In my studio there is a special standard: "Better than perfect."* What makes some playing rate that description is a quality of devotion not usually associated with children, except for those with special prodigious gifts. I find that, if given the benefit of the doubt, most children respond to the magic of vibrations with precisely that kind of attentive care. They treat sound as a living thing, respectfully and with all their wit and wits about them.

It's really a shame that a teacher's insistence on perfection can so readily cloud the vision of so many kids.

*See post of June 3, 2009