Silly Rule #0 - I can't teach you anything!

During the last few weeks, I was seriously pondering about learning how to play the saxophone. To be exact, I'm a huge fan of Jazz, and I do think it might be a good idea to try playing some instrument for a change instead of composing it with my computer. Anyway, while I was just browsing through the Internet looking for resources on saxophones, I stumbled upon one very interesting site that teaches new people how to play the saxohpone. In one of the sections posted there, I liked the article posted, and just wanted to highlight it.

To be exact, its pretty much the same thing I'm telling in my computer programming class :P

http://www.ryanfraser.com/lessons/rules.html

Rule #0: I can't teach you anything! Neither can anybody else!
Oh no! Why is there a rule number zero? Call it my tribute to Issac Asimov. (If you haven't a clue as to why, go read Asimov. Lots and lots of Asimov.) More importantly, rule number zero is the most important rule of all. And, probably the wierdest.

You see, my theory is that all that your teacher can do is give you all of the right tools to learn. It's up to you to try and make use of them. You must become your own teacher. We can give you the resources, but it is totally up to you to make the most of them. Besides, if all your teacher does is spoon-feed you information, you won't ever become better than they are. And then the quality of saxophone playing in the world will never, ever improve. Good teachers will start off by giving you lots of information, and expect and demand you to put it to use. Eventually, every teacher's responsibility should be to become completely irrelevant to your life. Your teacher should become just one more resource for you to use to become a better person, or a better player. Even a better teacher. If you can't teach yourself, you can't help anybody else, can you?!