Dave Wirth
It's not often that we hear about a guitarist who developed their musicality and technical ability in complete solitary confinement. It is really difficult for someone to do this. This means that they heard a song and learned to play it all on their own, without internet lessons (let alone private lessons), tabs, outside influence, or anything else. It's also my opinion that few are able to learn guitar or music without thinking about performance from day one. We play for ourselves, our friends, teachers, colleagues, and even people we get drunk with (if you drink and play guitar). Performing makes people nervous, too. You can't just ask the audience to not look at you! It's part of the deal. You play, the audience watches.
A microcosm of this is the guitar lesson. You play, your teacher watches. It's obvious that the teacher can overtly distort and harm a student's ability to handle an audience, even if the audience is just one person. This can be the case much of the time with classical music education. I have to restrain myself when talking about how classical music teachers approach pedagogy; I can rant for hours. My view is that classical music has been taught primarily by human beings who are trying too hard to perform like perfect musical robots. I feel that many ignore the humanity of their student's playing so that they can "measure up" to "all the others." Imagine learning under this oppressive atmosphere! It's not fun! I did it learning viola, and I despised my teacher for it!*
For this reason (among others), it takes time for brand new students to trust teachers, especially music teachers. The idea that the teacher is sort of the emissary for the audience makes the student probably extra nervous. So how do we, as teachers, have more compassion for the people we are helping? In my own teaching work, I have erred on the side of giving my complete attention and kind eyes to each student who I'm working with. I give my attention to them with my eyes primarily. Until recently, I never thought that this might not be good for everyone. It may not build trust or technique as fast as I would want it to. It might make some people more nervous.
I am going to experiment with not looking (staring?) at students as they play for the next couple of weeks, and see if there are any results. I have a feeling that there are certain people who will thrive with this situation, and there are others who would prefer the eye contact. We'll see.
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*If you study classical music with someone who is human and is a great person, then make a point to keep your relationship with that person very strong. I feel strongly that Nick Goluses at the Eastman School of Music is one of the few teachers out there that actively cares about his students, and helps them develop both their humanity as well as their musicianship.
