A self-imposed communication ban for 24 hours
For the last 12 months my students are communicating with me by the help of the Internet. We use as a rule the ZOOM platform as it is less likely to “freeze up”. In addition to the invitation on ZOOM for their weekly lessons I ask them to send me in advance all the scores of the music they plan to present during their weekly session.
However my iPhone does admittedly serves more than study purposes. It is also my umbilical cord tethering me to the outside world.
Since the introduction of mobile phones, I always preached to my students the prohibition of mobile devices while they are busy practising for obvious reasons. As an exercise of self-control I decided yesterday to ban the use of any electronic device between 20.00 hours and 12.00 noon at weekends.
I did keep my vow, but to my great disappointment I had the most horrible feelings of deprivations, including short panic attacks (“what if my family living abroad needs to contact me” etc.) and numerous other “what ifs”. Of course I knew that my husband’s phone was in working order if really needed, moreover the email on my computer was also working.
I will still ask my students to switch off their mobile phones during their practice sessions in order to concentrate uniquely on the work at hand, BUT I will appreciate much more the self discipline to close the mobile and forget about its existence, entails for them.
Above confession is meant to all my students past and present to whom I preached about the negative attraction of mobile devices during practising. 🙂