Shouldn't every music teacher take teaching as seriously as Chopin did? Good music teachers can influence students in numerous ways that go far beyond the learning of music. These include: right and left brain coordination, intellectual improvement through understanding irregular phrasing and advanced musical forms, and most significantly, a music teacher can reveal to a student the value of concentration. Referring again to Chopin, a contemporary of his had suggested in a teaching manual that students should practice technical exercises while reading a book. Chopin scoffed at that notion, because he knew that a student could not learn without being engaged. He also knew that technique could not be separated from tone, style, and phrasing. Therefore, the development of good concentration is of vital importance, and it only comes after extensive and committed discipline; and, of all the learning skills, it is the most valuable. Plato compared a person's mind to a set of wild horses pulling in many directions, with concentration being the act of harnessing those wild horses to all pull in one direction.

And finally, there is the subject of brain hemisphere coordination. The artist drawing a painting is using the right brain to a high degree. The accountant preparing taxes is doing the same with the left brain. Musicians and music students must use both sides of the brain in a difficult coordination. Rhythmic notation is in many ways a left-brain understanding of fractions, while keeping a steady rhythm is exclusively right-brained. Remembering which note comes after another is left-brain sequencing, while expressing the nuance in a phrase calls on the powers of the right brain. This powerful exercise that we call "learning music" is a valuable educational tool for higher thinking.

Student Recordings

• Shona Fitzer is a student at Sterling Elementary School. On our recent difficult theory test, Shona scored a 95. She performs here, two holiday songs:
  • S'vivon (Listen)...........................................Jewish Folk Song (Chanukah)
  • Angels We Have Heard on High (Listen).................French Christmas Carol
• Ben Godfrey is a student at Blythe Academy. He also performs a Christmas carol:
  • Good King Wenceslas (Listen)................................English Carol
• Hannah Henson is a student at Greenville Middle School. She also sings in Greenville's well-known children's chorus, Chicora Voices. Hannah continues in the holiday tradition with:
  • Deck the Hall (Listen)..................................English Carol