Klarinet Archive - Posting 000541.txt from 1999/11

From: GCalzati@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: beginners' intonation/voicing
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 09:28:21 -0500

In a message dated 11/13/99 10:51:57 AM Eastern Standard Time,
LeliaLoban@-----.com writes:

> n the earliest stages, I think teachers sometimes intend to test for
hearing
> ability and pitch discrimination, when the test actually measures learned
> skills or singing ability. IMHO, to avoid this confusion, it's a good
idea
> to ask a complete beginner to match notes on a piano and not rely too much
> on
> what happens when the child tries to match notes by singing them. It's
also
>
> useful to ask kids to listen to pairs of notes and identify which one
sounds
>
> higher and which one sounds lowerr

I did not say I have the students match notes by singing them. I have them
match them on their instruments.

Also, I travel from house to house. Only about 2 homes out of all my
students have a piano. I bring my clarinet, flute and sax with me, plus an
organizer with tons of stuff in it. I am not willing to cart along a
keyboard also.

The method to my madness is to teach the students that they are able to
figure out songs on their own by matching pitches and internalizing the
rhythms.

For example, we did not have to find the music to the BackStreet Boys, I Want
It That Way, because they had the CD and were able to figure it out. A lot of
my 12 to 13 year olds got such a kick out of playing that song right along
with their CD.
They can do this with any song they desire.

One of the main reasons I started doing this is because more often than not,
the sheet music is not accurate to recordings, this really frustrated me, so
I started teaching this to the students so they wouldn't get the same
frustration or have to rely on their parents to take them to a music store
every time they run out of stuff to play just for fun. (This is for pop
music mainly, although would work well for any kind of music).

This is getting long, but I just need to tell you that I can read music
extremely well, can sight read, no problem, and this was all I could do for
the longest time. I didn't know any better until one day I realized how
dependent I was on the written page.

Yada, Yada, Yada, a few things happened that forced me to get parts off of
recordings, harmonies and countermelodies, etc. I learned how to improvise
and now I don't feel like such a prisoner.

This is my intention when teaching my students, teach them how to read, how
to figure out songs for themselves and how to improvise. Most of all to have
fun!
Some are better at it than others, but that is true with anything. It is a
personal triumph, not a competition.

In short, you missed my point completely.

Georgette

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