Bridging the Generation Gap
by Mike Brennan
I teach guitar. As my students have come and gone, I have sometimes questioned my role as a teacher. "What impact, if any, have I made on their lives?" "Can I truly justify my position as a teacher?" Although I fully recognize and understand the importance of musical training, there have been a few moments when I felt doubt about what I do. However, such doubt is eclipsed when there is tangible evidence that a student's life has been enhanced by their musical studies.
I recently had the great pleasure of watching not one, but two, of my students achieve something profound. Lawrence Bain is a man in his early seventies who took up the classical guitar in his retirement years. Not an insignificant undertaking! He is a wonderful student. He practices every day and is prepared each week. Some time ago I gave him a hymn arrangement I made. It was not difficult for him to play, but it was rather short. Hymns are often strophic, multiple lines of text with one melody. I suggested that Lawrence add to the arrangement. He came back the next week with additions. Following my oh-so-short arrangement, he modulated to a different key and added two variations with the theme rewritten in the new key.
Arranging then became a regular component of our lessons, and Lawrence seems to have a natural talent for it.
Janie Merker is a thirteen-year-old girl who is also studying classical guitar. Last winter she made the transition from pick-style guitar to a finger-style, because she wanted to work on the song "Blackbird" by The Beatles. This song can only be played finger-style, so that is what influenced her to make the transition to study classical guitar. Janie is also a fine student.
Lawrence and Janie attend the same church, and a few months ago Lawrence informed me that Janie had asked him to be her mentor during her confirmation process. The conservatory where I teach them is a ministry of a church in suburban Chicago. Lawrence decided to make a duet arrangement of a confirmation hymn as a part of his mentoring role. He finished the arrangement, gave a copy to Janie, and I worked with them individually. She was still pretty new to this style of playing, but true to form, she was able to learn it. As Confirmation Sunday fast approached, Lawrence began attending Janie's lessons, allowing me to coach them together. That Sunday in mid-May was a success for both Janie and Lawrence. But it was also a glimpse into the kind of effect that music and music lessons can have on peoples' lives. I asked Lawrence what his thoughts on the experience were.
He replied, "Aging is a process of deterioration; things breaking down over time. If you are a 'senior citizen' and have tried to keep up the skills on a musical instrument you learned as a child or as a teenager, you've probably found that you're not able to play as well as you once did. The temptation is there to put the ol' horn back in its case and store it in the attic. Or just give it away to a grandchild."
That's true, but as Lawrence and so many others have discovered, the sadness brought on by such a conclusion can be countered by taking the time to learn a new instrument, especially one that is more compatible with your current physical abilities. It is even possible to find an instrument that is beneficial in slowing some of the physical deterioration brought on by aging.
Imagine a trumpet player who is no longer able to hit those high E's deciding to take up the recorder. Recorders do not require the "lip" of a trumpeter, yet they are equally challenging from a musical point of view, particularly when one takes on the full range of the instrument and has to learn how to read and play in different clef notations.
Classical guitars are also therapeutic. A common problem that occurs as we age is arthritis, particularly in the joints of the fingers. This condition is not reversible, and the accompanying pain is often treated with over-the-counter or prescription medication. Arthritic joints in the fingers do, however, respond to exercise. The rate of deterioration can be slowed, and pain can be relieved without the use of medication. The work done by the fingers of both hands when playing the classical guitar for an hour can be compared to a session in the gym for other parts of the body.
Over and above such physical benefits, taking on a new musical instrument is in line with the advice often given to people in their later years-that they need to do things that require them to think constructively. Reading, crossword puzzles and SUDOKU are usually on the list, but learning to play a musical instrument should be as well. The maturity present in an elder student leads to a conviction to work on difficult pieces and master them, and great pleasure comes from a realization that they have the ability to write or arrange their own music. The result of doing this is a repertoire of pieces that are matched to an individual's tastes and current skill level, that are the product of a lifetime of musical experience, and that have challenged the learner to think about and make choices that were made by others in the student's first exposure to a musical instrument earlier in life. Guitar music has a particularly useful quality to it in this regard. When writing or arranging for the guitar one has to decide not only what notes should be played but where to play them on the finger board, and with which fingers, on both hands. Add to this the task of committing it all to memory-talk about the need for constructive thinking!
Finally, learning to play an instrument late in life affects what some would call the spirit, that aspect of our lives which cannot be adequately described in strict intellectual or physical terms.
Many find that there is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained by sharing what they have learned in life with those who are much younger. An opportunity for doing this is often found in the act of mentoring or tutoring. For example, a child having a difficult time catching onto the nuances of math can be helped when given the attention of a retired engineer or scientist who has spent his or her career applying mathematical principles to real-world problems. In this new environment, the retiree frequently finds that his or her own life is enriched when the younger person’s grasp of the concepts solidifies and grades improve.
There is a less common relationship that can be equally rewarding for two such people. This is when both are on the same plane in the learning cycle; for example, when both are learning to play a musical instrument. While the elder student may be more disciplined in relation to practicing and may be able to pose more insightful questions to the teacher, the younger student will quickly catch onto the fact that he or she can play just as well as "that gray-haired guy," maybe even better. Coupling this situation with the intellectual outlet provided by composing or arranging provides a means for the elder student to create a unique intergenerational experience: the performance of a specially written duet. Such a performance elevates the role of the younger student to something above that which would be experienced in a pro-forma recital, and it provides the elder student with a performance role that does not end up with he or she being unfavorably compared to mature performers on the same instrument who have been playing for decades. In one sense, the message implied in this context is not, "Hear how well I play this instrument; you cannot do as well," but rather, "See what joy can be given to others; everyone of us can give such a gift."
Hearing this, I experienced a kind of role reversal. The teacher can learn from the students. Remembering this provides me with a new, unique framework within which I can come up with answers when questions about my worth as a teacher inevitably creep into my mind.
