Here's an interesting article of "The Strad" about Dorothy DeLay, one of the greatest violin teacher in history. She has taught so many influential classical violinists of today, including Itzhak Perlman, Sarah Chang, Midori, Nigel Kennedy, Schlomo Mintz, and many more..
1. What's the secret to my teaching? I've spent many hours doing it every day.
2. Those who play well have two important qualities: self-confidence; and a sense that what they believe is equally important to others. Children are born with these qualities, but as time goes by they are lost. A teacher must strengthen them.
3. One should never say to a pupil, 'that's wrong'. Instead one should say, 'that's fine', and then find easy steps towards the discovery and correction of the fault. Pupils can develop areas of 'withdrawal' and fear, so the teacher must work on these gently and with tact.
4. The audience arouses 'dragons' if passages haven't been practised properly.
5. Forget past criticisms. Don't become your own worst enemy.
6. Everyone has talent, but there are different types of it ― verbal, mathematical, musical, spatial, physical, social and moral.
7. Performers must understand the value of what they do ― it is their responsibility to create something beautiful so that others may love it.
8. Sometimes fingers won't do what's required of them ― insecure shifting for example. The problem is that shifts are either too fast or too 'squeezed'. It helps to think of shifts as a train journey from A to B: before arriving at B, one gathers together one's things, gets up and disembarks, but without haste.
9. Only since Kreisler has continuous vibrato come into general use. Today the accepted view is that vibrato should support the line or phrase, so that at the end of the phrase, the vibrato relaxes.
10. Tension limits all aspects of violin playing. Some violinists, such as Itzhak Perlman, look awful, but still sound great because they have a large vocabulary of stroke types.
11. We have to remember parents' hopes for their children. Every teacher knows that parents can, and do, make terrible mistakes. One has to remind them that their children need to relax and have interests other than violin playing in order to develop.
11 views on teaching by Juilliard School violin professor Dorothy DeLay
Here's the 11 views of Dorothy DeLay from the article:1. What's the secret to my teaching? I've spent many hours doing it every day.
2. Those who play well have two important qualities: self-confidence; and a sense that what they believe is equally important to others. Children are born with these qualities, but as time goes by they are lost. A teacher must strengthen them.
3. One should never say to a pupil, 'that's wrong'. Instead one should say, 'that's fine', and then find easy steps towards the discovery and correction of the fault. Pupils can develop areas of 'withdrawal' and fear, so the teacher must work on these gently and with tact.
4. The audience arouses 'dragons' if passages haven't been practised properly.
5. Forget past criticisms. Don't become your own worst enemy.
6. Everyone has talent, but there are different types of it ― verbal, mathematical, musical, spatial, physical, social and moral.
7. Performers must understand the value of what they do ― it is their responsibility to create something beautiful so that others may love it.
8. Sometimes fingers won't do what's required of them ― insecure shifting for example. The problem is that shifts are either too fast or too 'squeezed'. It helps to think of shifts as a train journey from A to B: before arriving at B, one gathers together one's things, gets up and disembarks, but without haste.
9. Only since Kreisler has continuous vibrato come into general use. Today the accepted view is that vibrato should support the line or phrase, so that at the end of the phrase, the vibrato relaxes.
10. Tension limits all aspects of violin playing. Some violinists, such as Itzhak Perlman, look awful, but still sound great because they have a large vocabulary of stroke types.
11. We have to remember parents' hopes for their children. Every teacher knows that parents can, and do, make terrible mistakes. One has to remind them that their children need to relax and have interests other than violin playing in order to develop.
