Klarinet Archive - Posting 000331.txt from 1997/08

From: Robert and Deborah Shaw <theshaws@-----.net>
Subj: Re: How young is too young?
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 23:35:40 -0400

In my experience with young beginners (usually around 4th grade)
cooperation between teacher and parent is extremely important. The
decision to play an instrument should not be just on a whim, but a well
thought out decision with the understanding that this will be a long
term experience.
I also think that picking the right teacher will make all of the
difference whether the young beginner will be successful or not. Be
sure to pick a teacher who has a heart for young children to begin with.
Young kids have special needs and more patience than older beginners do.
Young beginners may take longer to develop physical skills, but mentally
can learn concepts faster than many adults who have preconcieved ideas
of how things should.
One of the special things about young students is the enthusiasm
that they have for learning and the patience that most of them have with
themselves and the teacher! Just an observation!

Deborah
Jonathan Cohler wrote:
>
> >At 07:49 PM 8/9/97 -0400, Jonathan Cohler wrote:
> >>There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this subject floating
> >>around the list. This is not really a matter of opinion, but one of
> >>empirical fact. There is no question that starting students younger is
> >>better. They should be started as young as is physically possible for best
> >>average results.
> >>
> >>Again, these differences matter not at all to a beginner who is just
> >>learning how to hold, blow, finger and read music.
> >>
> >>What does matter is getting musicians started as young as is physically
> >>possible when their learning potential is greatest. That's why violinists
> >>and pianists start at age two.
> >>
> >>The younger the better. No question about it. It has been proven over and
> >>over again.
> >>
> > I've been watching this discussion without so far participating, and I
> >can't say for certain I've read every post. Since the discussion has moved
> >somewhat far away from the original question, which as I remember
> >concerned whether or not to begin a specific 7 year old with clarinet
> >study, I want to throw in one general caveat I haven't seen mentioned in
> >the posts I've read.
> > The discussion I've seen has all centered around the age at which a
> >child can begin to meet the physical and, perhaps, attitudinal demands of
> >learning to play a clarinet. Be careful, though, about how young you
> >expect a child to learn the mechanics of music reading. Very young
> >children (pre-school and sometimes as old as 7 or 8) have a good deal of
> >trouble handling the demands - especially the rhythmic ones - of standard
> >notation. Most of the systems that have been developed for use in teaching
> >very young children do not depend on the child's learning to read standard
> >notation at the beginning. Before anyone objects with his or her anecdotal
> >evidence that some specific child he knew could read music perfectly by
> >the time he could walk, I am talking about generalities, since the
> >discussion has left the specific instance that started it. Small children
> >generally don't relate to symbols as we do or even as most 9 or 10 year
> >olds do. Rhythmic notation is essentially mathematically based and even
> >many of my fourth and fifth grade kids have trouble with the relationships
> >without some kind of mnemonic (syllable) system to mediate for them.
> >Suzuki-taught children learn totally by rote until they are old enough for
> >the notation to mean something to them (by which time many of them play
> >technically so far beyond what they can read that they resist reading
> >notation, regarding it as an impediment). The age at which the notation
> >begins to mean the same thing to a child that it does to us is different
> >for each child. My concern with starting a normally talented, interested
> >young child who has not already shown himself in some other way to be the
> >next Mozart or Bernstein is that the teacher needs to be very careful how
> >he presents the musical material. To start with a standard method book or
> >other notation-driven approach may cause considerable discouragement
> >because the reading task may honestly not be possible for the specific
> >child at her specific stage of "cognitive development." In short, if you
> >feel that a five year old can learn to play the clarinet by using a
> >smaller instrument, maybe you're right. But you need to be very careful
> >not to expect the impossible cognitively, or you may kill forever an
> >interest that might otherwise become a life-long love.
> > Just a different direction for an already very extended thread.
> >
> >
> >Karl Krelove
> >"Time is the best teacher; unfortunately, it kills all its students!"
>
> My understanding of the research is that reading music is no more difficult
> (in fact, I believe, considerably less difficult) than reading a language.
> Therefore, if a child is ready to begin learning letters of the alphabet,
> he is certainly ready to begin learning notes on a staff.
>
> The Suzuki method, a method developed and employed on a large scale in
> Japan, was designed to allow amateur musicians (not those who are seriously
> pursuing a career in music) to enjoy music from an early age. While many
> aspects of the Suzuki system are applicable in serious study as well (for
> example, starting young and on small instruments), there is one major
> aspect of the strict system that handicaps musicians for life.
>
> That is, it focuses entirely on rote learning at the youngest ages.
> Students learn to play everything by ear. Unfortunately, students that
> stay with this rote learning for too many years (past the age of 5 or so),
> are never able to read and learn new music at rapid pace. They have
> developed a strong pathway connection between aural music and the physical
> necessities of playing, but they have a weak connection between visually
> ingested music and the physical aspects.
>
> That is why in Japan, for example, virtually all musicians aiming for a
> serious career start learning to read music as early as possible (around
> the same time they begin to read the language).
>
> ---------------------
> Jonathan Cohler
> cohler@-----.net

   
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