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Inner Ear Reflection

I have been wondering lately if teaching beginning students for the last 17+ years has had a deleterious effect on my sense of intonation. Has anyone else wondered the same thing? No? Hmmm. It must just be me.

During lessons over the last few weeks, I have been pondering whether constant exposure to players whose intonation is still very under-developed (ear and therefore finger placement) has effected my own sense of intonation. I still feel as though I am able to play in tune, but has my level of tolerance been compromised? I suppose in order to be able to teach at all, you have to develop a survival mechanism that keeps you sane as you teach beginners, but at what cost?

Don’t misunderstand — I love teaching, and I love working with folks who are new to the violin. However, if I had my druthers, I would probably rehearse, gig or record every day instead. Unfortunately, that’s not financially sustainable…yet. So, teaching it is.

I find that in order to work on other aspects of a person’s playing, I sometimes have to overlook wrong notes so as not to overwhelm them with corrections. So, I will adjust my own pitch so that we aren’t *so* badly out of tune. But do you sacrifice the muscle memory of your own hand position in an effort to reduce stress on your student (and own ear!)?

I would be interested to know if this has occurred to anyone else. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts.

And if you happen to be one of my students, I am not talking about you or anyone in particular, and everyone has to learn somehow — being out of tune is inevitable…. at least for a little while.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=812428625 Kevin Palm

    I’m not speaking from a teaching perspective, and I don’t have nearly the musical experience that you do, so take this for what it is. I would imagine that, as long as you don’t do it constantly, your muscle memory is strong enough to resist the occasional deviation for your students’ sake. Remember that inner critic? This sounds like some of her work… ;-D

  • Sabra

    Wow, that is an interesting thought. I don’t teach violin like you do, but have noticed my ear is much more lax than it used to be. I have been wondering if it is simply lack of focus, lack of more professional performance, or simply due to age. It hadn’t occurred to me to wonder if it was due to accepting intonation problems within church coral life or something similar. Though I still have to be the one to fix it, the idea that ignoring intonation problems (in an attempt to stay sane) has made me less aware of my own intonation is intriguing.

  • Mike Miller

    Since I had an inner ear infection a year ago, I sometimes hear a slightly different pitch in one ear than the other. It makes it pretty hard to even properly tune an instrument. Fortunatly, there are electronic tuners, and guitars have frets… although, since guitars have six strings, all of different diameters, it is impossible to perfectly intonate a guitar across the whole fretboard. We do the best we can.

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