I am on the introduction :) Literally I just started reading it. That being said, I already want to share some of it with you. Hopefully to inspire you to read it as well.
It's All About the Music
My own experience has taught me that it is only this passion for music that can motivate us to persist in the hard and often discouraging work of mastering an instrument. Though years of teaching students at every level, I've observed that the most important principle for any musician is to keep your eyes on the goal—the ability to play music as close to your ideal performance as possible.
Love, of course, can't be taught. But a method that works and is not destructive or too discouraging (or too boring) should be one that engages our love of music and focuses on the works created by the greatest minds in music history, the music of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Beethoven, Schumann, Haydn, and Handel for starters. I believe that it should be a method that insists on the vital connection between the sometimes tedious work of learning to control this seemingly obstinate instrument and the glorious experience of expressing music.
Still, Ray. Playing the Oboe. http://raystill.com/book/intro.html, accessed March 12, 2015.
I really enjoy how his approach is to inspire musicians through the love of music, not beat them over the head with tedious traditions, but try to incorporate the need of those traditions with what we love about music and making music. Nothing worth having comes easy, it will always be hard work. But as a teacher try to show the love part early on. Show the students the part of making music that gets your blood to stir and inspires you to continue to improve.
Again I just started to read this. so we will see where it takes us!
