Frédéric Lambert: Teaching Students how to Teach Themselves

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The ancient Chinese proverb—“Give a man a fish and you can feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you can feed him for a lifetime”—is also true for music. For Frédéric Lambert, viola/violin professor at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and assistant viola professor at McGill University, viola teaching is all about fostering musical independence. “Your future teacher is you,” he says.

Lambert’s approach to teaching is modelled after his own mentor, André Roy, whom he studied with at McGill University for 10 years. From his bachelor’s through to his doctorate, Roy always made sure that Lambert understood the why behind every aspect of viola playing. “He was always questioning me,” says Lambert of his former teacher. “He would show me something to do and ask me why he was asking me to do it this way. He would explain everything he was doing to me, all the time.” Roy not only taught him how to play viola, “he taught me how to teach,” says Lambert. With his own students, he strives to pass on self-knowledge which leads to musical confidence. “(André Roy) taught me how to know your capacity on the instrument, what you are good at and not good at, and giving it your best. When you pick a fingering or a bowing, you cannot forget that everything is based around your talent.” As certain musical choices may suit some more than others, Lambert stresses the need to know yourself as a player so that you can make decisions that will yield results. When a string player is in the professional music world and has to pick up a lot of new repertoire quickly, you can’t “take six months to make decisions,” he says.

Fred Lambert Photo: Brent Calis

Lambert also stresses the need for students to have a plan, no matter how vague, of what it is they would like to do in music. Though the music business is tough, he says, with fewer jobs in orchestras and string quartets, there has also been a shift in the music business with the advent of social media. “I know there are a bunch of jobs we are not really aware of,” says Lambert. He often has career-related conversations with his students who are grateful for his guidance. “Fred has a diverse vision of the profession which I believe is essential to understanding the milieu and finding the place we want in it,” says violist and former student Marilou Lepage. “My career path would not have been the same without his advice and support.”