Klarinet Archive - Posting 000056.txt from 2002/06

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: RE: [kl] Teaching the 'students' of today
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 19:22:02 -0400

On Mon, 3 Jun 2002 11:53:47 -0500, LacyS@-----.org said:

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: A4ACHESON@-----.com]
> > As people who have had the experience of learning a musical
> > instrument I think we have a duty to discourage those who have no
> > realistic idea of what is involved. A teacher's time is a valuable
> > resource, but so is a student's. Almost all people wish to learn a
> > musical instrument just as "everybody wants to go to heaven, but
> > nobody wants to die."
>
> I agree, and to me it can be somewhat of a sad situation. I have seen
> other students in my former teacher's clarinet studio that have
> absolutely no prayer in making it as a performer, but they still go for
> it. There's something to be said for it, though. Sometimes those players
> have more heart and determination to try their damndest than the ones
> who have sheer talent and don't have to work for it and thus take it for
> granted and sometimes just waste it. I've seen that happen, too.

What you say here is true, Lacy, but it wasn't what I was getting at
previously, nor what Arthur was getting at, I think, even though I
wasn't sure on first reading of his post above.

> But then again, sometimes you just want to spare them the agony of
> going through it all and just tell them to find another major because
> they'll never make it with this one. Sometimes I feel that it should
> be said to me! My first major was electrical engineering, sometimes I
> think I would have been better off staying with my original plan. :)
> But how do you tell someone something like that? I can't be the one to
> crush somebody directly, I'm too nice to do that. I guess that's what
> sophomore juries are for.

My point was rather that being *made* to have lessons isn't any good for
anyone. And kids who behave badly in lessons mostly do so, I suggest,
because they don't want to be there. And if they don't want to be
there, they shouldn't be.

I might want to take this argument further, and apply it to other sorts
of learning too; but it's certainly true of learninng to play a musical
instrument.

If on the other hand, somebody really wants to learn the clarinet, it's
good for them to do it, and it need not matter that they will never be
professional performers.

You might be doing someone who is nursing unrealistic hopes of a
professional career a service by telling them that their chances are
slim; but as you and others have said, it is difficult to predict how
people will develop.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
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... Adult child of alien invaders.

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