Klarinet Archive - Posting 001083.txt from 2000/01

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Why?
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 20:15:39 -0500

Richard Bush wrote,
>The most painful part of teaching some of these players who have long
established bad habits is getting them back on track. To me, this is a lot of
wasted time, and represents taking one step forward and two back.>

It would depress and discourage me to think that I'm a waste of a teacher's
time. I would rather not take lessons at all than put myself *or* the
teacher in that position. From early childhood through my teens, I took
private piano lessons, but I've never studied any instrument formally as an
adult, though I'm self-taught on a number of instruments. I learned to play
clarinet and alto clarinet in public school music classes, and have never
taken a private clarinet lesson. So I wonder about some things. I'm
interested in hearing any thoughts teachers might have about any of these
issues:

How many teachers want to teach adult amateur students? Would teachers
prefer to concentrate on promising young musicians? What fulfills you as a
teacher? Why do you teach? What are your goals for your students? To what
extent do students' choices of goals and students' progress toward their
goals affect your self-respect?

Here are some of the realities that occur to me about teaching adult amateur
musicians....

Some of us are clarinet beginners, but we aren't children. We won't respond
well to teachers who treat us like children. Most of us have more patience
and self-discipline than children, along with a better work ethic and a
better ability to understand instructions, but we learn more slowly than
children. We are less malleable than children. We think we know what's best
for us. There is no parent or other authority to whom you can report us if
we fail to follow instructions. If we decide not to cooperate, you can't
make us. If reasoning with us fails, all you can do is terminate our
lessons.

Some of us have experience in playing the clarinet, but we've come back from
long layoffs. We may have taught ourselves for a period of time. We
probably have bad habits. Some of us don't play well now and may never play
well. Some of us play well, but not as well as we think we do.

Some of us lack confidence because we already quit once, or because we regret
that we never got a chance to take private lessons as kids, when we could
have benefitted most from lessons. Some of us feel discouraged because we
know that it's too late for us to catch up with people who had more
advantages, but others of us use that as an excuse. Some of us set
unrealistically lofty goals, with practice habits so fanatical they're
self-destructive. Others of us excuse failure to practice because, we say,
have too many other important responsibilities.

Most adult students have no hope of ever playing professionally. We love
music, or at least enjoy it; and we've decided to try to play it ourselves,
instead of just listening, for reasons such as these: making music ourselves
satisfies some inner need; it's something to do with spare time; it's
recreation we can share with families and friends; we get satisfaction from
measuring progress toward challenging goals.

Most of us were born with no special talent for music (otherwise we would
have been "discovered" as kids). Most of us have already made our career
choices, so we don't want to play professionally. Even if we did want to,
it's too late for us to catch up and learn to play well enough for a career
in music.

As teachers, do you find yourselves bored and frustrated with adult amateurs
such as these? Do we seem like hopeless cases and lost causes? Does it seem
like a waste of time to teach people you know probably "won't go anywhere"
with our music? Do you accept us as students for the income, even though you
would rather not bother with us?

Is there anything adult amateurs can do to make ourselves more attractive
students so that teachers will focus on our lessons instead of sleepwalking
through them?

Thanks--
Lelia
P.S. to Bryan Cholfin, who started this thread: I miss _Crank_!

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