She's six years old, cute as a button, and seriously determined. With very young students I require a parent or other adult to accompany them and to assist at home. As is normal for me, I engage in a little small talk at the beginning of each lesson to help us get settled in. But with this child I must keep small talk to a minimum. If it goes on for too long she gets a little peeved and is not bashful about letting me know. "Can I play now?" is her admonition.
At my student recital last night she was the first one to play. Although she had never performed before, she walked up on stage like she owned it, sat down and played beautifully. Yes she is a confident child, but it's a confidence built on hard work and preparation. She is, for the moment, a successful artist.
I've recently written about talent and skill. These are important components of being a successful artist and are often confused one for the other. A third component is a great work ethic. In thinking about this young student it's apparent that she has a great work ethic. Her skill level is a bit above normal for her age, and I believe it's too soon to discuss talent.
According to playwright Woody Allen, 95% of success is just showing up. I believe that means physical and mental. Just because you walked through the door doesn't mean that you're really there. When this child picks up her guitar she is fully engaged. She was confident because she wasn't worried about making mistakes. She hadn't made mistakes playing this song in a long time.
Most students don't understand the value of daily practice. The amount of hard work that goes into making it look easy. As a teacher I need to be aware of this and to teach them this aspect of playing well too.
Too often work is portrayed as something that needs to be avoided, done merely adequately, or in a Tom Sawyer fashion shifted to someone else. It seems that the successful artists are too busy doing what is necessary to notice that they are working. My young student loves to play guitar. Sometimes she will play a song repeatedly to get it right because it's more fun to play it right than wrong. She doesn't know that she's practicing or working. She's playing. If we are willing, we can learn a lot from young children.