6. Music-Mind : Gurus and Other Dangerous Beasts

I’ll start this post about Gurus out with a “Differential Diagnosis” (psych-speak):

Defining what something is, by eliminating what it is not.

What this post is not…

… a criticism of the vast majority of music pedagogues along the learning continuum - from teachers of beginners to teachers of advanced students

-many of whom are everyday heroes,

-many of whom should receive much of the credit for inspiring musicians to devote their lives to music.

Here’s looking at you, music teachers, CHEEEEERS!

Maria Callas raising a glass [to the vast majority of music teachers].

This is also not a post referencing the term “Guru” as it is used in Hindu and Buddhist spiritual contexts, in which a GuRu is understood as a dispeller of darkness:

गुशब्दस्त्वन्धकारः स्यात् रुशब्दस्तन्निरोधकः।

अन्धकारनिरोधित्वात् गुरुरित्यभिधीयते॥ १६॥

The syllable Gu indicates darkness, the syllable Ru means its dispeller,

Because of the quality of dispelling darkness, the Guru is thus termed.

-Advayataraka Upanishad, Verse 16

Sikh And Hindu Religious Painting Of Gods & Goddesses With Guru Nanak Dev

What a beautiful origin of a term, which in western pedagogical contexts takes on a rather sinister meaning!

According to Anthony Storr, in his book Feet of Clay; Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus (1996), Gurus are “teachers who claim special knowledge of the meaning of life, and who therefore feel entitled to tell others how life should be lived”.

Gurus…

...tend to attract ardent followers but struggle to form genuine friendships. Once they attain a position of authority, they find it challenging to establish equal relationships. Their sense of self-worth relies on impressing people rather than being loved.

...often exhibit a lack of tolerance towards criticism, tending to view anything other than complete agreement as a form of hostility. This inclination could arise from their isolation, preventing them from experiencing the healthy exchange of ideas and constructive criticism that one typically receives from friends, family, and colleagues.

..frequently adopt an elitist and anti-democratic stance.

...typically refrain from discussing their ideas and instead impose them on others.

…indicate that they are the only ones capable of leading followers in the right direction.

…tend to believe their insights to be universally applicable and employ one-size-fits-all approaches.

Gurus cannot exist in a vacuum and require enabling cultures and organizational structures to assist them in establishing and maintaining (and covering up) dominance.

In this context, there are unfortunate and often tragic parallels between the predatory behaviors of abusers who find sanctuary in markedly hierarchical organizations, such as churches (or music conservatories). These abuser-tolerant organizations are characterized by an adherence to unchangeable and entrenched traditions and the idolization of leading figures who may perceive themselves as exempt from societal norms and responsibilities.

The British pianist and musicologist Ian Pace has been instrumental in identifying systemic and cultural aspects of unchecked power structures in classical music education:

“Many musicians are engaged as teachers primarily on the basis of their achievements as performers, and the result can at worst be disastrous. It can lead to the cultivation of entourages of adoring young students to be moulded into quasi-clones of the great guru, as extensions of his or her ego.

Sometimes, students who do not conform to these teachers’ expectations can be the subject of jealous resentment leading to callous cruelty through attempts to destroy their confidence. They dissect and amplify the student’s every fault while ignoring their strengths, sometimes in order to humiliate them in front of others.

In either case this constitutes psychological abuse in a way that would be completely unacceptable for a regular state school teacher. But institutions’ reputations are often founded on these “great musicians” and they have the power to make or break a student’s future career. Students’ desperation to please has for too long been allowed to mask a pattern of abusive behaviour“

Ian Pace - TES Magazine

Gurus can be Bad for You

Dr. Eckart Altenmüller, a prominent German neurologist who has researched and practiced in Musicians Medicine for decades, identified Guru-Teachers as a significant threat to a musician’s health in his 2021 talk at the Performing Arts Medical Association (PAMA). He underscored the potential harm posed by Guru-Teachers to the well-being of young musicians. Dr. Altenmüller emphasized that when aspiring musicians grappling with early-stage injuries or impairments confine their search for guidance solely to their Guru-Teacher, considering them the exclusive fount of wisdom for their challenges, these issues are more prone to becoming deeply entrenched and less responsive to treatment.

I recently read the book House Concert by Igor Levit and Florian Zinnecker. In it could be found a chilling description of archetypical guru behavior by one of Igor Levit’s early teachers, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling.

from House Concert:

FZ: Kämmerling is a pedagogue with an aura and an instinct for power, tremendously caring, but with an iron hand; among his students he is regarded as a dictator about whom it is often said: Some things can only be learned from him.

IL: "He was a stickler for rules and principles. He had his own templates, his basic exercises, his ideas of tempo, precise metronome markings. He applied them to everyone ... He also had his darker side. He was incredibly jealous, you couldn't even glance at other teachers with one eye. I remember him saying to me once: "The ones who became something were only the ones who danced to my whistle"…

He scolded me wildly, he told me through other people that I had, quote, played like shit. That does something to you as a 16-year-old.

 Kämmerling sits on the jury at the most important competitions in the world, every pianist knows that if you blow it with him, you can basically forget about your career.”

The question arises whether this type of training creates world-class excellence, or whether excellence emerges because these types of gurus attract the most astonishingly gifted children, some of whom thrive despite the controlling and diminishing tactics and cult-like environment. My firm belief is that the second holds true. Igor Levit went on to work with teachers, especially Matti Raekallio, with whom he formed a deeply collegial and mutually growth-inducing partnership (and friendship).

It's often assumed that guru teachers create something known as “mental toughness”. The Hungarian-Romanian gymnastics coach Béla Károlyi, starved, brow-beat, and humiliated his young, female gymnasts into being gold-medal winners, most notably the 1976 Olympic Gold-Medalist Nadia Comăneci. Olympian Betty Okino (1992) said: "Károlyi structured his training in a way that built your physical and mental strength to such a remarkable level that even he couldn't tear you down. Béla wanted to know that when push came to shove, his athletes could handle any situation thrown at them."

 In elite sports psychology, it’s widely recognized that “mental toughness” is a highly elusive and inscrutable trait. In fact, it may not be a trait at all, but rather a social construct that arises from macho hero narratives and Hollywood sports/war films. In the paper “The Social Construction of 'Mental Toughness' – a Fascistoid Ideology“, Nick Caddick and Emily Ryall point out that “mental toughness” can only be identified in hindsight, i.e. after an athletic success, and belongs more to the realm of societal narratives and collective values than to real-world psychological traits. Hero narratives are powerful: someone being torn down and eventually emerging triumphantly. Perhaps that’s the tired narrative that many Guru Teachers cling onto?

So, what distinguishes Guru Teachers from Great Teachers?

Great teachers, like gurus, can be demanding, and can expect hard work from their students, but here are some differences: they welcome input from the student and from colleagues; They encourage students to ‘learn how to learn’, with the ultimate aim of independence; they recognize boundaries, when the student needs to work on their own and when the student needs (extra) input and support; the learning is two-way, discoveries are made on both sides of the relationship; they draw excellence out the students through the strength of their ability to inspire and create/transmit motivation; and perhaps most importantly: they support and encourage a holistic kind of development in the student.

A friend recently wrote about her teacher, with whom she studied in her teens and early 20s, had just passed away. She fondly remembered how the studio would visit museums, learn Shakespeare monologues, cook together, learn to compose, and much more. It was a vibrant, supportive, and thoroughly inspiring learning environment.

Excellence emerged from it.

“I am going to be your last teacher. Not because I’ll be the greatest teacher you may ever encounter, but because from me you will learn how to learn. When you learn how to learn, you will realize that there are no teachers, that there are only people learning and people learning how to facilitate learning.”

Moshé Feldenkrais