Klarinet Archive - Posting 000159.txt from 2001/01

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Great players as teachers (was: RE: [kl] Frank Miller)
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 22:04:34 -0500

on 1/3/01 9:07 AM, Wolman, Kenneth wrote:

>some great performers tend to be indifferent teachers who can't transfer
>what they've learned on their feet over to a student. The discussions
>I've had in the specific context of singing suggest some reasons:
>
>--Inarticulacy: the performer can't explain what he or she actually did at
>a technical level and so can't teach it.

Sure - if the player is a "natural talent" and has never thought about
how it works and how s/he got there, this could be a problem.

>--"Attitude": "You're in a master class, you're supposed to know how to do
>that." ("Then why are you teaching the master class, Name Omitted for
>Fear of Lawyers, for the money?")
>--"Attitude, Part Deux": "Do It The Way I Did It." If the student could
>perform like Unnamed Musician in his prime he/she wouldn't need Unnamed
>Singer.
>
I don't have access to great students here in Richmond. But I've taught
at lots of levels, both in schools and privately, and both of these
attitudes are a cop-out by the teacher. As a teacher, you have to take
the student where you find them, and have the intelligence to give them
suggestions to improve their skills (musical and technical) to the next
level. In many cases, it helps to be able to suggest repertoire that
increases the chance for this improvement, which can be a great motivator
for further practice/progress. Every student is different, so you have to
make a commitment to help the individual student. Maybe at the highest
levels (major conservatories) this is less of an issue, but having heard
some of the best and brightest at ClarinetFest this past summer, I don't
think so. It seems to be more a matter of degree.

DITWIDI (see above) can be a helpful teaching technique - we learn lots
of things by imitation, starting with speech. The danger is that you can
make clones of your students, which is (IMO) not what you want to do, no
matter how good the model is. I want to teach my students to do without
me, eventually. I want them to listen to themselves critically, and make
music. If they can gradually learn to do that for themselves, then I've
taught them something.

>In the experience of the players on this list, what was your experience
>with teachers at an advanced level? I mean the "great names" in this
>business, whether or not you wish to name them. Code is acceptable:-).

My teachers were Leon Russianoff and Joe Allard. Allard had a great
concept of physical approach to the instrument, which was much needed in
my case. He was a highly respected New York freelancer on saxophone,
clarinet and bass clarinet in his day.

Russianoff, to quote one of my grad school colleagues, "couldn't play as
well as his own worst student." He was a Bellison student, but his
professional playing career was short, and fraught with nervous tension
which made it difficult (if not impossible) to play well. That was his
story, anyway - I never heard him in that setting. He was, however, a
great teacher. Lessons were seemingly chaotic - he might pick anything
out of your pile of music whether he had assigned it to you at the last
lesson or not. Then you "learned" it - how to practice it effectively,
and how not to get in your own way mentally. His favorite pejoratives
were "overthink" and "overtry". His wife was a noted shrink (who died
this past September), and I think she was the source of his approach to
teaching when I knew him. He also introduced his students to "The Inner
Game of Tennis" (required reading!). Russianoff taught us to practice
effectively, and gave us the confidence to play well - I still think of
him and thank him every week! If you have access to the two volumes of
his "Clarinet Method" (Schirmer) I highly recommend it. His approach was
very intuitive - "do this - do it 20 more times - now forget about it and
play the music." Of course all this is greatly over-simplified, and
doesn't quite do justice to the method. For those of you who might be
interested to read about him, Steve Clark wrote his doctoral dissertation
about Leon Russianoff, and interviewed many of his students - Stanley
Drucker, Larry Combs, Michele Zukovsky, etc. It paints a pretty good
picture of the man and his teaching style. Available from University
Microfilms, but you can get a printed copy.

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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