Klarinet Archive - Posting 001241.txt from 1999/03

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Teachers
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 16:16:10 -0500

On Mon, 22 Mar 1999, Gary Van Cott wrote:

> Play for them and insist they play for you.

There is something vaguely discomfiting about this advice. I have never
auditioned for a prospective student, and in fact, have never been asked
to. I assume when a student comes to me that they want to purchase my
services as a teacher rather than as a performer. What is important about
what I have to offer them is my musical ear and sensitivity, my skill at
diagnosing problems and prescribing solutions, my knowedge of music and of
the instrument, the degree to which our personalities match and complement
each other, etc.

I play and teach all the woodwinds, and can pick up any one of them and
demonstrate for students certain things with a characteristic sound and
style. However, what I cannot do is maintain the highest possible degree
of refinement of embouchure for all of them simultaneously. So, it is
entirely possible that at any given moment, I might not be able to pass an
"audition" for a prospective student. Neither my current students nor my
former ones during my career of 39 years as a teacher have seemed to
regard that as a particular problem.

I started on the clarinet, but now my instrumental specialties, in order,
are bassoon, saxophone, oboe, flute and clarinet. On an instrument such
as the flute or clarinet, for example, I can name dozens or hundreds of
performers who would be able to win out over me in an audition behind a
screen but who couldn't teach "their way out of a wet paper bag," as the
saying goes.

As a teacher, we have to have a deep understanding of what is required to
play the instrument properly, but it does not follow that the best
performers are the best teachers.

I guess you just have to decide what you are looking for in a teacher.

Ed Lacy
*****************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
*****************************************************************

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