Klarinet Archive - Posting 001085.txt from 2000/01

From: Richard Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Why?
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 21:34:45 -0500

Lelia,

A really poor job of expressing myself. Sorry. What I should have said is---
It sometimes proves to be a waste of time and effort on the student's part
because of the amount of redoing that must take place. Had they been taking
lessons all along, they would be much further down the road, on their way to
better playing.

I have a great deal of patience with my students. Sometimes, I think I have and
show more patience than they do. Sometimes I tell them that I have more faith in
what they can do than what they show in themselves.

The pain I feel is just knowing that some things will need to be reconstructed
from scratch. Given a preference, I'll take a beginner anytime over someone who
has played for some time on their own. It doesn't matter, either, if the
beginner is 9 or 59.

LeliaLoban@-----.com wrote:

> 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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