This week

I have been feeling somewhat restless these days as the end of the year is approaching. Soon after I came back from Japan, I resumed teaching at the Conservatoire. Since all of my students improved during the three weeks I was away, I felt redundant as a teacher. Their improvement showed that I was not indispensable to them. However, there is more to teaching than meets the eye. 　

There were times when my students would not improve one bit even if I spent hours with them for five consecutive weeks. I would feel inadequate wondering if my teaching skills were not satisfactory. But one day things would come together, especially for my male students, and they can play and express everything I taught them. This was when I realized that there are individual differences in the pace and the manner that each student had in acquiring musical skills. There are also time differences after teaching sessions which is similar to jet lag.

The question is how long does it take for the students to absorb and master the skills? This is highly an individual issue but one thing that is clear to me is that nothing will happen unless the students are trained. My teaching method consists of being persistent and interrupting them over and over again as much as possible.

The next question is how do I communicate with students? I must admit I learnt a great deal from my experiences as a mother when I brought up my two children - from the times I was pregnant until they were two to three years old. Since they could not talk but just babbled, I had to listen carefully, respond, and explain to them in their words.

I took them everywhere with me because I wanted to be with them all the time. My children traveled across the continents in airplanes since they were 3 months old. To make them feel at home, I would spend eight hours holding one of them in my arms and walk around in the plane. My fellow passengers were sympathetic. My husband and sister used to be of great help. Prior to motherhood, I used to pack only for myself but now my priorities were my children and the first thing that would come to mind when I travel would be of packing baby food, clothes, toys, and other necessary items. Dresses and running shoes always were put together. I spent six years traveling with my daughter until she entered elementary school and another two years with my son.

I would play with them in sandboxes digging tunnels, screaming to myself how much I wanted to practice the violin instead of spending my time with my children. In the hot and humid Japanese summers, I would ride my bicycle sweating all over with my two irritated and jet lagged children sitting in the front and back of the bicycle. The breeze would blow on their faces, cooling them down and making them feel happy again.

My sleeveless summer dresses would leave a suntan on my arms making me look like a blue-collar laborer. Because of the nature of my profession, the time I spent at one place was so short that at times I would take my children to kindergarten as if I were a seasonal worker. To make a long story short, during my days of parenting, I focused on my childrenﾕs needs that when I teach my students, I am constantly making an effort to be aware of where my students are coming from and what their needs are.

Teaching is like parenting and being a mentor. It is a search of what and how my students should perform. These are the times when I need to concentrate and to be intuitive.

Of course there is the technical side of music - to teach the fundamental aspects of music, the style of each composer, the best performing methods, how to interpret the scores and how to turn them into music. This all encompasses musical techniques. But when you need to teach these techniques to a student, concentration is the key element. It is inevitable that each student is unique and I need to apply different teaching methods to each student, which, at times, can be exhausting. My students can empty all my energy. What begins as a fun teaching session can, by the end of the day, be a jaded, worn out, and drained day for me.

After twenty years, I can now appreciate and can express sincere respect to Toshiya Eto and all my other teachers for their unending patience. There are times when the chemistry between my students and I do not intermingle. Three weeks away from my students may do some good, but not always. This all depends on human behavior. When I was student, my teacher Toshiya Eto once said to me "I can only teach one person at one time"

A Master class may have a laudatory ring to it but mutual progress can only be achieved by having a heart-to-heart talk and being candid with your counterpart. These are the times when a one-on-one session is more productive. Although I started teaching relatively recently, I am grateful for having the experience of committing myself to my children in their early years before I started teaching.

It may sound as if I have graduated from motherhood. My children are healthier than before but I must admit they miss their mother and at times feel lonely. My daughter just started junior high school and my son is in 5th grade elementary school.I had to leave home for a concert tour just after she entered her new school which surprised her classmates as they wondered how she could handle things alone.

It is often said that problems are small when one is young, and problems become bigger as one matures. I am concerned about their future such as their university entrance examinations and wonder whether they will be able to have enough time to study. Of course many social issues will arise but many are uncontrollable and I can imagine that they will be difficult to solve. These issues to me are not as serious as those I experienced when my children were babies. I realized then how important it was use my intuition to find out my childrenﾕs needs and comparing those years when we traveled across the continents wondering if they could survive the trip or not, I am confident that any problems that arise in the future will not be as crucial.

At home, there is housework and their continuous calls of "Mommy" regardless of my concert schedule. I would practice in the morning when they were asleep with a mute attached to the violin. When my son would wake up, I would put him on my lap and would continue to practice. Then I would find myself immovable because he would fall asleep on my lap. There was a time when my husband could not move for 10 hours in the airplane because one of our children slept on his tummy as if it was a mattress. There were many times when the children slept well and would wake up in a good mood, while we would be pushing the baby carriage totally exhausted. I am sure that every one of you have had similar experiences.

My children, however, were always quiet when I practiced at home - even when I was pregnant. I still practice in the living room so that I can spend precious times with them. When I start practicing, children wear headphones and start watching TV or do their homework. It is such a luxury for me to be able to be with them.

Yesterday my children came to my concert in Paris. That was a pre-Christmas concert at Salle Gaveau, a hall where many virtuoso musicians held concerts. My children took half a day off school because I wanted them to be there. Nowadays they are not interested in my concerts and hardly listen to them during the music season.
Many friends and guests came from far and beyond. I was particularly moved by Martha Argerich who rushed from Brussels. The performance with Jean-Marc Luisada was thrilling. Music is truly a living creature.

Today, the morning after the concert, my children and I climbed to the top of Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Children were quick and brisk while I could barely manage to follow. While feeling please at how much they have grown, I reach the top of the cathedral and was amazed at the view of Paris. Montmartre had wide spread out fields with a little peak. My daughter, Michiko, found this scenery to be the starting point of Paris and thought it would most probably stay like this forever as it felt so nostalgic. I was overwhelmed by the human behavior and force of art expressed in sculptures. I wondered who and how they carved these marvelous figures. With the ring of the bell, my son shouted out to me and the children rushed down the flight of stairs before their fluttered mother.

Fortunately, this year was a good year.
After starting off writing about my students, I ended up bragging about my children. I must say I do adore them!