Learning Für Elise: A Letter to David's Parents 

After playing the first section of Fur Elise for at least 2 years with no particular nuance, flow or rhythmic accuracy (but enjoying it greatly nonetheless), David got it into his mind about a week ago to connect the sections better. This idea came out of the blue, entirely from him. The only suggestion I offered at that point was that it might help him to think of topography, striving for rolling hills rather than jagged rocks. That was the session where he also showed me his pet worms.

Yesterday David came in, and after a few minutes of movie recommendations and such, he launched into a delicate, flowing, lovely rendition of Fur Elise that sounded as though year of disciplined practicing had elapsed between the 2 sessions. His smile, when he was done, lit up the room. After I could find my words, I asked him how this happened, and he said he'd practiced it every day at camp on the keyboard that's there. What made him want to do this? Some readiness factor? Who knows.

After he played this several times, being very particular about the flow and connections, I said that it was so beautiful that the only thing Beethoven might question was the very beginning, which David has always played in a mad hurry. I put it the way I did because I wanted the idea to come from Beethoven, rather than from me - I think you'll understand that. It must have been the right time, because it clicked immediately and after a few tries he was able to add the slowed down, correct beginning to the rest -VERY hard to do after all this time.

Then he started recording himself over and over. Every time I would compliment him, he'd erase the tape and say, "I'm going to do it better - I'm being really picky!" which was the truth. At one point he decided he didn't like the sounds of 3 consecutive notes mushing together, which led to a discovery of how to use the pedal correctly. I never in a million years would have suggested this extremely difficult and sophisticated upgrade, which is a very advanced feat conceptually and coordination-wise, but again, it came from him and he wanted to do it badly enough that he got it!

David worked on nothing but that passage for an entire hour, and it is a thing of beauty. He was SO excited and proud of himself that he was glowing. At one point I mentioned how backwards this is, that in a traditional lesson the teacher would be correcting and telling the student to keep doing it again. In this case, I kept trying to get him to take a break, but he insisted on doing it over and over. He got the comparison.

I'm still wondering whether the impulse for what he did came from readiness for a challenge or whether it came from some aesthetic finally kicking in. Either way, David was the poster child for Music House - what can happen from the inside out when things come from the student rather than from the teacher.