How I Found One of the Best Leadership Lessons Ever in a 100-year Old Piano Study Book

A couple of weekends ago I was on the second floor of our house brushing my teeth and I heard the sound of our piano being played - it was my wife, playing some “Czerny Studies” (basically very pretty finger exercises). This was unusual because even though my wife had taken piano lessons for six years in her adolescence, she hadn’t touched our piano for several years.

It turned out there was a good reason she chose to play this particular afternoon - and his name was Emil Liebling. Liebing edited these Czerny studies into the book that my wife was using that day. Since I thought these studies sounded so great I casually picked up the book once I came downstairs and skimmed through it. I stopped at the Preface and began to read Liebling’s thoughts and instruction on the studies. I was mesmerized. I hadn’t read such literate and fluent prose about teaching in many, many years (or maybe ever).

So who was this person? Here is is bio (courtesy of the Music Encyclopedia):

Liebling (lep’-ling), Emil. 1851-1914. Born in Pless, Germany, of Russian parentage, this talented musician came to America when quite young to become a leader in the art. He was one of four brothers, all of whom have become prominent in musical affairs. After arriving in this country, in 1867, Emil Liebling taught music in Kentucky and Chicago. Returning to Berlin he studied under Kullak and Ehrlich, and composition under Heinrich Dorn. In Vienna he studied under Dachs. He also taught in Kullak’s Conservatory of Music from 1874 to 1876. Mr. Liebling’s attainments along other lines are equally advanced. He is an accomplished linguist and as a writer he is a fluent and forcible contributor to American musical journals. He spent the summer of 1876 studying under Liszt at Weimar. Returning to Chicago the same year he impressed his audiences with his finished execution and a practically unlimited repertory. The concerts he gave in Berlin brought him enthusiastic praise from the severest of critics. He is as exceptional as a man, an artist, and a musician, possessing the most charming personality. He is a good common-sense business man, a famous composer, a pianist and teacher of world-wide fame, a most entertaining and instructive lecturer. Among his compositions are a valse de concert, Florence; a gavotte modern, Albumblatt; Serenade, Spring Song, Menuetto, Scherzoso, Lolita and Concert Polonaise.

A very fascinating man, no question. And his writing was indeed impressive, AND forceful. Almost forceful to the point of being overbearing, but I read this as more genuine passion than arrogance. Here is the core of what really grabbed me, and I’ve underlined what I consider to be the key lessons (I’d advise downloading this to a picture viewer and enlarging it - believe me it will be worth it!):

It didn’t take me long to figure out that Liebling was teaching me something quite valuable that went beyond mastering the piano - he was imparting great wisdom on how leaders should teach. Here were the three key lessons:

1. Liebling said this in flowing French - teachers should never instruct “sans raison et sans plaisir“; translated, “without reason and without pleasure“. We simply can’t be arbitrary and unfocused with our teaching, and it darned well better be fun, or else what you are trying to teach will not be learned.
2. This was my absolute favorite - “An ounce of demonstration is worth a pound of explanation”. You have to talk the talk, AND walk the walk, by rolling up the sleeves and showing how it’s done. I’m stealing this one (in fact, I’ve already used it with my team twice!).
3. Lasty, the indispensable “application of common sense“. Everyone must be taught at a pace and intensity that works best for them, and a good teacher should be able to calibrate this correctly, by simply using good ol’ common sense.

What happens if these principles are consistently applied? In Liebling’s own words, applied to the piano student, the “accomplishment….will mean to the student a fluent and reliable technic, brilliancy, versatility and endurance, and…..prove an “open sesame” to all the works from Bach to Beethoven”

Or, taken in the broader context, better teaching leads to lasting learning that can open the gates towards taking on even bigger challenges, and succeeding.

Now THAT’s a great lesson. From a 100 year-old preface to a piano studies book by a very talented teacher who probably had no idea that his beautiful writing would effect a 21st Century blogger so deeply and so beyond the subject matter.

Thanks Mr. Liebling, and thanks too to my wife for choosing to play the piano that day.