Klarinet Archive - Posting 000463.txt from 2000/04

From: "Patricia Smith" <pattiesmith@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Forcing lessons; was Student motivation (or lack thereof)/ Lame Excuses
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 13:39:01 -0400

I had one student years ago who definitely was not happy. He liked music
but really didn't want to learn to read it or play it on the clarinet. I
kept trying to get him to read the notes rather than writing the names of
the notes under them. This went on for months (Many years and four kids
later, I have better approaches, but I was young and inexperienced then).
he eventually confided to me that he wanted to play football rather than be
in the band (he was very small and his dad was a huge man, over 6 feet and
very athletic looking). He was so frustrated I finally took it up with his
dad, and they talked it out, and his dad agreed to let him try football -
suggested that since younger players usually play flag football, the child
was less likely to be injured. I hated to lose him - he was one of my
favorite students, and had an incredible personality, but I felt then that
it wasn't fair not to give him a chance to do what he really wanted to do.

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