Klarinet Archive - Posting 000985.txt from 1997/10

From: Karl Krelove <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Differing styles of teaching
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 11:45:55 -0400

At 10:46 AM 10/24/97 -0400, Scott wrote:
> I have not had a lot of experience teaching clarinet (I just
>started with my "first" student last month!), but my experience in learning
>and teaching other techniques (mostly lab techniques) is that the student
>should learn to do something the way the instructor does it FIRST (and,
>more importantly, WHY it is done that way!)

And, parenthetically, the WHY is the key to one of the great benefits of
teaching that accrues to the TEACHER. You find yourself as the teacher
constantly rediscovering, sometimes discovering for the first time, WHY you
do things the way you do them in your playing. Often my own playing has
benefited from this constant process of discovery and rediscovery. Teaching
has for me been a wonderful means by which to focus on this process in a
way I never did in the practice room.

Forgive the bit of wistful philosophy. I couldn't help it.

Karl