We want to develop not just as musicians, but as people
We want to develop not just as musicians, but as people
Jeni Warder on the power of teaching creativity to change lives
Over the summer I had the pleasure of interviewing piano teacher Jeni Warder of the Keys Piano School. An inspiring pedagogue and entrepreneur, Jeni has all sorts of interesting thoughts to share about teaching, collaboration, and ultimately, what it means to be human.
Over the next weeks I’m going to be sharing several clips from that interview, and I’m kicking off with one of my favourites.
A foundational part of Jeni’s teaching concept is that community is essential for growth, and she’s set up her school structure to facilitate that, but crucially, within that community, she wants each of her students to learn to be themselves.
I’ve experienced first hand the power of sharing your own creations, and it really is life-changing. I love that Jeni has put so much work into encouraging her students to do it at the Keys Piano School.
In the next video in the series Jeni explains why creativity is important for helping students to become the best musicians they can be, and later there’s a video in which she explains the community concept of her school in more detail.
I’ll share it very soon — watch this space!
Transcription
Jeni
Because I think what we want to do is develop not just as musicians, but as people, and you can never be—we say this to children all the time—you're never going to be a copy of somebody else. "You've got to be a first rate Gershwin, not a second rate Ravel," as Ravel once told Gershwin.
And that what I believe as a musician, is that music is essentially about communication. And that's really where that community has come from, because it's like if a tree falls in a forest and no one's around to hear it, does it actually make a noise? Is the music really happening if you're not really sharing it with other people? So, in that sense if you are communicating all the time and you need to have a story to tell, and you don't want to be a carbon copy of the person next to you because that's not you know, it's not relevant, really, you've got to be, relevant to your own life and your own experience.
And if that means that the kind of music you choose to play is different from the person next to you, then that's fine. And if it means that the way you interpret it is different, then that's even better. And then if you want to create your own, complete your own music then I think that that's the best you can get.
