Cellist Richard Aaron on Delivering Difficult Feedback to Students

American cello pedagogue Richard Aaron talks us through his approach for giving difficult feedback to students

No one wants to be on the receiving end on negative feedback. It's demoralising and just puts a roadblock to whatever positive attitude you had for that lesson. However, receiving less-than-stellar feedback is crucial for us to grow as musicians. In any case, is there a better way of passing on negative feedback to a student about their playing?

University of Michigan and The Juilliard School cello pedagogue, Richard Aaron, shares his expert advice on the topic.

Cellist Richard Aaron talks about how we can share Difficult Feedback to Students in a diplomatic way

The relationship between a teacher and student must be based both on mutual respect and a deep trust. When dealing with students, the teacher must be sensitive in not only what they say but how it is said. When dealing with my family members, I use words judiciously, and students should be treated no differently.

If a student plays out of tune, telling them point blank "you're terribly out of tune", will not improve the situation in any way. In fact, the student would lose confidence and play even more out of tune.

Finding solutions to problems such as intonation should be solved by working diligently with the students understanding of thirds, sixths, scales and etudes. If a student plays out of tune, it is my responsibility to awaken the student's consciousness by implementing methods to improve.

No student wants to play poorly. Using words of positive reinforcement and using methods which solve issues are far more powerful than using negative connotations.

Yet, my students have figured out correctly that when I ask them to play many scales in thirds, they know for certain they're playing "terribly out of tune".

They're very clever in figuring things out for themselves.

The less words, the better.

–Richard

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Richard L. Aaron presently serves as professor of cello at the University of Michigan, The Juilliard School and The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. Previously he taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory. Many of Aaron’s students have won prestigious prizes at competitions around the world, including the Naumburg, Washington International, Johanson in Washington, Isan Yun in Korea, Cassado in Japan and Klein in San Francisco. Aaron himself is a frequent competition judge, having recently served the Beijing International Competition, Isan Yun Competition (Korea), Cassado (Japan), Amsterdam Cello Biennale Competition, Schadt String Competition and The Stulberg Competition.