An opportunity to be more responsible for your own learning

[04/17, 13:05] This lockdown situation is an opportunity for you to take more responsibility for your own learning. At my first lesson with Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard she said, "my job is not to teach you to play the violin; my job is to teach you to teach yourself to play the violin." Each of us is in effect our own teacher when we are practicing. We normally spend about an hour per week with our teacher, and then go on to spend many hours with ourselves in the practice room. Those hours should be a continuation of the kind of work done at formal lessons. We should take an objective view of ourselves and "teach" while we practice exactly like we would teach a pupil whose very best interest we have at heart. Listen objectively, set goals, identify problems, search for solutions, make use of external resources if needed, and give lots of positive encouragement. Always with our ultimate goal in mind, which is to convey something of beauty to other people when we make music.