My Filipino Martial Arts teacher, Guro Ervin Quintin, used me as a very flattering example in a post on his new personal blog. I’ve hesitated to respond directly to his post, mostly because I am blushing (in a very manly, rugged, masculine way), but also because my response could be a blog post in itself.
Guro Ervin put forth the idea (one even he admits is a little crazy) that high school students should be required to obtain a black belt to graduate high school. The reason being was not that he feels that the pursuit of martial arts is a necessity for self-defense purposes, or that he feels the physical demands are conducive to good heath. This proclamation was strictly made in the regard to the character-building affects of martial arts. The ensuing response (from me and others) was that the popular notion of a “black belt” is that it is something unobtainable and out of the reach of most “normal” people. I shared this opinion as recently as six months ago, before I started training with Guro Ervin and realized how alike the disciplines of martial and musical arts can be. Guro Ervin combating the notion that a black belt is something out of reach for most people is an identical challenge to the way many music students believe that they cannot learn to play a musical instrument. One of my favorite recurring experiences as a music teacher is seeing young students in the awkward phases of adolescence, feeling the futility of trying to control everything that we are so unable to control at that age, and, in spite of themselves, managing to learn a favorite song and face the possibility that if they can succeed without really trying, what can they succeed at if they really go for it? This is the type of character building the arts (musical, martial, visual and so forth) provide and that is something public school systems cannot seem to understand when they cut these programs, because these skills are not testable or quantifiable with a number that can be compared with a national average, they are deemed unimportant when budget season rolls around.
It’s funny that I have so much to say on this subject because I never wanted to be a teacher. I don’t come across to people outside of my musical circle of friends (like, say, at my day job) as someone with the patience to be a teacher– let alone a halfway decent one. In college, when someone asked me if I was ever going to teach music, I swatted the notion to the ground as fast as I could. My first teaching “gig” was a favor to my roommate whose bass player had a private lesson gig at a small music school and since the band was going on tour, he needed someone to sub for his lessons. I was reluctant, and nervous and had no idea how it would turn out, but I remember getting that first taste of seeing “the light bulb” go off in a student’s eyes and I was hooked. I was intoxicated by the idea that I could convince someone who believed they were only capable of one level of performance that they could rise to a higher level.
I do not hold the elitist view many of my colleagues have that musicians are just born with natural talent and those who are not “born with it” are incapable of learning. I think music is a human experience. Every culture has art, has writing, has music. It’s a natural phenomenon to be a musician and there is no reason to believe you are somehow not qualified for the task. Of course, some individuals have certain aptitudes for solving different kinds of problems and sometimes these aptitudes are simply born from interest. Obviously, someone who wants to learn more is going to progress faster than someone who is uninterested. This logic causes me to question a lot of so-called traditional music teaching which, from generation to miserable generation, continues to pound the same boring exercises and corny songs into their poor students’ heads. “I had to learn this way, so you have to learn it,” is always the mantra. There’s absolutely no sense in this statement. All this statement says is that you had slightly more willpower and interest in the subject matter to endure your instructor’s abuse than the student you are currently teaching has to endure your abuse. On the flip side of this, enduring that and stick through til the end is a good developer of character in of itself, but I don’t think this method would have a high success rate with a casually interested music student.
So, granted, a connection with a teacher which is founded mutual interest, trust and respect goes a long, long way. As a student I’ve always felt I’ve learned the most from the teachers with which I was able to really connect with. Nevertheless, as a teacher, I can’t allow myself to take the credit for my students’ success. They do the hard part: the actual work. I provide a path and direction and encouragement. When I studied with Anthony Vitti, he told me that his job was to “exploit weaknesses.” He did exactly that, and I became aware of what I needed to improve in. He didn’t make me learn, he couldn’t have done that if he wanted to. You cannot make someone learn… not with very much success, anyway. Anthony made me want to learn and every lesson with him felt like I was a low-ranking boxer getting a dream shot at the world championship. I would inevitably lose every match, but I always liked to see how many rounds I could go.
I had a very enlightening conversation with Guro Ervin’s eleven-year-old son yesterday and he pointed out to me how when it’s your birthday you never act a year older until the next day. I think this is how most people live. This one sentence simplified to me what it is that I find so rewarding about these two disciplines. In music it’s harder to see, but I assure you it is there. Any Jazz musician who’s tried to tackle Coltrane’s Giant Steps or spent some time with Charlie Parker’s solos knows that it isn’t easy to ever feel “done” with these pieces of work. In martial arts, the focus is to earn the next rank. Not to aspire to the rank you currently have. This is true for all artists, in my opinion. I know a good deal of visual artists and photographers, and they are just as insatiable as any musician or martial artist I know. Time and real life may get the better of us all, and these progressions may take longer than we want, but for artists there is always that feeling that the next level is the goal.
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