Klarinet Archive - Posting 000804.txt from 2001/11

From: "jess crawford" <akane12@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Giving up (was student help)
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 21:29:26 -0500

Tony said:

A final thought: people who say that they're grateful that their parents
made them practise don't know what would have happened if they hadn't.

The thing is, they have to find their own way.

--
Tony makes a very good point.

I've been playing clarinet since I was nine. When I started, I guess I liked
it? Honestly I don't remember; I only remember little frustrations, like
struggling with chalumeau "c" (imagine! it's amazing how much we grow and
don't realize!) and having my right thumb hurt. Things came easily to me in
all areas and so I didn't have to practice much. That changed a little when
I got to junior high, but eventually once I settled into my groove (after
having an amazing teacher who showed me the potential I had to be a good
clarinetist), I found that again, I didn't have to practice much.

I had a private teacher the last two years of junior high, and another my
freshman year of high school, and yet still I practiced infrequently and
inefficiently. Generally speaking, it didn't matter much-- either I was a
convincing sight-reader or my teachers didn't notice/didn't care. When I
entered high school, I found I was better off than literally every other
student there: I was a new student to the area and had come from a different
and much stronger program than the local students. I was immediately
principal clarinet and barely worked for it at all. It wasn't until the end
of my junior year that a teacher (the third band director our high school
had had in three years) handed me a copy of the Mozart concerto and told me
to practice it that summer. Interested in what he was asking, I decided to
go for it and sat down with it frequently during my break. I fell in love
with my clarinet again. I tried out for all-county and all-state that year
and made both (was even principal in the all-county band). I started taking
privately again and resumed a dream of being a musician for the rest of my
life. I went on to apply and be accepted at all the universities I was
interested in, and am now a serious music student.

so what is my point? my point is, through the years my mother never "forced"
me to practice. She mostly left it up to me: it had been my idea to play in
the first place and I suppose she felt it was my prerogative. She would
encourage me to play and when I became obstinate, she would occasionally
point out that practicing was a good idea, that I shouldn't just stop
playing if I got frustrated or lazy. But she never forced me to practice,
and it was always my choice. So, in high school when I finally decided to
practice, when I finally decided to make music my whole life, the choice was
something I came to all alone. I had done it for no one but myself. It was
the first out of many, many times of saying "I'm going to major in music"
that I was actually serious enough to want to follow through. And here I am,
with that decision unchanged.

My clarinet teacher says that in his home, with his three daughters, it was
simply an uncontested rule that all three were musicians all through school.
They never argued it because it wasn't something to argue: it simply *was*,
like doing chores or eating dinner with your family. They were all string
players: two violins and a 'cello, and my professor's wife was a pianist,
which made familial ensemble playing convenient. All three of his daughters
went on to be music teachers. I suppose, then, that it's less about whether
you "force" your children to play and more about the way you approach the
situation. If you want your daughter to continue, explain rationally why:
you've purchased the instrument and you'd like her to continue out of
respect for that; you think that music will enrich her life later, even if
right now she may not understand that; you think that playing an instrument
develops a great discipline. There are lots of wonderful reasons that
children should be encouraged to play. But always keep in mind that, exactly
as Tony says, they have to find their own way.

-- jess crawford

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