Here is the book (in ebook format downloadable everywhere in the world from Shar Music) I have written on the art of teaching. The title is a play on words of the phrase by Robert Heinlein, “When one teaches, two learn.” To me, it can also mean that one teaches in order to learn. In fact, everything in the text of the book is what I have learned from my students and their families. I owe them a great debt.

Over twenty years ago, a father of one of my students observed me teaching, told me he liked how I taught and that I should write a method book. Given that this father is a well-known film score composer, I was taken aback but, given his stature, I gave his idea some thought. He also suggested that I interview famous musicians to back me up. So I obediently started getting some interviews, began writing and, to my utter surprise, found out that I had a lot to say on the subject: the book is 260 pages of text and 200 pages of interviews—and that’s after editing (slashing and burning)!

All the interviews, except for the last two (Covid), were done in person. Skype wasn’t invented when I started, and in any case I like being face to face with my subjects. They were/are all fascinating and seemed pleased that I asked questions that no one had asked them before: their personal experiences as beginners, what their teachers were like, and lots of other very interesting topics that came up naturally as we spoke. Charles Avsharian, an accomplished violinist and CEO of Shar Music, told me he likes my journalistic style. I didn’t know I had one; my “style” is to try to ask an intelligent question, then shut up and let the interviewees talk. They told me some amazing things, and I think some of these eminent musicians—as well as I—were surprised where our conversations took us.

The central thesis of the book is that teaching is a spiritual activity, something not often discussed. In fact, I know of no moral, ethical or philosophical preparation of teachers, especially music teachers. Didactics is the study of methods, how children react to them and how children learn. How teachers teach and even what teaching really is, is quite another matter. I have attempted to broach these latter subjects.

The problem is that, unlike many other professions, musicians study to become musicians, invest a lot of time and money in it and then find out they are probably going to have to do something completely different: teach. As many quickly find out, knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach it are not the same thing. I don’t know the percentage, but I would guess that something like well over 90% of all classical musicians, even highly successful ones, wind up teaching at some point in their careers. Some make a career of teaching itself. For some it’s a calling, for others it’s something they do to make extra money in addition to their professional jobs, for still others it’s what they have to do to make enough money so they can play. Some already know they want to teach while others don’t want to but have to. I firmly believe that any of the above—indeed every one of them—can be a competent teacher, if not a great one, and at the very least do no harm. This book shows how, backed up with interviews recounting a few of teaching’s greatest and worst moments, if you read them carefully.

We all must realize that teaching is important and very powerful. We music teachers, accidental or intentional, must also recognize the power we have and be very careful how we use it. I think most of us can think back on some bad teaching we have had or have observed at some point in our student careers and remember the deleterious effect it may have provoked. We also need to be aware that we tend to teach how we were taught, whether badly or well, so this book may provoke a change of attitude. In any case, it’s always a good thing to hear other points of view on any subject, no matter how set in our ways (and perhaps rightly so) we may be.

In the book are lots of practical pieces of advice, learned from decades of experience: the sort of things “if I had know then what I know now,” which I hope will be of help to teachers as well as students and parents (including how to pick a teacher for your child or even yourself) to whom there are also devoted two chapters, although there’s a lot for them in other chapters as well. The idea is to save time for younger teachers (and parents and students) instead of taking a whole lifetime to learn many of the things in this book, as I had to. Experience can be had in two ways: personal and direct, or by learning from the experience of others: a shortcut. I hope you all enjoy reading about the experiences that formed my “philosophy” and teaching and those of the various and fascinating interviewees.

Eloise Hellyer