Keller Teaches Paul More Than How To Be A Good Musician Text Response Maestro

“Keller teaches Paul more than how to be a good musician.” Discuss.
The topic says specifically, “Keller teaches Paul …”,

- What are the major exchanges that take place between Keller and Paul.
- Are there any lessons that fall outside the realms of mere music.
A list of main events that involve Keller and Paul
1. The first music lesson when Keller doesn’t let Paul play.
2. ‘We must be on guard against beauty always. Never trust the beautiful.’
3. When Keller lent the Libretto to Paul.
4. Keller reveals to Paul about his family what happened to them.
5. Keller travels with Paul to Adelaide.
6. Keller sends Paul a letter criticising his music
7. Paul learns about Keller’s true identity and feels sympathy for his solitude and
loneliness.
Paul Crabbe in Peter Goldsworthy’s novel, Maestro, is typical of many headstrong

adolescents in the face of well-intentioned advice from adults. Furthermore, he has an
arrogance and unduly high opinion of his own worth. Eventually, however, he comes
to recognise that his piano teacher, Keller, has far more of merit to him than merely
an ability to play the piano.Consequently, Paul recognises that he has learnt
considerably more than just an attitude to the craft of the piano from him.
Once you have completed your introduction, then you are in a position to write your
body paragraphs.
TOEEL is a sensible way in which to try to construct them
Topic sentence – introduces subject of remaining sentences

Opinion – what you think (often builds on the topic sentence)
Evidence – incident/quote to support opinion
Explanation – explain HOW the evidence supports your opinion
Link back to the topic – show relevance of discussion to the essay topic
At Paul’s first music lesson with Keller, when he was not allowed to play on the
piano and only listened to Keller talk about the fingers, Paul reacted negatively.
Keller knew how Paul’s music would sound like and crushed Paul’s smugness about
his ability which was less accomplished than he believed. Paul thought of it as an
insult and a waste of his time, as reflected by his strong opinion expressed with
frustration to his father after the first lesson that, “He practically broke my arm…
He’s a sadist,” when he complained to his parents. Knowing that Paul was an arrogant
teenager who had been praised too much, Keller tried to teach him more than just the
mastery of the piano, but how his attitude should be. Although Paul did not receive
Keller’s message, later on he realized how much Keller had taught him.
When proofreading your work, keep an eye out for the consistency of your verb
tenses, in addition to whether or not the sentences make sense. Jumbled verb tenses
cause confusion.
A further character trait of stubbornness as well as adolescent impatience is obvious

during a number of other friction filled exchanges between Paul and Keller. One of
those relates to Keller’s efforts to educate Paul about the dangers of subtlety in music
because it can be conveyed as lameness. Keller’s intentions are plain in his advice
that, ‘We must be on guard against beauty always. Never trust the beautiful’, because
he recognises the importance of energy and decisiveness in its execution. There may
also be some allusions to his own complacency about calm conditions which, on
closer consideration given the circumstances under which his family were killed, may
be a lesson about the need for vigilance. However, it is much later that Paul becomes
sensitive to these lessons about conviction in performance and the dangers in crafting
beauty which may either veil a trap or drain vital music of its energy.
After his return from Adelaide, Keller decided to teach Paul the truth about his family.
Keller wanted Paul to know about how his arrogance led to the death of his beloved
family. He warned Paul about how dreams and arrogant expectations may fail to reach
fruition. He knew the dangers of complacency related to pride and arrogance would
through his own experiences and believed that his family would be immune from the
grizzly fates that befell other people of Jewish descent due to the personal knowledge
of the Nazis of him and his status as a performance pianist. However, this could not
prevent the death of his family. The maestro stated gravely to Paul in an effort to
disperse his smugness that “I do not tell you this for me… But for you.” Keller
wished Paul could have understood his message, as he taught Paul as if he was Eric,
his lost and deeply mourned after. He hoped Paul gained more that just piano
techniques from their exchanges, but it was only after the death of Keller that Paul
learned why Keller was so compelled to teach him with his peculiar ways and what he
eventually gained from these lessons.
Paul comprehends the message Keller has sent to him from all their previous
exchanges between them when he discovers the truth of Keller’s past. Keller’s family
members were victims of Keller’s pride and arrogance. He thought he was too
important to be subjected to the same discrimination as other Jewish associates, and
believed wrongly that his family would be overlooked and safe. The death of his
family and subsequent despair was sufficient deep for him to entertain the prospect to
“hack off his fingers, one by one” if he ever felt like playing the piano again. Paul
learnt from Keller’s past that his pride, passion and arrogance contributed to the
disintegration of his once stellar performance career. He finally realizes that Keller’s
advice was indeed true; Paul’s ego is far greater than his talent, and the importance of
circumspection because of the way in which a person’s fortunes can alter so
dramatically and so quickly without humility..
The Maestro, Keller, had taught Paul how to master the techniques of the Piano.
Despite Paul’s initial impression of the “boozer” and unusual teachings, through age,
and reflection he gained insight to the reasons why Keller taught paul and the extent
of what he was trying to pass on. Keller endeavoured to showed Paul more than just
how to play the piano, in the process of pauls realisation of the “extra knowledge” he
realises the need from keller for redemption and that he could see pauls lessons as a
way to redemption. Kellers axim was to never trust beauty as it could be dangerous.
He felt the need to pass this on not only for knowledge’s sake but because through his
own experiences, he wanted reduce the pain that could be had for taking beauty for
granted or to become complacent in ones ways bout of life.
Keller’s past demonstrated how pride and arrogance could bring ruin to ones life,
Paul learnt from Keller’s mistake but only after he had committed same mistakes for
all those years, causing him to have an unsuccessful career.

Keller Teaches Paul More Than How To Be A Good Musician Text Response Maestro

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“Keller teaches Paul more than how to be a good musician.” Discuss.

The topic says specifically, “Keller teaches Paul …”,

A list of main events that involve Keller and Paul

Paul Crabbe in Peter Goldsworthy’s novel, Maestro, is typical of many headstrong

TOEEL is a sensible way in which to try to construct them

Topic sentence – introduces subject of remaining sentences

A further character trait of stubbornness as well as adolescent impatience is obvious

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