Charlotte Joko Beck in Everyday Zen

Many years ago I was a piano major at Oberlin Conservatory. I was a very good
student; not outstanding, but very good. And I very much wanted to study with
one teacher who was undoubtedly the best. He'd take ordinary students and turn
them into fabulous pianists. Finally I got my chance.

He taught with two
pianos. He didn't even say hello. He just sat down at his piano and played five
notes, and then he said, "You do it." I was supposed to play it just the way he
played it. I played it—and he said, "No." He played it again, and I played it
again. And he said, "No." We had an hour of that, and each time he said
NO.

In the next three months I played about three measures, perhaps half
a minute of music. Now I had thought I was pretty good; I'd played soloist with
little symphony orchestras. Yet we did this for three months, and I cried most
of those three months. He had all of the marks of a real teacher, that
tremendous drive and determination to make the student see. That's why he was so
good. And at the end of three months, one day, he said, "Good." What had
happened? Finally, I had learned to listen. And as he said, if you can hear it,
you can play it.

Charlotte
Joko Beck, from Everyday Zen