Teaching cookies...and harp

I taught chocolate chip cookie-making. I learned a lot about teaching...and made some fascinating comparisons between teaching how to make cookies and teaching how to play the harp.

Teaching cookie-making.

Here are some things I learned about teaching cookie-making:

• My way of doing things is not always the best. For example, when we were getting close to being done mixing all of the ingredients but the flour with the hand mixer, the butter looked a little chunky. Blaine said that cookies he's made usually have melted or softened butter and the butter doesn't look chunky. It was too late to try that with our batch, but it's likely that it would make the dough smoother and the cookies even better. 

• There are many ways to do things well. For example, Sam said he never uses a hand mixer to mix cookie dough, but rather uses a fork or his own hands. This works well, he says, but so did using a mixer. Sam got to use the mixer.

Sam using the hand mixer.

• Ingredients make all the difference. This cookie recipe calls for Guittard chocolate chips. They are divine. They are so good that we all ate some before putting the rest of the bag into the dough. This specific brand of chocolate chips really made the cookie. A second interesting ingredient is not one you'd think of when you taste these cookies, though you do notice something different. It's cinnamon. The recipe only calls for a 1/2 teaspoon, but that little bit gives the cookies a unique and very delicious flavor.

Catherine mixing in the (Guittard!) chocolate chips.

• Some of the most helpful things I could teach were things I didn't plan on teaching and things I take for granted. For example, my mom always taught be to put the beaters in the dough before plugging in the mixer so that the beaters don't start beating in mid-air where they could be dangerous. I didn't plan on teaching this, but I mentioned this briefly as it popped into my head when I plugged in the mixer. But when I realized the practicality and importance of this piece of advice, I put more emphasis on it.

Teaching cookie-making was a lot like teaching the harp, which I do privately (email harpmusicbyholland@gmail.com if you want lessons!!!). 

• My way of doing things is not always the best. When I teach harp, I must remember that everyone's hands are different, that other people's hands work differently than mine, that what works for me might not work for someone else, and that what works for someone else might not work for me. For example, when I taught a student of mine to close her thumbs after plucking a string, I demonstrated that the thumb knuckle must bend over the index finger. But she couldn't do that because her thumbs are shorter than mine! So what was best for me was not best for her.

• There are many ways to do things well. There's a passage in a piece I'm playing that can be played two ways: alternating hands...

Start at 0:59. Notice how he alternates hands, right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand...

or not...

Start at 1:21. Notice how she plays with both hands the whole time, not alternating hands.

The result is good in both instances.

• "Ingredients" make all the difference. One of the "ingredients" that contributes to greatness in music is consistency, especially in practicing. Consistency in practicing music is like regularly studying over the course of several weeks for an academic exam--you will ace the exam! A lack of consistency in practicing is like cramming for an exam--but worse, because, well, can you imagine cramming for a 50-minute completely memorized program of classical music the night before?! There's no way. Another important "ingredient" is passion. Professional musicianship requires passion for a couple of reasons. First, without passion, you'll have no motivation to practice, and practicing, like I mentioned, is everything! Second, without personal passion for your art, you will not convey to the audience the passion the composer wrote with, and the audience will enjoy it less (so will you).

• Some of the most helpful things I could teach were things I didn't plan on teaching and things I take for granted. In music, this means teaching my students not to ignore the basics. Though I already have many of the technical fundamentals of playing harp mastered, my students do not. These technical fundamentals form the foundation for playing, and it's impossible to play well and healthfully (e.g. avoiding carpal tunnel, etc.) without them. I can't let the fact that I sometimes take my technical base for granted affect my students' technical foundation. Another thing I strive to teach my students not to take for granted is the music itself. All we have, as musicians, is the black and white on the page. This is what composers have left us to use. We must not ignore it. We must pay attention to it, work it out, ask, "why?" We play the music, and then we make it our own where the composer permits it (and adding passion along the way. :)

Chocolate chip cookies and harp...what else do you need? :)