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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000042.txt from 2007/12

From: Jon Julian <jon@-----.com>
Subj: [DR-L] Terrible Tone? resend
Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:39:27 -0500

Terrible? The "expert" does not know "terrible" - I've heard
"terrible". I would maybe buy "undeveloped" - but I hear air moving
through the instrument in a steady and even way, flowing between
notes, and I hear very nice phrases, thank you - if the student keeps
that up, "developed" will happen sooner rather than later, followed
shortly thereafter by really nice - and vibrato will happen, too.
Given the amount of time playing the instrument, I would be really
happy with the student - student should be happy with what they have
accomplished but also eager to keep moving ahead, and hopeful about
their ability to grow into a fine player. Seems to me that if I did
hear a problem in that sort of situation it would be a lot more
productive to say something like "that's a good start - it could be
even better if you'd think about ..." or "try ... and see what
difference that makes" - "that's terrible" is not helpful, seems to
me. If you know a student of yours really well, sometimes the student
will have the kind of personality that responds well to "that was
pretty bad - wanna try again - and pay more attention to..." or even
"that was stupid - play all of the sharps" - one of my bassoon
students some years ago was a footballer and wrestler, and he got a
kick out of that kind of thing and thrived on it, but more usually I
have to encourage students that it doesn't sound so bad as they think
it does, or agree with them that yes, it needs to be better, and then
work with them on how to make it so.

A few years back a pretty good band director of a pretty good band
program told one of my clarinet students that she was wasting her
time trying out for Governor's School. I personally felt she was
quite a capable high school player, although maybe not stellar, and
really had a decent chance. She had not been doing well in the local
and district band auditions - always made it, but usually ended up in
a seating that did not reflect her playing ability - and it turned
out that the format of those particular auditions did not play to her
strengths and did make her pretty jittery. I knew the Governor's
School audition was set up differently - actually much more like a
"real-world" audition - and might well suit her better - and told
her the worst thing to happen would be that she would get some more
practice trying out, and even if she didn't get it, if she felt more
at ease in that format played better, it could help her confidence
with the other auditions. Boy, was I happy - she was too - when she
went for it and got in! and had a very enjoyable summer (of course
the next Fall we had to undo the influence of the resident "expert"
there, whose approach had proven counter-productive in a couple of
areas of her playing).

Jon Julian

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