Are you on the fence about turning over more musical decisions to your students?
Here’s how I think about it.
I am more knowledgeable and experienced than all of my students. That means I can arrive at the best musical decision much faster than my students. I can make 3 decisions in a minute when it might take 5 minutes to work through those three decisions as an ensemble with student input.
That is an argument for me making decisions, but it’s often overruled by the following:
- My students will get faster at making decisions the more they make them. If I never give them the chance, they won’t get faster or develop better musical instincts.
- An ensemble is about expressing the voice of those in the ensemble. My voice is secondary to the voices of my students.
- Every musical decision a student makes helps to affirm that they have a musical voice worthy of developing and continuing to use. I want all my students to be lifelong music-makers, so I want to affirm them as often as possible.
- I can be a better teacher by facilitating growth, understanding, and leadership from my students than I can by telling them what to do.
Most of all, I wish I had been in an ensemble as a youth that was led by a conductor who empowered young musicians to grow and make decisions. So I’m giving that to my students.