Klarinet Archive - Posting 000681.txt from 1995/06

From: Lynn Thomas <thomas@-----.ORG>
Subj: Re: Advice to new clarinetist
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1995 16:10:08 -0400

Thanks Jack, I needed that :)

As one who's been teaching younguns for a long time, I find that group
lessons hide a lot of individual problems that can easily be seen during
a private lesson. In one school I taught in, I used to use group lesson
time in the schedule, split it into two or three (depending on how much
time was allotted) and take each kid for a 15-20 minute private lesson.
It helped immensely. My students progress much quicker with this
individual time. When I was young, my teacher did the same thing, so
taking a page from his notebook, I had students in 7th grade playing out
of the Rubank Advanced I, when the rest of the band was still in Breeze
Easy.......and they didn't have the embouchure or reading problems that
the other band kids (who all were in group lessons, for the most part)
had.

Another good thing about private lessons is that when you're trying to
correct a problem, you don't have to worry about embarrassing the kid -
which is a huge problem with 6-7th graders.

Lynn