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Professional Performance

"I'm not the world's most methodical teacher. But I think I make very strong demands on people who study with me. For instance, having people play ideas in all 12 keys. And I expect my students to learn by listening and not just reading. I think it's important for students to have a mental map of music in their mind."

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"When I teach, I talk a lot about values. For example, you can learn the meaning of democracy by understanding the individual parts of a groove. When the guitar part goes che-ka, che-ka, and the bass player goes tun, tun, tun-tun, I say, 'See? When that tun-tun meets the che-ka, che-ka and someone else's chiki-chiki, that's called community. Community values can only be expressed when we listen to each other. With technology, it's amazing that you can experience music by yourself, but there's a certain isolation within that experience that challenges the idea of community."

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"What makes our faculty distinctive is that they're all professionals—they're all doing what they teach. I think it's rare that you find someone who doesn't have a CD. We make sure that we have role models for different students, different styles. For example, if you look at the Woodwind Department, we have oboe teachers; we have a classical flute teacher as well as a jazz flute teacher. In the Guitar Department, we have rockers as well as jazzers. I think that students who come to Berklee and have a certain style they want to study can usually find a teacher who can help them with that style, who's actually an expert."

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