairball).

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"No! I won’t do it!" she said, and then, she struck her hand on the keyboard.

I felt uncomfortable, didn’t know what to say.

We were rehearsing Brahms’ Haydn Variations for two pianos.

I had asked her to play a passage in a certain way.

Four years before, she’d been my piano teacher for a year. Let’s call her Susan.

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Recently, I went to Berliner Philharmonie to listen to Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra on their European tournee.

The players were very young, displaying the energy and fervour characteristic to extraordinary youth orchestras. Their guest, Natalia Gutman with the Dvořák...

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