Klarinet Archive - Posting 001025.txt from 1999/04

From: Gary Smith <garysmith@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] helping students learn scales?
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 15:58:31 -0400

Hello all

I teach private lessons. My current crop of students are mostly 2nd-3rd
year junior high students.

I'm a firm believer in scales as a tool to help with sight reading,
intonation, overall command of the instrument -- I don't think anyone here
really needs to be sold on the merits of learning scales. I have discovered
a lot of resistance to learning scales in otherwise fairly diligent
students, and I was wondering what approaches others are using.

I've tried to start by teaching the order of sharps and flats, the circle
of 5ths, and of course have provided them with scale sheets. I've found
that week after week the students just don't seem to have spent time with
the material such that I could identify specific problems and help them
with them - they just don't seem to have practiced.

This points to motivation, of course. Any ideas or success stories?

-----------------------------------------------
"Any male turtle dove will tell you that, if conditions are
right, the female turtle dove can spit on her hands and throw her
weight about like Donald Duck."
- _The Editor_Regrets_, P.G. Wodehouse

Gary Smith
garysmith@-----.com

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