What do the students themselves have to say about the project? Here are some of the final thoughts of the students at the end of the academic year as written in their diaries:

Student A:

Now that I’m going on a year’s leave, the group lessons are one of the things I’m going to miss. Performing and giving feedback during these lessons has been very motivational. It’s my impression that this is useful for a number of reasons. There are two aspects to giving feedback: One is to gain some teaching experience and experience of how to word the feedback to ensure that it’s being understood. The second is to practise listening for your own benefit and to identify what is working well and less well and, in the case of the latter, establish what can be improved and then work out how. Working out why something is not completely perfect, i.e. identifying specific reasons why something might sound strange, is not always easy. The group lesson concept focuses on practising this. Such skills must be practised just like technical performance skills. I therefore feel that group lessons like this are a good form of tuition. It assumes that the group dynamic is good. I felt our group worked well together and that all the members complemented each other. Some are more talkative than others, but that’s how it should be.

Personally, one of my recurring challenges has been to articulate the wholeness in the music. I don’t find it difficult to point out specific things that could have been done differently, but to articulate holistic observations after somebody has performed is challenging.

Performing is of course useful and inspiring in itself, but I have increasingly come to appreciate the listening bit, too. Not just, as I mentioned, in order to get teaching experience, but also to learn to listen and to take that on board in my own playing. It has also been interesting to get input from the others when it was my turn to perform. This has given me perspectives on my own style of playing, and it makes you more conscious of what sort of pianist you are. It’s been interesting to hear what the others are saying about my playing, especially since I was rarely given feedback before starting at the NMH. Before the auditions I practised for years without a piano teacher (although I also think this has allowed me to develop my own playing technique undisturbed – one that works for me and my fingers). It’s been really interesting to leave behind my isolationist attitude from the past and allow people to give me feedback. This has helped forge my identity and played a part in my development as a performer. A good project.

Student B:

…[I] can without a doubt say that CEMPE has had a big impact on me and is a good reflection of my development as a musician. The younger you are, the more likely you are to feel that you’re right and that you know everything. I’ve thought that, too. Everything was full of analysis, justifications, opinions. […]

I struggled with communication in the beginning. They didn’t know who I was, how I was. They were also different kinds of people to those I normally associate with. They seemed vulnerable, kind and… soft. I then realised that I had to adjust the way I expressed myself. I’ve been working on that up until now.

Another thing was that I had to work on being more specific. The more abstract my feedback, the clearer and more specific I had to be when describing what I wanted to hear. My understanding of good teaching changed over the course of the lessons, and that meant I had to change the way I teach as well.

I started thinking much more about the things [my fellow students] asked me to change or try. Although, it wasn’t really a big problem. Most of their ideas I agreed with without having to think about them. But in any case, these lessons helped me understand how arbitrary our and everyone’s ideas can be sometimes. Or, at least, how easy it is to rework thoughts and ideas. It inspired me to become more open to other people’s ideas, and eventually to take a short break from studying classical music.

These lessons were some of the most challenging and inspiring events during my five years at the NMH. And at the same time, some of the most enjoyable and friendly. It probably is the perfect formula for a lesson!

Student C:

… I feel that we’re getting increasingly used to the situation and often have things to say. The masterclasses were exciting, too, and if it were up to me, I would make every second lesson a masterclass. There is a greater burden of responsibility when there’s only one of you, and that heightens your senses. The more such lessons we have, the more convinced I am that you don’t have to be on the same level technically to make a contribution as a teacher. Musical understanding goes far beyond the individual instrument, and I notice that I get a bit sad/disappointed when other people say “well played, but I don’t really have much to say as I don’t play the piano”. Music is music, and if you listen, you should be able to use your musical expertise to form an opinion on the choices the performer has made and which choices he or she perhaps should’ve made, alternatively things that he or she is not conscious of. The same principle applies to group tuition: even though I might not have heard or played a piece before the lesson, I can always listen and then evaluate the impression I’m left with. The first impression of a piece can be just as important as comments from those who’ve heard it several times before, since you then often listen out for different elements in the music being presented.

Another important thing I learnt was in the lesson when [name] performed the first movement of the Rachmaninov and [name] commented that the tune lacked a consistent/conscious line. Jens Harald stepped in, not because [name] and I had failed to identify a genuine area of improvement, but because we had struggled to explain to [name] what he should do to overcome the problem. Realising that something isn’t quite as it should be is not the same as being able to articulate what the performer can do to achieve the result we as teachers know he is capable of. Teaching music is very much about being able to do both.