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So how would you like your students to play? 

This is a bit like when you’re asked as a parent - “So how do you want to raise your kids?!”

But as a teacher, one should also be mindful of how you’d like your students to play, and how therefore you’re going to help them to get there. 

Every violin teacher would I’m sure want their pupils to play with good intonation, sound, rhythm and expression. But how you get there is more personal. 

Some teachers try to get there by encouraging a lot of copying. Eg “Play it like this!” - the teacher demonstrates and the student copies with similar expression. Or “Do this fingering and bowing” - the student copies it in to their music. 

Or “Practice these scales & studies and you’ll be able to play anything!” - but without sufficient explanation of HOW to practice them to get the full benefit. 

So you’ve probably worked out by now that I wouldn’t agree with any of the above methods! 

When I’m asked what I’d like from my pupils, it’s that I teach them sufficiently both how to think and listen so they eventually won’t need my help so much. 

Regarding the thinking, they’ve got to understand what they’re doing both musically and technically, so they can be confident in their ability to think for themselves. This requires the teacher to give sufficient musical and technical explanation, not just to get the pupil to copy. 

Regarding listening, they’ve got to learn to listen accurately and critically. Without this, again - they can’t have true confidence in what they’re doing. That means teaching them how to really trust their ear through specific practice methods and encouraging clear thinking. 

Confidence itself is also so important. You can teach everything well, but if you don’t encourage your pupils when they deserve and/or are in need of it, then they won’t have the belief to put all their hard work into practice. 

Having the understanding and desire to juggle these issues is what in the end makes a successful teacher in my opinion. 

Good luck and I hope this is of help!