Perspectives in Pedagogy
Kathleen Murray, Editor
I first posed this question back in the summer of 2002, and Bruce Berr and Marcia Bosits shared wonderful stories about their most influential teachers. Martha Hilley and Sam Holland agreed to do the same for this column and I hope you will find their contributions as inspiring and moving as I did when I first read them
from Martha F. Hilley's article
My "gran," my Mother, Lynn Freeman Olson, and my students
The early years
There are so many advantages to being from a really small town - from a very early age you develop a deep trust in people, you rarely meet a stranger, everyone knows who you are (and that could also be a disadvantage!), everyone supports you and what you aspire to. And that is how it was in the small south plains town of Spur, Texas. My grandparents were known and loved by all - he was Superintendent of the Experiment Station sponsored by the Texas A&M Extension Service. She was the lovely "Lillian," or "Sis," "Mrs. Dickson," or the adored "Gran." Her talents with flowers, with the piano, with her beautiful voice were known far and wide.
My mother and her brother grew up in this nurturing environment, supported at all times by their parents and their little hometown. Mother was the musician of the two and my uncle was an extremely talented artist and writer. Mother has told me that when she sat down to practice, it was not unusual for someone of the family to come in to listen - not to make sure she was doing what she should be doing but to show support of her work. In this tiny town of Spur, Mother was able to receive wonderful training as a pianist. Perhaps her most important formal instruction came from Maude McNeill. Mrs. McNeill was a student of David Guion's. What a treasure she was, and there she was in our little town ready to share her talent and knowledge with anyone smart enough to take advantage. Mother spent four years of wonder and awakening as well as four years of really hard work with the demanding Mrs. McNeill. And the hard work paid off - Mother was accepted at Texas Christian University. . .
Martha Hilley is coordinator of group piano and pedagogy at the University of Texas at Austin. She has served administratively as Division Head of Keyboard, Associate Director of the School of Music and Director of Undergraduate Studies. Professor Hilley's articles have been published in Clavier, Piano Quarterly, and Keyboard Companion. She is co-author of the following college piano texts: Piano for the Developing Musician and Piano for Pleasure.
from Samuel S. Holland's article
For me, there are two "most influential" teachers - Frances Clark and John Perry
It is a privilege to be able to reminisce about the two people who influenced my teaching more than any others - Frances Clark and John Perry. The example of each of these great teachers is so powerful that the best way I can describe their influence is to recount some vignettes. Frances helped mold a philosophy and John helped me develop craftsmanship. That's why I find it impossible to discuss one without the other.
Frances Clark
Most of us in the field of keyboard pedagogy count Frances Clark as the original--one of the inventors of modern American piano pedagogy--one that is increasingly a model for the rest of the world. There is no current method series, piano pedagogy course, or independent teacher in this country that has not somehow been touched by her thinking.
By the 1960s, word of Frances' success spread far and wide
and that's where she first touched my life. My first teacher was
Ralph Hays, one of the earliest graduates of the New School for
Music Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Mr. Hays was hired by a
small Baptist college in West Texas where a visionary dean sought
a Clark trainee to start a preparatory department. I was in his
first class there and our beginning book was Time to Begin-the
1960 edition. Later on, my family moved to suburban Philadelphia
and I began to study piano at the New School for Music Study in
Princeton, NJ. I played in repertoire classes under Miss Clark
and she occasionally taught my private lessons. These were occasions
of exultation and abject terror--and ultimately probably led me
to realize that piano teaching would be my life. After that I
kept going back in various capacities - as pedagogy student, faculty
member, administrator, co-author and colleague. . .
Samuel S. Holland is a Professor of Music and Chair ad interim of the Division of Music at Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts where he has also served as Head of Keyboard Studies and Pedagogy. His articles have appeared in major piano journals in the U.S. and abroad, and he is the author of Teaching Toward Tomorrow: a Music Teacher's Primer for Using Keyboards, Computers, and MIDI in the Studio. Sam serves as a founding board member and Executive Director of the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy.
For the other Samplers from this issue
