Not for YouTube

Why don't I post a YouTube video of my students playing?  Interesting question.

It is impossible to video-tape what happens in a room when people are totally listening.  My students totally listen to one another; they totally listen to themselves; they command attention.   They grow in devotion to their own and to each other's playing out of knowing that they listen and that they are listened to.

It sounds so simple, yet the word "listen" is not easy to define.  I have had to learn how to do it in order to reach the creative core of the children I teach.  No two of them are alike; therefore I must learn to hear them as the individuals they are.

I recall asking an esteemed colleague when I was a young teacher why piano students were not taught to listen.  "It takes too long."