Helen Sherrah-Davies

"I hope that students would gather a healthy mix of both rigorous knowledge of the core, and a greater sense of the mystery of it all. Why does a Phrygian inflection have such power? I aim to cultivate curiosity, beyond just spelling chords. The first question I ask is 'What does harmony mean to you?' And I mean in any sense—musical, or from that larger perspective. I mention synaesthesia, and that we have no idea how anyone else really hears (or sees) anything. Once, a student said, 'Every time I hear a major 7th, I get a taste of pineapples in my mouth!' Who knew!"

"With my European heritage, I have high expectations. I encourage critical faculties. Like the importance of accuracy and detail, so that the vision can better be grounded—the why behind what sounds “good” or not, or could sound good in a different context. I ask them to say and write what they mean, and mean what they say and write. I say here is an invitation to be your own best teacher, and we work through strategies for doing that. A big one: Play everything at the keyboard, even if you’re not a pianist. It’s the only place that this music world is visible. I encourage an exposure to a wide range of styles from around the world and through time; quality music is quality music."

"I mention the four stages of learning, that we’re all at different levels for different things for all of our lives: unconscious incompetence; conscious incompetence; conscious competence, and unconscious competence. We talk about this in class, and how the second stage—the active growing point—is usually challenging and painful, but it signals the start of real progress. I say that I still feel this even though I’ve been performing for decades."