Klarinet Archive - Posting 000233.txt from 2001/11

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: clarinetist's block
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 07:39:54 -0500

TOny P.,
Do you see - or have you seen - your role as a teacher as being the production
of more professional clarinets *only?*
Yours,
Roger S.

In message <20011106.113341.63@-----.org writes:
> On Mon, 05 Nov 2001 15:12:19 +0000, assembly1@-----.com said:
>
> > I'd imagine that David and other American teachers find such rigorous
> > programmes necessary due to the chaotic American musical education
> > (often lack thereof) before university. There's a steep learning
> > curve for talented students whose only education consisted of marching
> > and concert band music.*
> >
> > Having said this, I can't imagine such a routine would give a student
> > a renewed love for the instrument, nor is it always the way to
> > progress technically. I agree with your suggestion for Jess to "do
> > it" - it's just that I can understand why some people don't.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Virginia
>
> Yes, and I wasn't necessarily disagreeing with anything else that had
> been said.
>
> I think the various people who have posted, including yourself, have
> covered the ground fairly comprehensively. After all, it's impossible
> to know exactly the right thing to say to the chap who started the
> thread; and other people who may be having similar experiences of
> stuckness will each need different stimuli to get them going again,
> probably.
>
> One other thing occurs to me, again adding to rather than disagreeing
> with anything that's already been said.
>
> As a teacher, I used sometimes to feel bad if I couldn't get all my
> students to practise and prepare as much as they should. Even though I
> tend to be enthusiastic and inventive myself in lessons, some people
> seemed to need more than that: they needed, and even wanted, to be
> bullied. I knew other teachers I respected were tough with their
> students, but couldn't summon it up myself.
>
> Nowadays that doesn't bother me so much. I figure that if I look round,
> I'm not especially struck that what's needed in the world is *larger
> numbers of professional clarinet players*. I have doubts myself about
> the worth of what I do, and the last thing we need is players who, in
> addition, really don't want to do it.
>
> Let them give up playing the clarinet, if they're not committed to it.
> Perhaps they'll find something more useful and important to do.
>
> That has perhaps some bearing on the argument about 'success' in the
> profession being a function of instrumental ability rather than musical
> talent; or even, heaven help us, a function of efficient self-promotion
> and self-aggrandisement rather than musical talent.
>
> I don't say that musical talent can't be nurtured, and that someone may
> not turn out to be a much better musician than it looked as though they
> would be when they started out. Nor that I don't do my very best, this
> side of bullying, to have that happen for my current student. (It's
> what I'm being paid for, after all.)
>
> Just, that we need music to be played *well*, which means more than
> simply efficiently; and that may not necessarily be going to be done by
> the person we're dealing with, if we encourage them to go for 'success'
> *at any price*.
>
> Compare Micro$oft.
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN artist: http://www.gmn.com
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

--
It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always,
with the generality of mankind, have the preference over the accurate
and abstruse...
--- D. Hume ("An enquiry concerning human understanding," I)

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