The Art of Training Teachers

The Art of Training Teachers
An Interview with Frances Larimer by Yeeseon Kwon
Clavier Magazine, February, 2002

The article I chose to report is an interview with Frances Larimer, who was one of the pioneers of piano pedagogy program in the U.S. I was intrigued by the title at first then I learned how one piano teacher’s passion and endeavor for teaching piano affected many areas of piano method last few decades.

When Frances Larimer began to teach piano after graduating from high school in the late 1940s the only help she found was from a few old books and methods, which I could easily relate to my own teaching experience in early 1990s. She put teaching aside for five years until she completed her master’s degree in performance at Northwestern University, where she eventually taught for several decades and created pedagogy programs for piano majors in graduate school.

She says in the interview that she learned about teaching piano primarily by trial and error and thought there should be an easier way for others to learn to teach. Her background was typical of most graduate piano majors in the 1950s in that one can perform, accompany, and play in chamber ensembles - not much difference compare to those years I've studied. She saw piano major students graduate without any skills in teaching and that motivated her to start a program in piano teacher training. She designed a program that emphasized teaching internships as well as coursework that covered how to structure lessons, diagnose playing problems, and evaluate materials and methods. From my point of view, even at this time, many students(including myself) do not realize the varied approaches for teaching students of different ages and performance levels. I also know that it is hard to understand these issues without taking a pedagogy course, teaching experience and going to music conferences and workshops. Until she helped Northwestern to launch its master’s program in pedagogy in 1972, and doctoral program in 1977, she endeavored to make the rest of the music faculty believe the importance of how organized and structuralized teaching method can affect students’ (future teachers’) learning. She believed that there are three major components that would work the pedagogy program succeed, and as result, she was able to execute the plan by practicing the following: study of the art of teaching, which includes among other learning to evaluate methods and teaching materials, developing diagnostic skills, and understanding teaching approaches; observing masters teachers at all levels of instruction; and taking part in supervised intern teaching. There are things that I liked about her approach of teaching: teaching should be comprehensive and include basic fundamentals for learning music at a pace that allows students to more than just play pieces. Theoretical information, some kind of creative work, and sightreading are also important. In addition, I also believe that supplementary materials should be interesting, with some educational value to prepare students for the masterworks.

Learning music is a hard work, yet it is quite enjoyable when it touches and moves one’s heart and soul. Teaching music is also a hard work. It requires one’s outstanding performance ability and experiecne, yet it truly shines when a teacher makes its learning process more inviting and exciting.