Developing Young Talent

One of the earliest teaching positions I had in my career was as the director of The Juilliard Pre-College Percussion Department from 2003-2007.  During that time I developed some very strong ideas regarding the development of young talent.  I have used some of these ideas as a foundation in my teaching ever since.  Much of what I'm discussing here is focused on very young and talented students from about 5-9 years of age.  However, a lot of the information about language and true inspiration is universal and can be applied to older students as well.

1) The young student must fundamentally perceive music as a language as soon as possible.

Young children have a sponge like ability to learn and absorb things at a rapid pace.  This is especially true for language.  At its core music is fundamentally a language.  One of the most important things a child must do in early music education is begin the process of listening and responding through music. The emphasis should be on communication and new neuro pathways for the language of music must be made as early as possible.  This is because language begets more language.  Once a child knows a few musical ideas, they can then use those ideas to build on and learn more ideas.  Over time, the student's musical tools grow like a snowball rolling down a snowy mountain.

All too often the emphasis is on how many notes a young musician can play.  Rather, the emphasis should be on acquiring listening and communicative skills.  This should be done alongside technical development. While it can be tempting with a young talent to focus solely on the technical and physical aspects of music making this is a mistake.  Learning how to physically play one's instrument is only a part of the process.  The process of learning to play an instrument for a young student is the process of learning to build a bridge from their ears to their hands in order to communicate through their instrument.  This essential process must take place.  When it is prevented and the focus is solely on learning notes, the student is deprived of the fundamental essence of music making. 

2) Music must be fun, inspiring, and engaging at all levels.  A true love of music MUST be nurtured and developed to prevent the young student from the all too common problem of burning out.  

I have encountered many former child prodigies who don't play music as adults.  In many cases, this is because they never developed a true love for music when they were younger.  While they were learning they were pushed and pushed without a single days dedication to the exploration of why music is played and the joy of music making.

A very young student will often excel and show extraordinary promise.  However, this student is only a child and their mind is a wide open blank slate.  If they are led down a path of learning as much music as possible for nothing more than the sake of learning it while their love of music is never developed on an equal track, there can sometimes be negative consequences.  Music may become a painful chore with negative associations.  In the short term some success may be achieved but in time the damage done will become apparent. Years later when the student is older and left to their own devices they often lack inspiration, creativity, and a genuine passion for music making.  The fire burns out and their short lived career becomes a thing of the past.  Nothing more than "something they did" when they were younger.  

Sadly, these students never lacked talent, they lacked inspirational motivation.  The process of developing a deep, joyful, and complex relationship with music must be taught with equal importance alongside technical development.  It is possible and it will encourage more true talent to pursue a life of music making whether casual or professional.  

3) Mindful parental devotion and discipline is important when done in the right way.

In a discussion about developing young talent, it's important to include the parents.  I have a lot of experience working with parents helping their children to reach their goals.  

The job of the parent is to help the very young student develop a routine built around consistent and productive practice habits.  Parents should be a positive motivating force. However, the student must ultimately be motivated to learn on their own.  Parents should be mindful of this.  It is not the job of the parent to force music on the student.  This will most likely backfire even if it produces short term results.  During these formative early years the student absolutely must discover their own personal relationship with music.  A delicate balance must be struck between encouraging a routine and not making that routine into a negative chore.  The appropriate word to describe what is needed is "inspiration."  

I feel it's also important to discuss my views regarding sound lesson participation protocol. Parents may sit in on lessons.  However, the teacher should still be very much in charge. The parent's role in sitting in is simply to help the child retain the information later during practice sessions at home away from the teacher.  The parent is extremely helpful in this way.  The parent may also want to clarify things with the teacher during the lesson to help facilitate this.  This is completely appropriate and sometimes necessary.   However, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a healthy boundary in which the teacher is able to do their job to the best of their ability and the parent plays a supportive role. Anything more than a supportive role can potentially inhibit the learning environment and become counterproductive.

Finally. It is the parents job to communicate with the teacher regarding areas where the student is having unique difficultly in their practice routine.  The parent is an ally for the teacher in this way.

Parents can be extremely helpful to the teacher as long as healthy boundaries in favor of the student developing their own relationship with music are adhered to.