Some of the world's best musical performers gain as much from teaching in Britain's conservatoires as their students do from the lessons, research has found, writes Tony Tysome.
New and improved performance techniques, a broader repertoire and greater confidence during recitals, have been listed as direct benefits of teaching in higher education by 100 performers interviewed as part of a project conducted by researchers at the Royal College of Music.
Every year, more than 1,500 professional performers provide more than 250,000 hours of instrumental tuition in the UK's nine music conservatoires. They include big names such as chart-topping jazz trumpeter Gerard Presencer, the Royal Academy of Music's head of jazz.
RCM fellow Janet Mills said: "By practising the analysis of performance with students, performers can take a more critical approach to their own playing.
"For instance, in the case of a percussionist teaching a passage involving a lot of crossing of sticks, the performer can't just tell the student 'do it like me' - they have to analyse what they do in order to explain it."