Been thinking about teachers lately. Bad ones. More specifically, private teachers and the effect they can have on one’s experience in music school. Whatever my thoughts now on whatever regrets I harbor, part of me is still trying to wring something useful from the experience. It feels odd when I look back on it. You might have 4 or 5 classes in a given semester, participate in a large ensemble or two, have a regular chamber group, and do some ad hoc stuff on the side. Yet this person you see for only a few hours a week can have a bigger influence on you than all that stuff put together. Their methodology, opinions, personality, and biases often drown out the information you get from these other sources.
Anyway, the bad private teachers assume you want to be just like them; the worst of them get hostile when they find out you don’t want to.